yeah, i think my fear of open ocean is justified.
If it helps, it’s a Southern Right whale, which means it doesn’t have teeth. What probably doesn’t help is the photographer describing being in a bit of fear that this mother (whose cub was swimming nearby) might feel threatened by his presence and take a fatal swipe at him with the whale’s 15-foot tail. (Apparently mother and cub allowed the photographer to swim with them for a while, though.)
Wait, that’s a real photo?
Yeah, knowing that Momma whale is beneath the rather enormous baby whale doesn’t help.
And not really worried about teeth.
I think that a casual tail flick is just as scary as an angry tail flick to get rid of the little things bothering her baby.
The ocean is scary, lol.
and those are some really great pics of the whales.
Hardly any whales have teeth, really only the subfamily of cetaceans which includes dolphins and orcas. But you’re right to fear their size and tail swipes, whales that size aren’t aggressive but will defend their young. No way in hell I would get that close to one.
One thing that surprised me about diving is the number of critters that don’t care about divers, or are downright friendly. Sharks are scary, right? Yet I’ve been this close to a reef shark, and it wasn’t interested in us:
I’ve also been in the water with juvenile sea lions, who spent the entire time playing with us.
Gendal
1974
It doesn’t matter what they are, its freaky to have something swim up to you in the ocean while you are zoned out looking at something. The speed with which most sea creatures move plus limited visibility makes for all kinds of moments conductive to filling your swim trunks.
Was snorkeling when a school of fish I was observing from a distance dashed away very suddenly away from me, while my back was to a very deep shelf. I freaked out and spun around, half-expecting to have a very very bad day. There was nothing, though. Stupid fish.
That’s fish humor for you. Can’t really do standup, I guess.
ElGuapo
1977
I can’t stand being on the edge of a sea shelf like the one in Finding Nemo. Something about looking out/down into that inky abyss just scares me primally. I was near one in the Bahamas after swimming with sharks and it freaked me out something fierce. You just have this feeling something huge and dangerous is lurking down there, drawing you down. No wonder people used to believe in sea monsters. Though seeing a giant squid or shark or even whale coming up out of the darkness would make me nope right outta there, screaming bubbles the whole way. I refused to get within 3 feet of the edge. It’s almost worse that being on a cliff face.
Clanan
1978
“Used to?” Psh, speak for yourself. I’m still waiting for the news report on a cyclopean, antideluvian behemoth to come sprawling out of the deep.
Oghier
1979
Just thinking about that gives me the willies.
Seeing the original Jaws, in the theater, as a 10-year old scarred me for life ;)
Wall dives don’t bother me. I get a bit freaked about being on the edge of a sharp dropoff on land, but on a dive you’re pretty much neutrally buoyant, so I’ve never felt remotely like I was falling. I think it’s different if you’re swimming, since treading water requires effort.
Enidigm
1981
What makes me nervous about wall dives is the fear that i’ll be too wrapped up in looking around and not noticing that i’m sinking. When you pass a certain depth your BC starts to compress, and my irrational mind sees this as a runaway effect. I have popped out of the water from about 60 feet because i f’ed up my BC and my ears did notice, so it’s not a totally baseless fear with one as absent minded as myself. Of course when you hit the thermocline it would be hard to NOT notice.
nKoan
1982
I don’t believe that is irrational at all. In fact, in Lake Tahoe there is a myth of a vortex near a gigantic wall (~800 feet) that sucks divers down. The experienced divers I’ve talked to say it doesn’t exist, and that it is runaway compression coupled with confused reactions once the divers notice.
BCDs do have a positive feedback loop, since as you descend they compress and lose buoyancy, and as you ascend they inflate and increase buoyancy. However, it’s directly related to pressure, which is (depth / 30 feet + 1) atmospheres, so it’s a pretty serious problem near the surface, and not so important 80-90 feet down. The same goes for compression of your wetsuit, though that’s pretty small anyway.
Personally, I’ve only had a problem with unintentional surfacing on very shallow dives, i.e. times when I’m near the shore and the bottom is 10-15 feet. I can’t really imagine doing so from 60 feet. When I hit 40, I’m definitely down, and buoyancy control is no longer an issue.
corkeh
1984
“Castles that cost less than an apartment in NYC”
Spoiler’d to save v-scroll
