Collecting the fish - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 228

ing place, but there must be one for such a complex and e¤ective de-
fense to have evolved. Still, it's not quite enough to deter us humans
with our two skillful hands. Their defense tactic only serves to slow
us down a little; we can work an inflated swell shark loose in just a
few minutes. Then, holding it behind the head and by the tail, you
pop it into your dive buddy's open net collecting bag. It is always wise
to keep two hands on the shark; holding it by the tail only is an in-
vitation to get bitten, since a flexible swell shark can whip around with
its large mouth open and ready. Bagging a shark is no problem with
two people, but it can get tricky when you try this by yourself. I gen-
erally got the head next to the bag's opening, then as quickly as pos-
sible let go, unlatched the bag, gave the shark a shove toward the open-
ing, and hoped it went in. Most of the time this worked, but it was
always exciting.
The next evening the Just Love and Lucile were anchored in a pro-
tected cove for the night. After supper we suited up and prepared for
a night dive. The quarry this time was blacksmith, a damselfish rela-
tive of the garibaldi. During the day they are impossible to catch as
they actively feed in the upper layers of the water column on tiny zoo-
plankton. Like many other diurnal fishes, though, blacksmith spend
the night resting in crevices in the rocky bottom, at which point they
become easy prey.
This was the first night collecting the newer aquarists had attempted,
and they learned by doing: first, how to catch the fish, and then how
to transfer them from the net into the bag—all in the dark, and all
while you're holding a dive light and a hand net containing an animal
motivated by a strong desire to escape. At the same time, you're try-
ing not to get tangled up in the kelp. Despite these challenges, within
short order we had our quota of blacksmith and, low on air, headed
back to the boat, eager to call it a night.
The next day both boats headed around to the seaward side of the
island. We planned to collect some kelp bass with hook and line and,
hopefully, to find a large male sheephead for our Kelp Forest exhibit.
Working o¤ the Lucile, we positioned the boat in the middle of a dense
kelp bed and quickly caught several ten- to twelve-inch kelp bass. Bob
Kiwala then decided to try for the sheephead.