Mershanti - the Sea Lover

Scuba diving is such an enthralling experience. Everywhere you look on a coral reef, life abounds. Many people ask to see the big things: turtles, rays, midnight parrot fish, sharks, etc., but the tiny things are what attract me the most. To spend 20 minutes with a sea horse is a mystical experience. Soaring in the surge with 3 squid is sublime. Peering under a tiny ledge under a coral mound, you can spot cleaner shrimp who will come out and climb on your hand if you are very still. There are “cleaning stations” where large fish go to have small brightly blue-striped cleaner fish. These little fish go inside the mouths and gills of large fish and clean them of parasites. We came upon a 5’ barracuda getting his face and teeth cleaned. We approached very slowly and he stayed until the cleaning was finished.

Every breath is a part of life, a meditation of breathing in and breathing out, listening and feeling every breath. It is a total escape from life as usual. You float, weightless and soar in the surge as the waves wash over you. You time your breath to the waves and truly become a part of this living sea.

The number of fish and the colors and patterns are truly amazing. You can hover to watch a green moray swim from one lair to another. You can see a pair of angelfish swim side by side. A gang of blue tang, hundred of them, come upon you and swim all around you as they clean the coral of algae. There are large white-spotted eagle rays that fly by as you swim along the reef. They pay us no mind, unless someone chased them. Their giant “wings” move them effortlessly through the water. On a sea mound (an underwater mountain) you see Atlantic spade fish, jacks, and many other varieties of fish in abundance.

From the boat, on the way to a dive site, a pod of dolphin surf the bow wave. One time a pod stopped when the boat captain turned off the engine and we all slipped into the water. The dolphin mimicked our moves, swam between our legs, all around us, playing for over 20 minutes. A truly moving experience as these were wild dolphin, not kept penned up for the amusement of humans, but with humans because they chose to be.

Finally, there are the whale sharks. They are massive, up to 45 feet (longer than our boat). We are like gnats to them. Floating on the surface, watching one swim right by you is an awesome. This is a fish that is longer than a school bus and whose head can be 8 feet wide. Sometimes, a youngster will swim by and stop to look you in the eye. You can almost hear him thinking: “what kind of strange fish are these?” It is a privilege to be in the sea with them and you come away humbled by the experience.