A language of underwater needs to be invented as it is not what we see out of water. Furthermore, swimming underwater is pictorial - it is not linguistic All of which makes describing today's underwater experiences somewhat of a challenge. Here is an attempt to record some of the things we saw:
Dive 1: The Blocks: As its name suggests, the underwater topography at this location is strewn with boulders. Although the adjacent tall sandstone cliffs look like they have been there since the beginning of time, in reality, they are constantly shedding boulders big and small - and occasionally much more besides, as a very large section of missing cliff bears witness. Collapsing into the sea below, they now provide the perfect setting for underwater exploration. All those resultant crevices, provide places for a variety of sea creatures to live, eat, sleep, and just hang out. As we did when we joined them.
The chief highlight on this dive was an unexpected encounter. On the last and deepest segment of reef overlooking the sand line, a Bull Ray (more specifically a "Smooth Ray"), swept past us. Transfixed by this sight only made us all deaf to the sounds of David crying out a warning, at the top of his lungs (no mean feat underwater!). Unbeknownst to the rest of us, a second ray, a four metre Smooth Ray, the biggest stingray in the world, was now heading straight for us. These rays are not normally aggressive, but my finger pointing at the first ray, its child, was not something it could ignore. He or she was drawing an underwater line in the sand - decisively warning us off. Or, was he or she simply curious? All I could now see in front of us, was a ray of gargantuan proportions. And its eye - a huge eye, the biggest I have ever seen was central to that view. Being literally eye to eye with a ray of that size focuses all your attention. It slowed down, barely pausing about a metre away, and then suddenly changed direction to follow the first ray. As a train leaving a station can seem interminable, the length of this ray's body took some time to finally reveal its tail with its deadly barb. A body builder's pumped arm would look puny set against the size and strength of this ray's tail. And then it was gone - leaving us all rather bewildered by what we had just seen and experienced.
No matter how interesting and beautiful were the countless other scenes on this dive, including colourful nudibranchs, we were left enthralled and captivated by the lingering afterglow from our encounter with those two rays.
Dive 2: Old Man's Hat: Before we could even start this dive, once again, it was David who alerted all of us to dolphins jumping high out of the water not far from the boat. A mandatory surface interval can be extremely annoying and seem unnecessarily long when confronted by a scene like this - when, were it not for a surface interval, this next dive might have become a dolphin dive!
Once our surface interval had elapsed (and the dolphins had teasingly moved on), we planned to pursue our new dive plan exploring the area further east of where we normally go.
Our underwater journey meant visual treats at nearly every turn. I now understood why Hammerhead sharks have developed eyes on the extremities of their head and why they travel underwater with that distinctive left-right head movement. Because we were doing just this as we skirted through colourful sponge gardens, with vividly painted Sea Tulips to one side of us, and equally stunning coral-like sponges to the other side; unwittingly we were doing the Hammerhead left-right head movement as the only way to not miss out on this or that. The Hammerhead is an example of practical evolution. A few fin kicks further on and an amazingly decorated male Six Spine Leatherjacket appeared on our left, and then a Mosaic Leatherjacket appeared on our right. Then directly in front of us, Yellow Tail descended. Through some marvellous ingenuity, they all knew when, in unison, to turn left and then to turn right - each time causing the vista to be streaked diagonally left or right, in overlapping, yet distinctive, silver lines.
To make this dive even more extraordinary, two more Smooth Rays appeared without warning. These two were not the same ones we saw in our previous dive. One of them was missing its tail. It's tempting to think it may have been one we saw just a few weeks ago at Flag Staff. We know very little about these rays, with very few scientific studies having been conducted on them. We do know that the numbers of elasmobranch fishes (sharks, rays, and skates) have been in decline and that their habitat has been degraded. We know Smooth Rays have a complex brain. And these rays have slow growth, late maturity, and low reproductive output making this species susceptible to overfishing (it seems, however, that Western Australia is alone in making Smooth Rays a protected species). The life cycles of these rays are only barely sketched out. Beyond that we know very little, which shows the depth of our ignorance. It is a reminder that we know more about the surface of the moon than we know about our oceans and the creatures within. Surely our priorities are badly awry. I and everyone who saw these rays today can attest to the fact that gigantic rays are so much more interesting and hypnotic than a map of the moon's surface! Let all those people who wish to travel to space do so, so long as we can continue to revel in an extraordinary world teeming with life, colour, and movement underwater. Dive into the living world underwater and strive to bind yourself to its ebb and flow movement. Once that rhythmic bond is made, you are unassailable. Scuba diving is so often both an adventure as well as a spiritual experience.
Back on the boat, Jane, our Dive Master in training, had a smile to match all of ours. She exclaimed that the two dives we had just completed were the best two dives she had ever experienced. Indeed they were special dives for all of us. The seemingly inexhaustible supply of discoveries and unexpected scenes and experiences underwater in Sydney, are a rich vein of delight well worth pursuing. Such is our motivation to dive each week.