27th
Today I did two more snorkeling trips. First was out at the other point of the big bay that my beach is right next to. I was surprised, there was actually a lot of good coral there. There were big rocks cascading down into the water too, which I always enjoy. I saw the biggest fish so far – I’m guessing about a meter long! (maybe three quarters) and it looked like a puffer fish! (I’d love to see him expand). I don’t know if it was actually a box fish (same body shape). It was spotted kind of like a green leopard. I took a picture with my underwater camera. I kept getting “sea turtled” on the dive, aka, startling myself my mistaking floating pastic wrappers for jelly fish. This was probably made worse by the fact that the water was littered like a mine field with tiny invisible shreds of dead jellyfish. When you swam into one, ZAP! If it got you on the ankle, or ear, or lip, it hurt! (but only for a minute or so). The other really note worthy thing, was I saw an Urak Lawoi fishing trap. It was about the size of… a bathtub? It was like a cylinder with one flat side: the arches made of bent “rattan” vine and with rope netting. It was quite far down, just off a point of rocks, sitting on a sandy patch on the bottom amid boulders and coral heads. Inside were half a dozen large brown and white reef fish, and one giant black parrot fish. They turned this way and that, nudging at the netting. I remembered my professor for ISDSI when I came here last time said the biggest fish are the best breeders, so the most important for the population so it’s hard on the ecology because we tend to go for the biggest. On the other hand, it was really cool to see this traditional form of fishing and trap (hand made) from mostly local materials. I dived down several times, until my ears wouldn’t clear properly anymore. I found I get about a dozen or so free dives per snorkeling event before my right ear starts hurting and refusing to clear. I liked the idea of showing this integration of the reef, the fishing pressure, the local culture, and tried to take some photos (no clue if any will turn out). Then I realized the camera I was using had taken in a little salt water, maybe it wasn’t built to work at depth….
I took a nap in a hammock, in the shade, on the beach. I ate two of the best mangos of my life. I felt a little lonely. I went snorkeling on the other side of the island in the afternoon. Apparently, the Urak Lawoi little kids just had an english lesson because on my way to the reef I passed a bunch -- waving from a beached boat, and the boughs of a fallen tree-- they shouted, giggling, “hello, goodbye, hello hello, hello goodbye, goodbye, hello”.
I decide to check out shark rock. There was some staghorn coral that wasn’t bleached there, which was nice to see. It was windy, so the current was pretty fast, and the water pretty shallow, so I didn’t go around shark rock (but soon!). I floated through clouds of fingernail sized yellow fish (Sergeant angels). I watched crabs scuttle over barnacles on above water in the rocky coves of a small island, while sea cucumbers munched on the sand below. On the way back I chased a massive herd of grey parrot fish, devouring the coral with their chom chom chom / Squeek Squekk like ice snapping, or puppies in tennis shoes on a gym floor.
No comments:
Post a Comment