tropical fish and hammerheads
For at least one summer, probably in 1975 or 1976, we kept a cool saltwater tropical fish aquarium on the head table in the chow hall. It was right next to Sobel's radio command/communications center. We didn't have to follow any of the strict rules that most saltwater aquarists comply with to maintain their expensive tanks. This was Fish Camp, we didn't need no stinking rules. Careful water chemistry monitoring and sophisticated filtering, no way, just get one of the fishing boats to bring back their water cooler full of fresh gulfstream water (best water in the world) on return from the mornings trip catching dolphin and sails. Save up lots of money and go to the tropical fish store and wait till they get a delivery of the fancy fish you need, no way, put in your order with the dive counselors and they'll bring back fresh ones from the afternoon dive, along with fresh live coral (oops.) We didn't have fancy slurp guns like the professional fish wranglers used, we just covered a small coralhead with a cast net then reached under with a smaller dip net and trapped the tropicals. In reality there were probably thousands of dollars worth of tropical fish in that tank and if a couple died we'd just get a fresh replacement on the next dive trip.Well, one afternoon Capt Lou Roth and I were on a little side trip at Hens and Chickens catching tropicals for the tank. We were netting while snorkeling versus scuba because you could cover more ground and work quicker. We were pretty good freedivers (though nowhere near the level of Fred Wheeler, Brad Neat and that gang-but that's another blog altogether) and it was only in about 20'-25' of water. We had caught a few fish and went down again with the cast net spread as wide as we could and placed it over a coral head with a lot of tropicals. Unfortunately, there were quite a few grunts trapped in the net and even before we turned for the surface we could hear them going nuts grunting loudly in distress. When you return to the surface you wait a minute or two to catch your breath then go back down with the dip nets and capture the fish. At the surface we made a few comments about our strategy then turned to dive back down. As soon as we looked down there was a 10' hammerhead doing tight fast circles around that coralhead about 20' below our feet. It was so agitated and lit up by the grunts in distress that it didn't even know there were two warm blooded snacks right above it that were very easy targets. Needless to say we eased back over to the boat and the lead line of that cast net is probably still around the base of that coralhead today. That was one of hundreds of little incidents that makes for a good Fish Camp story from 35 years ago and I'm sure everyone involved remembers them differently. Capt Lou might say it was a 4' nurse but I'll always remember my heart beating out of my chest with excitement over that one.