Singing Allelujah with Sharks at Keystone Jetty!

[Tubesnout23]

On Wednesday July 15, I felt that I was ready to go back diving again after an oral surgeon had removed one of my wisdom teeth a couple of weeks earlier.

My buddy and I decided to go to Keystone Jetty. I have just recently began to dive with a dry suit (Mobby’s) and I am still looking for pieces of gear that I can wear with the suit. The boots were one of them. This dive was my first opportunity to try my brand new high tops canvas shoes with my fins.

We looked up at the current and tide predictions and discovered that we had already missed slack time!
We decided to go head and drive there anyway to see with our own eyes what the conditions were like. If the current was ripping at the surface we would had driven to Driftwood Beach, few miles east from Keystone, and do a drift dive.

When we got there the blue water looked calm and charming from the beach but we knew that underwater and at depth could have been a different story. However we felt confident that in one way or the other we would have been able to handle whatever the current was doing (after all the tidal exchange was not as big as during the morning tidal cycle). We were the only divers at the marine park and without any other ado we geared up.

I really hoped that my canvas shoes and the fins would have worked together without problems. This time my buddy and I shared the camera. I took pictures at the beginning and end of the dive, he in the middle. It was an incredible beautiful sunny late afternoon and fortunately a cool breeze (that may have been just an annoyance for sunbathers) prevented us from frying inside our dry suits.

After a buddy and bubble check we began to surface swam towards our destination: the middle of the jetty on the outskirts of the bull kelp forest. My feet felt comfortable, despite a little squeeze, inside the canvas shoes and the fins.‘Great! That’s promising!’ I thought.

We submerged into a visibility of 30 Ft, maybe even more. .. UUUAHHH! The soft westerly sunlight was filtering through the blades of bull kelp making us believe that were in some fairy-tale like place.
Schools of fish, mostly shiner perch, tubesnouts and Puget Sound rock fish, were leisurely lingering in that golden water.

When we reached a depth of about 50 ft. we began to feel the current. It was pushing us southward towards the end of the jetty. It was not too bad, though. My feet were securely locked inside the shoes and the fins. They did not slide sideways like when I worn the Bare Rock Boots.

A L L E L U J A H !

We were able to hang around at that depth without too much effort and began to goof around with the camera. My buddy signaled me to swim higher above the wall of white plumose anemones so he could take a picture from below into the light. When I was posing for the shot I turned my head around and HOLLY MOLY! I could not believe my eyes! What I was looking at was the unmistakable shape of a shark and it was swimming down towards me!
I got so excited that I forgot where I was and I turned my body around without realizing that I was literally sitting on top of the anemones with my belly up like a hopeless turtle!

I extended one of my fingers and pointed it to the shark hoping that my buddy looked in that direction too! Another shark swam by, then another and another …one, two, three, four, five…ten…fifteen…They kept popping out from the green water, circling us. I think we must have been surrounded by at least 20 sharks! They were all Spiny Dogfish. What a miracle! In one year of diving I had never seen a spiny dogfish alive in the wild before!

‘Man! I am in the Bahamas! in one of those sharks feeding sites that I have read about in scuba magazines and websites!’ I thought! Then I realized that ‘Good Lord NO! I am in the cold green water of Puget Sound and there is not a dive master dressed up like an underwater medieval warrior feeding the sharks next to me!’ There is no need for scuba shark feeding! These animals came to us without any tricks! Nature will reward you if you let yourself go to her rhythms and whims!

They were very curious. They would swim really close to us. At one point I thought that they were going to crash their snouts into my mask, but when that impact seemed so inevitable they would suddenly twist their body and swam away only to swim back as soon as their internal ‘red alarms’ went off again.

