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THE ATTACK OF THE FILEFISH By one of the attackees, Cassandra Weith It was a typical Saturday morning for the Palm Beach County Reef Research Team. Cars were pulling up at the 13th street marina with divers anticipating the upcoming research dives. As gear was unpacked, divers greeted each other with coffee cups in hand. Excitement began to stir while Captain Bob recited his boat briefing. I know that I, along with my hardy winter diving teammates, began to quiver with excitement (I love stories that start with quivering - ed.). Yes Captain Bob, we could "feel the excitement." Our first dive, Sugar Sands Ledges, is one of my favorites. Yes, I just love the Intracoastal dives. Takes me back to my roots, the Ohio River. Got to love the brown, green muck and the surprises that you might bump into. The site is only five minutes from the dock, always low visibility, but lots of neat- o fish, I just love it. I was asked to be the video gal along with the task of fish ID'er. Our "Leader" and video guy Ben, decided to get sick, so that is how I ended up on video duty. Oh, by the way, I love taking video and plan to make the "Leader" sick before every dive . Trust me, I can make anybody sick, so I've been told. Well, my buddy Dawn and I descended into the brown, green, muck-filled Intracoastal waters of Lake Worth. I had orders from "him" to take some footage of the mapper guys who were going to be putting down some new benchmarks, thanks to Pug. So Dawn and I flew up the ledges trying to find Dave, Bruce, Greg, Chris, Wade and anyone else who was carrying something underwater. Almost immediately, I felt eyes watching. I turned my head and saw about 700 fish at my face, OK, OK, a little white lie... seventy fish, OK, seven, with a little filelike thing coming out from the top of their head. As I studied them, I recalled Fish Leader Gail and her teachings of these wonderful creatures. Odd shaped swimmers with a file at the top of their head, a Planehead Filefish! OPPPSSS, past time to make eye to eye contact with my bud Dawn, sorry Bob. I did and she began scribbling on her slate the words, FILELISH! She is good. Many more were beginning to surround us, they were getting "up close and personal." I thought, how cute those little lips and fanned out tail were. I turned the video on and more came, a dozen more or so, they wanted to be in pictures! COOL! I looked over at Dawn and it seemed as though there was a school, no, a University surrounding her! If you have ever have been lucky enough to dive with Dawn, you know what I mean when I say that she talks underwater, yes, I said talks. Forget that expensive underwater communication device that Ben wants, just use Dawn! That girl can talk up a storm underwater, unbelievable. Well, she was screaming now and swatting wildly, they were after her. By this time, there were about 30 of those "not so cute lip" stinkin' Filefish around. I had to place my finger (gently, of course) on the ledge so I could turn off the video and connect it to me. I wanted to be ready, I sensed trouble. A few of those cute lip, pretty tail, SOB's began to nibble on my finger that was on the ledge, needless to say, they have sharp buckteeth. Dawn motioned to me to "book," so we swam off to another ledge. That University of Planehead Filefish teamed up with another University of Planeheads and followed us throughout the dive. They were everywhere, ledge after ledge. It seemed as though a few were trying to get into Dawn's BC and I think one might have been stuck in her hair. They seemed as though they had a mission. A few were so close to my mask that I swear they were counting my eyelashes. They wanted to taste us and bite anything that stuck out. Dawn tried to tuck in her nose as I tried to tuck in my chin and ears. I figured to heck with Ben's mapper guy video, he would just get Filefish. The word "evidence" went through my head as I turned on the video. Finally, we got to our fish stations without any major blood loss and did our counts. They were with us the entire time, nibbling on pencils, fingers and video lens. Finally, we both pointed to the surface and got the heck out of the water. |
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Rare Find by Cynthia Mills, July 6, 2000 - A researcher has made the rare discovery of the largest squid of its kind, a 7-½-foot-long creature washed up on an Antarctic beach. Little is known about the lifestyles of the elusive large squids. And it's not often that scientists find intact carcasses - birds usually beat them to the remains, leaving behind nothing but the squid beaks. Data collected often comes from the stomachs of other subjects, mainly sperm whales, elephant seals and albatrosses. The current finding will help scientists understand the species, if only because it allows for the more accurate estimation of the size of a whole squid in reference to the beak. Penguin researcher Amanda Lynnes was alerted to the squid, Kondakovia longimana, by a group of giant petrels squabbling over something on the beach outside the British Antarctic Survey's Signy Research Station. A closer look revealed a huge, 7-1/2-foot-long, 62-pound, dead squid. The squid was partly eaten, but largely intact. "Its eye was as big as my palm. There were eight arms and the two, long feeding tentacles with hooks on the ends," said Lynnes. "Probably it used those hooks to snatch out and grab its prey." The finding was reported this week at the Cephalopod International Advisory Council meeting in Aberdeen, Scotland. Paul Rodhouse, president of CIAC, called the finding surprising, "This Kondakovia was larger than anything we thought we would see," he said. He added that the species, and large members of the species, are probably not all that rare. The Antarctic squid is a cousin to the legendary giant squid, called Archeteuthis dux - Greek for squid ruler. Giant squids reach lengths of 60 feet and weigh as much as half a ton. As fin fishery catches have leveled off, with some fisheries collapsing, fishermen are turning to squid catches of the 500- some small squid species. In light of commercial operations pressing to expand squid fishing into the southern oceans, researchers are racing to survey squid production and biology. "Squid play a pivotal role in some of these ecosystems," said Rodhouse. "If over-fished, they may have an impact on prey,
allowing prey populations to grow out of check. Over-fishing would have an obvious impact on predator species, particularly seals and albatrosses; Sperm whales feed almost exclusively on squid."
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They worked us bigtime! Probably could not have saved ourselves if we had to. On surface, I watched Dawn try to control her breathing as not to suck a lung through her regulator. Her eyes were pierced on my cartiod, she was counting my pulse, visually, and hoping it got down to 400 beats per minute. The thought of taking a Rescue Diver class entered my Planehead. As I beached my body up on the boat, I saw blood. MY TEAMMATES! I cried! Did they survive? Blood was dripping from Biv's ear, he had been bitten by one of those darlings. 'Direct pressure' I heard Captain Bob say. And Bruce, his booties were ripped to shreds, (hence, why he took mine). Wade's new GPS toy, in pieces? Oh well, I have a sugar canister like that at home. Matthew, what a trooper, his new DIR something or other, gone. I can see it now, Planehead Filefish University, sporting a new DIR lift bag. Dazed Chris, wanting to be a fish counter, was reciting from the Humann book, "reaction to divers, tend to be shy and hide in holes" and laughing hysterically. Greg was leading the rest of the team in prayer. Of course I am kidding about the above, except Biv's ear. Well, as usual, lessons are learned on every dive. Did I say that Sugar Sands was my LEAST favorite place to dive? |