DarrinT
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2008
- Messages
- 158
Story 1)
Scuba diving in Fathom 5 Provincial Park off the Bruce Peninsula near Tobermory early 80s and I'm at 120ft diving the Philo Scoville when all of a sudden it gets so dark that I could have used a dive-light to see. I think oh frig a massive thunderstorm must have come over and I'm gonna have to recover to the dive boat in a huge storm.
Nope - an unbelievably thick and huge school of whitefish were cruising by between me and the surface!!!! Took a solid 5min to go by and was wider than the current visibility limit which was maybe 50-70ft!!! Tens of thousands of fish!!
Blocked out the available light at that depth completely!!!
Story 2)
With my then girlfriend now wife in the mid-80s in a rented tin boat I'm gonna show her the canoe camp I worked at on Turtle Bay, Beausoleil Island , Georgian Bay. We enter the bay and the camp is gone! The lease had run out as it was on a National Park Island.
Turtle bay is approx. 100 acres flat sand bottom crystal clear water when I notice that it looks like someone has dumped the off cut bark rounds from a lumber mill all over the very shallow bay.
Nope - they're fish - so many Gar Pike spawning that you could have walked on them!!!
Each as long and as fat as my leg!!
They must have come from all over Georgian Bay just to spawn there, thousands of them. So I grab my mask and snorkel and go in with them! Primitive fish that hunt the shallows with long thin beaks full of visible teeth. They let me get within 3-4ft of them before they would move off unconcerned. Watched the females dig pits by turning sideways and flapping hard against the bottom. Then she would release her eggs into it and the males would swarm in and release their milt.
Helluva experience! Wish I had an underwater video camera at the time as it would have made a great segment on a nature show.
Scuba diving in Fathom 5 Provincial Park off the Bruce Peninsula near Tobermory early 80s and I'm at 120ft diving the Philo Scoville when all of a sudden it gets so dark that I could have used a dive-light to see. I think oh frig a massive thunderstorm must have come over and I'm gonna have to recover to the dive boat in a huge storm.
Nope - an unbelievably thick and huge school of whitefish were cruising by between me and the surface!!!! Took a solid 5min to go by and was wider than the current visibility limit which was maybe 50-70ft!!! Tens of thousands of fish!!
Blocked out the available light at that depth completely!!!
Story 2)
With my then girlfriend now wife in the mid-80s in a rented tin boat I'm gonna show her the canoe camp I worked at on Turtle Bay, Beausoleil Island , Georgian Bay. We enter the bay and the camp is gone! The lease had run out as it was on a National Park Island.
Turtle bay is approx. 100 acres flat sand bottom crystal clear water when I notice that it looks like someone has dumped the off cut bark rounds from a lumber mill all over the very shallow bay.
Nope - they're fish - so many Gar Pike spawning that you could have walked on them!!!
Each as long and as fat as my leg!!
They must have come from all over Georgian Bay just to spawn there, thousands of them. So I grab my mask and snorkel and go in with them! Primitive fish that hunt the shallows with long thin beaks full of visible teeth. They let me get within 3-4ft of them before they would move off unconcerned. Watched the females dig pits by turning sideways and flapping hard against the bottom. Then she would release her eggs into it and the males would swarm in and release their milt.
Helluva experience! Wish I had an underwater video camera at the time as it would have made a great segment on a nature show.