When the fish leave quickly, pay attention!

On one of our dives at Swains Island, we dropped into a school of a couple of hundred Rainbow Runners, which are about 18" long fish. They were incredibly curious about the boat, the divers and in particular, our bubbles. So as Molly and I dropped in, it took us a good 10 minutes before we drew ourselves away from taking pictures of these guys and tied off our float. The only thing that drew our attention back to work was the other divers coming into the water after us.

So we dutifully laid out the transect tape and started our surveys, however I kept watching the school as they darted in and around our cluster of 6 divers. At one point I looked up to see the entire school suddenly turn away and start swimming determinedly in the opposite direction. At that point I realized that I should be looking for what they were escaping from and sure enough, within a few seconds a dark shape moved overhead and into the school. My first thought was a sailfish and I immediately started into a full-fledged conniption fit, trying to get Molly's attention so that she could see it also. Unfortunately, Molly was completely unaware that I was yelling for her and that one of the coolest sights I've ever seen in the water was zooming overhead.

It only lasted a few seconds but I was able to snap off some pictures before the fish had left the area for deeper waters. We figured out later that it was a Short-Billed Spearfish that was about 5 feet long. Quite amazing. I've only seen this hanging outside of the fishing day-trip boats in Kewahlo Harbor. Swains Island is now secure in my top places to go for a dive.

I hope you're having a wonderful evening. Sleep well.

Love,

CR