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

The Boat Snob and The Triple Threat

Some of my buddies refer to me as the “boat snob”. I love shore diving but I love boat diving even more. I think we’re really spoiled with the scuba life in Saipan. Saipan has got the triple threat: Great visibility, sunny skies, and abundant marine life. I love it here.



So since my dive buddy, Greg, is slacking on posting pictures I will go ahead and post his pictures for him! We rode the Aqua Jet Boat out on a Sunday morning to Naftan Point and Obyan Beach. Mayuki was our divemaster for the morning.

Our first dive was at Naftan point. The deepest we dropped down to was 125 ft in search of the Gobi. The first Gobi we found Greg scared away because he got too close. We found another one and took some pictures of it. Mine turned out blurry. Big surprise I know! But it probably wouldn’t have been a good idea to sit there at 125 ft for 10 minutes trying to get a good picture of that Gobi. So this picture will have to do.



We slowly made our way back up and found some Nudibranchs. The dive was really relaxing for me. There was no current to fight and no vertigo spells. We were just cruising over the coral snapping pictures of random things. It was so relaxing I could almost imagine that song by Bach –Vivance in the background. I’ve been listening to a lot of Bach lately.

The second dive was at Obyan Beach. On the way to that dive spot the waves were really rough! Some of the divers were starting to get sick. It started to drizzle a little bit. We dropped in and located the Black Spot Garden Eels and the No spot Garden Eels. You can’t get too close or they’ll disappear. I love my camera because it zooms in so closely.




Oh, so I start feeling narced around 100 ft. So there you have it . . . another adventure and tale told. Here are some more pictures. Photos were taken by Greg Moretti. My pictures sucked! (sigh)

Exploring Naftan Point

So I heard from one of my myspace friends (Hi Ed!) that you can sometimes see dolphins at Naftan Point! Grant, Mai, and I went down to check it out this past Sabbath afternoon. None of us has ever been to Naftan Point so we didn’t know what the ride was going to be like. Grant drove Old “Rusty” and we sat in the back of the truck. Let me tell you that it was a rough ride. Ouch! I’ll have to remind myself to bring something soft to sit on next time. Mai and I were dodging branches left and right.

At the end of the route we parked and hiked through some thick brush. The trail eventually led us to a clearing and towards the cliffs. It was yet another beautiful day to be out hiking and enjoying God’s creation. Though we did not see any dolphins we did discover some really cool artifacts from WWII. We spent the afternoon enjoying the view and exploring the fort.

There is a spot where some local fishermen were. After they left we sat on their “cushion” and had prayer during sunset. It was the perfect way to close the Sabbath=)

I'm finishing up a book called Rainbow Over Hell by Tsuneyuki Mohri. Its a story about a Japanese assassin who converted into a Seventh-day Adventist. He lived here in Saipan during WWII. In the book it talks about different locations on the island. It was cool to read about the locations in the book and actually know where these places are.