I was crawling through the best vis. I could find today (8'), and out of nowhere something happened that made me remember why I was originally drawn to the ocean and why it will always fascinate me.
My dive wasn't proving to be very productive, so I dropped down to 35' or so and just laid on the bottom and watched all of the typically unnoticed interactions between all the different reef species. About a minute into my dive and long after the reef had accepted my presence, I was suddenly engulfed by hundreds of inch-long micro baitfish. As I watched them swirl around my mask, arms, and gun, I began wondering what was feeding on them. As if they had read my mind, 2 calicos came into view. It was truly amazing to witness them hunt and pick off baitfish literally "in my face, and not something I'll soon forget. A few seconds after being bombarded by the calicos, the baitfish moved on and I returned to the surface. I felt so privileged that I didn't pull the trigger on either of the checkerboards.
Even when my spear doesn't find its target, it's always really cool to be able to witness the behaviors of and relationships between creatures that many people could never even dream of.
No bad days..