Spiny dogfish don’t reach the length of kayaks! So what this fuss is all about? They grow to a max. length of a big female ling cod, which is 4/5 ft only! Despite their small size the fact that I was in the middle of a circle where the sharks kept swimming around me with their inquisitive, yet impenetrable eyes, a mixture of boldness and weariness and their gracious innocuous-looking body movements induced in me a sense of respect and humbleness. They made me aware that size doesn’t matter. They were in charge of the water that we have decided to immerse ourselves in.

I will never forget this first encounter with Spiny Dogfish!

[Norris]

Wow what a great report and to see all those dogfish! What would you say the "average" size was of the individuals in this group?

[mz53480]

Great report & nice job on the pics, I really like the black & white shots.
MZ

[supacooper]

Always nice to have a camera so you can back you story up. I live on the island and never seen any so I was thinking "sharks, yeah right", but your pictures justify it. I'm hating.

[Mattleycrue76]

Wow, how cool! I've only ever seen one dogfish at a time, never a school. I'm jealous

[gcbryan]

Nice pics and report. I only see dogfish at this time of the year for about 2 months.

Any reasons why? Anyone...Greg?

[John Rawlings]

Wow! You were fortunate to have had a camera on hand and ready for this! I had a similar experience years ago diving off Skachet Head, but with no camera!

Congratulations on an exciting experience! I'm sure that you will remember it forever!

- John

[Tubesnout23]

Wow what a great report and to see all those dogfish! What would you say the "average" size was of the individuals in this group?

I would say around 3 ft at least! When we told the local dive shop owner about it he said that other divers saw them in the same location before us. We went diving back there last Friday and guess what? No trace of dogfish whatsoever...That's how it goes underwater!

[Tubesnout23]

Great report & nice job on the pics, I really like the black & white shots.
MZ

Well my buddy did not take those pictures in the B&W mode. It was when I looked at the images on the computer screen that the idea to turn them from green to black & white came about so I began to mess around with Photoshop (my knowledge of this program is very limited) and I think it worked. The change to B&W created a mood that the green cast did not convey.

Cheers

[Tubesnout23]

Nice pics and report. I only see dogfish at this time of the year for about 2 months.

Any reasons why? Anyone...Greg?

I am not by any means a shark expert. I volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium (by the way next week is SHARK WEEK at the aquarium with special talks and events for kids and adults alike for more info go to

http://www.seattleaquarium.org/NetCommu ... px?pid=183 - I will be there on Thursday July 30th from 11am until 5:30pm)

and I have learned for instance that the six gill shark comes to shallower waters during the summer (few weeks ago a bunch of divers from the aquarium saw one at Cove#2). The marine biologists at the aquarium think that the Puget Sound is a nursery home for these sharks, because all the animals that they have tagged so far are young and related to each other.

I would guess that the spiny dogfish may school during the summer because it is the time when they breed, but I have to double check on that.

Cheers

[Tubesnout23]

Thank you guys for all your positive comments.

I do feel fortunate that I met these guys in such a special place like Keystone. The sharks were swimming near the end of the jetty where the water is deeper. We did not see any in shallower water on the way back to the beach.

Happy Safe Diving with shade for dressing up!

[Grateful Diver]

That is SO COOL! I've been buzzed by dogfish before at Keystone ... like Gray said, they only seem to come around in the summer time.

A couple years ago Cheng and I got buzzed by a school of them at Pulali Point (Hood Canal). One swam right up to Cheng and practically posed as she got a beautiful "head shot" with her camera ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[airsix]

They definitely like to play chicken. One tail-slapped a buddy of mine in the face at Point Defiance a few years ago (I caught it on video).

-Ben

[Tubesnout23]

They definitely like to play chicken. One tail-slapped a buddy of mine in the face at Point Defiance a few years ago (I caught it on video).

-Ben

Was you buddy hurt?

Have you posted the video somewhere?

Cheers

[LCF]

Well, that's amazingly cool, to see so many dogfish at once (I have only seen them one at a time) but the really cool thing is that the shoes worked! There's nothing like finding a good solution to a gear problem, especially when it's an inexpensive one!

