Today was finally the day I could scratch off an item in the bucket list, which was ship wreck diving. I have seen many videos about outrageously sized fish lurking inside the ships so I wasn’t very keen on cruising through a ship. This was also going to be the first dive I will film as Matthew let me borrow a water proof case to allow my camera to go deeper so I thought maybe I could make one of those videos about monster fish myself. We first explored the ex-USS Kittiwake, which was a submarine rescue vessel sunken in 2010 to become an artificial reef. Although it was in commissioner for almost 50 years, it never rescued a submarine. In fact, it actually sunk one as it backed into one in port. This ship, measuring a whopping 251 feet, was a blast to explore through. As I was cruising through the nooks and crannies, I started to imagine what life was like for the people assigned to that boat. I envisioned everything to be picked but orderly as the boat cruised with ease through the waves. We also saw everything from the engine room to the cafeteria. Although the boat was stripped, the engine room still had the monstrosities that power the boat. I saw about 4 engines which were twice my size and I could only imagine how much gasoline they need. There actual,y weren’t many fish in the USS Kittiwake mainly due to the fact that in the two past storms it was shifted and then slanted at a sharp angle. This movement also resulted in most of the coral breaking off and dying so it was pretty barren. We then moved sites about five mooring buoys over to the Doc Poulson wreck. This ship was also sunk on purpose to become an artificial reef but it was about a 1/5 of the size. This also meant we couldn’t swim through it but the cabin was opened up so we could go inside. Unlike the first ship, this one has been in the sea floor longer and hasn’t suffered from any loss of coral so it was vibrant with life. There was a huge school of big eye trevally cruising around the wreck. I followed them around for a bit and was able to swim alongside them. This was a highlight of the day for me as I love to catch these fish as even the small ones put up a great fight. I also spotted a southern stingray on the sandy bottom while doing my safety stop. Its two triangle shaped fins made it very identifiable even in 50 foot deep water. I was hoping to see it find a spot and bury itself in the sand but it kept swimming along. Also, the stingray had another fish cruising above it to use the stingray as shelter. That was the last encounter I had before I had to get back on the boat for the day so hopefully I can see another large school tomorrow on our last two tank dive.
Pictured above is the school I swam with
