Tenth Island Seal Dive

In the last post I has mentioned that I was hopefully going out to the dive at a seal colony on Tenth Island, a small spike of rock off the North Coast of Tasmania. Well, I went...twice...and they were both great dives. So good in fact that I would say they were probably the best (most enjoyable) dives I've ever done.

I think what ultimately puts these dives a notch above all the others for me was the interaction. The engagement rather than typical observation. Normally when I go out diving its more of like an underwater nature hike, maybe try and grab a lobster or abalone, but for the most part it's like looking through a window into a world that could care less about your existence. However the seals genuinely reciprocation the curiosity and offer some really amazing interactions.

They remind me a lot of well socialized terrestrial dogs in many of there mannerisms; which i found somewhat surprising considering they are totally wild creatures which could understandably be a lot less gentle or trusting. I did run into one grumpy bull that let me know I wasn't welcome in his personal space and I'd have to say a was fairly intimidated when he barked and mustered his 400 lbs or so into a charge. But even then it was a message rather than actual aggression as he simply stopped after giving me a good eyeing.

There was also a surprising amount of fish in the area as well,  including Port Jackson Sharks

Leather jackets and wrasse,

many more fish species I don't know the names of, and a really nice kelp forest on the east side of the island which I thoroughly enjoyed as I haven't ever had much experience with it before.

I of course took the gopro to shoot some video (which is also where most of the still images came from) and put together a short clip from the first trip we did.

I didn't bother doing the same for the second trip as it would have been somewhat redundant, but some of the other guys on that trip put clips together from their own footage that you can see here if your interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGSUd5fsMWM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbCI8sCP-bE


Additionally, Jon Bryan, who also went with us on these dive and was ultimately responsible for telling me about the place and organizing the trips, has an excellent underwater photography website with many great seal photos from this island as well as all over the world and can be seen here:

http://www.seanature.southcom.com.au/furseals1.htm#Sea


Until next time-