Dive Snapshots from President's Day Weekend

So I kicked off my 4 day weekend with an afternoon dive with Harry at the Grotto. Funny how it doesn't take much convincing for Harry to get wet. He got a new camera and has been dying to test it out.





The grotto is probably my most favorite dive spot in Saipan. Its just so unique and I feel like I'm in heaven going through the exit holes.






The visibility was unbelievable! Probably about 50 meters across the way. We spotted a huge Napolean Wrasse much like the one that was recently caught. He didn't wait too long for us to catch up with him because he just took off! Here's a picture of Harry below me taking pictures of this turtle. Check out his blog for beautiful close up pictures.







Here's a creature that I am definitely intrigued by but too scared to get too close. The Spotted Morey Eel has really sharp teeth and I just don't want get in its face.







I was actually really surprised to see this Parrotfish. It's either a Bumphead Parrotfish or a Steephead Parrotfish. If someone knows . . . let me know!







I'm so happy that I get to share my love for scuba diving with so many people in Saipan. There is always someone to go diving with on the weekends. This afternoon Sean, Mai, Jessica, Rikki, Mark and Tammy James, Dr. Hunt, Atsuko, and I rode the Aqua Jet out to two dive sites.


This was the SDA Teacher's first dive boat experience in Saipan and they did really well! Of course they had great instructor, Judy and Dennis. Here's a picture of Sean, Riki, and Jessica Crusin' into the deep blue.






I'm going to be dreaming of Pyramid Butterfly fish tonight! Plenty in the water. Mai is surrounded by them!















You know what we were all hoping to see-Eagle Rays! And we did! Five of them! We sat perched ontop of the Ice Cream Dive site and watched the Eagle Rays come swoop into the cleaning station. They were soo close to me! It was amazing! I think one of them winked at me!





















This Hawksbill Turtle dropped right in front of us and I didn't even notice him at first until Atsuko pointed him out. I was looking for Nudibranchs and realized he was dropping right in front of me!




I found Nemo! Here's a Duske Anemone Fish.











Here's a picture of an Orange Fin Anemone Fish

Titan Trigger Fish Attack

I had an interesting dive experience on Columbus Day! I realize that whenever you dive with a bunch of Bloggers you are in for an adventure and there will definitely be different online tales told . . . so here is mine!

Jeff invited me to go on the Aqua Jet for an afternoon boat dive with Bruce and Rose.
Our boat ride out to Naftan Point and Boy Scout was rough. The waves were huge but we were still lucky enough to end up with sunny skies. We were the only four customers and we had the entire boat to ourselves.

I went diving at Naftan Point with Greg a couple of months ago and I have to say that I wasn’t really thrilled about this dive site. Perhaps I'm alittle spoiled from the wall diving I did in Palau. Since I was the only one that did Naftan Point before they made me navigate this dive. So we dropped in about 80 feet and I led them along the wall. I was disappointed because there wasn’t a lot of coral to look at so I was just searching for Nudibranchs the entire dive. We reached about half tank and started heading back to our boat. On the way back to the boat we stumbled across this Fish that I thought was a baby Napoleon Wrasse. I was just looking at his lips and didn't realize he didn't have a hump on his head. I need to seriously work on my fish i.d. because this was actually a Titan Trigger Fish but of course I didn’t know that at the time. I thought it would be as friendly as the Napoleon Wrasse that we were petting in Palau so I didn’t think anything of it. Looks so innocent right? Not! This picture doesn't do it justice because it was huge! It must of been a 30 pounder atleast 3 feet long and 2 feet wide.



Would you get a look at this Titan Trigger fish giving me the old evil eye? I should have known something was up. Here’s some advice. When you come across a Titan Trigger fish swim the other way as fast as you can!! I had never heard about how aggressive these fish can be. I was about 10 ft away from this fish using my zoom lens to take pictures. What I didn’t know was while I was taking pictures of this fish Jeff and Rose were being attacked by another Titan Trigger Fish behind me! They both have bites on their legs. Jeff’s bite broke through the skin and was bleeding.
Luckily Rose was wearing her skin suit and only obtained a 3 x 2 bruise on her leg. Unaware of what is going on behind me I still continue to take pictures of this fish from a distance. Next thing I know the fish looks right at me and I kid you not darts quickly towards me like a little torpedo. It was that fast! All I could remember thinking was “Lanya!” and screamed underwater so loud that Rose heard me! We must have been about 40-50 feet. My quick gut reaction was to block my stomach by quickly swinging my camera downward. The Titan Trigger fish ended up running into my camera and left some teeth marks on my filter lens. Nice I know! Worst was I wasn’t wearing my wet suit because Jeff and Bruce were teasing me that I looked like at “tourist” and it was so hot that day. So that fish could of really torn my skin up. Rose was a great dive buddy and was hitting the fish with her slate board to back him away. We quickly exited that area. My heart was racing! Grrrrr. I’m never going back to Naftan again.

I did a little research on this fish and realized that this fish can do some real damage to you and can even kill you if your not careful. Usually they easily feel threatened and territorial if you are near their nest. That is probably what happened. Anyway, now I’m more afraid of the Titan Trigger Fish than sharks. Phew, we made it safely to the boat. Still can’t believe that happened. Despite the attacks I still had a great day of diving.Here's a picture of a Nudibranch we found. Too bad too sad its blurry! Deal=P