[renoun]

I have seen thousands of dogfish gather at the North end of Cyprus Is. in the shallows just off the beach around this time of year. I have been told that they gather to eat the oolachan (aka candle-fish/smelt/grunion) which spawn this time of year at a specific point in the lunar cycle. Made sense to me since there were so many small dead fish around.

[Tubesnout23]

I have seen thousands of dogfish gather at the North end of Cyprus Is. in the shallows just off the beach around this time of year. I have been told that they gather to eat the oolachan (aka candle-fish/smelt/grunion) which spawn this time of year at a specific point in the lunar cycle. Made sense to me since there were so many small dead fish around.

Do you mean Cyprus Is. in the Mediterranean or Cypress Is. in the Pacific Northwest?

Yesterday I went back to Keystone jetty to dive to get away from jet planes (my original destination was Driftwood beach but the noise was unbearable there). It was like a washing machine again. Instead of dogfish I saw several white spotted rat fish with big bellies...pregnant females?

[airsix]

Was you buddy hurt?

No, just startled. It came at him from the side and he didn't see it until it was right on him.

Have you posted the video somewhere?

1:19 of bad point-n-shoot clips. It's right before the end (with a slo-mo replay)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcLRimZFJKc[/youtube]

[supacooper]

That's what I call a B*@$% slap. Funny.

[Tom Nic]

Wow!

I've been gone all week so I'm late to this party...

Wonderful story, and very cool pics!

What an experience...

[BASSMAN]

Nice report! And pics!
It reminds me of the time Tom Nic, Calvin and Me dropped in to a school of Dog Fish at Sund Rock on a Night dive.
Long story short is...

Tom and I are new divers...
First Night dive at Sund Rock...
80 fsw...
School of Dogfish...
I grabbed one by the tail and didn't know what to do with it...
Pointed it at Tom ...(I actually ponted it away before I let it go)
I now know ,not to grab Dog Fish or any other fish.
Saw Calvin taking Video of agressive behavior of one of the Dog Fish.. .
Pointed my underwater lazer pointer at it...
It came over to me and Bumped my hand and pointer agressively...
time to end this dive...
Never dove with lazer pointer again.

Here is Calvins Video...http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh77 ... rShark.flv

[Tubesnout23]

Nice report! And pics!
It reminds me of the time Tom Nic, Calvin and Me dropped in to a school of Dog Fish at Sund Rock on a Night dive.
Long story short is...

Tom and I are new divers...
First Night dive at Sund Rock...
80 fsw...
School of Dogfish...
I grabbed one by the tail and didn't know what to do with it...
Pointed it at Tom ...(I actually ponted it away before I let it go)
I now know ,not to grab Dog Fish or any other fish.
Saw Calvin taking Video of agressive behavior of one of the Dog Fish.. .
Pointed my underwater lazer pointer at it...
It came over to me and Bumped my hand and pointer agressively...
time to end this dive...
Never dove with lazer pointer again.

Here is Calvins Video...http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh77 ... rShark.flv

What is a 'lazer pointer'? a kind of dive light?...and I am glad to read that you don't grab fish tails anymore' ...look at what that naughty Jacques Cousteau's team did in his old days!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh0WcrPEhCk[/youtube]


cheers

[BASSMAN]

What is a 'lazer pointer'? a kind of dive light?...

cheers

The lazer pointer was a novelty item, I bought from on-line,(I think scuba toys)for $20.00.

It's just like a lazer pointer someone uses for a office presentation or a cat toy.

The only difference was, this one, was water proof.

I bought it thinking maybe I could get fish to follow it around or I could use it to point things out to my buddy.

It never really had much of an effect on fish, except for dog fish! As I dove with it, just hanging off my BC, I thought - "maybe it would atract fish". Then I thought, "If Dog fish like to bump it, would a Six gill like to bump it too?" That's why I never dove with it again and evetually, salt water did it's thing, and it stopped working.