Attack of the Killer Trigger Fish

Yet another random internet cafe, Koh Tao, 11am

Man it's hot here. I thought I was doing really well yesterday and the day before, but then I realized that I spent most of the day in the water, and you can't really be hot in the water. Although I finally took the time to translate the water temperature into Fareinheit (how do you spell that?!). 31 degrees centigrade translates to high 80s!!! Can you believe that? It's bath water! The air temperature here has been 36ish...which is high 90s. And it's HUMID. Please note that these aren't complaints whatsoever...more observations. I wish I could bring a month or two of this weather back to Seattle!

The last few days have been spent diving. I love it and am totally addicted. I think, as a bonus, I may have talked one of the dive instructors into giving me a few free dives (not that they're super expensive here...like 700 baht, which is around $20 each, but still...). I'm hoping he'll take me on a deep dive (up to 30 meters, my lowest dive thus far is 1. Also cool would be night dive...I guess there's bioluminescence (I don't have to look the spelling of that up, I'm on vacation) in the water, so when you move your hands, it disturbs the plankton or organisms in the water or whatever, and you can see their glow without a torch. Pretty cool stuff. I don't have anymore dives planned, but like I said, hopefully I can get this guy Vimon to take me down. He's been diving for 10 years and is apparently a legend...he said he stopped counting his dives at 3000. I have 4 so far and feel pretty cool.

Yesterday we finished our certification. We ended up picking up a couple of other people in the class, so it wasn't just me and the English girl anymore, which complicated things a bit. The two other girls we had were German, and they were trying to finish their certification (had to postpone due to ear infections). Our last dive of the day was by far the best and most eventful dive we've had. We saw all sorts of cool fish and organisms that I guess many people don't get to see here, even the experienced divers. We saw a stingray, and Harlequin Flipperfin something or others (you can tell I know what I'm talking about, eh?), some trigger fish (more about those in a second), and an Indian Ocean Walkman, that I nearly stepped on. Those are the fish that submerse themselves in the sand so that you can't see them, and just hang out waiting for prey. I'm pretty big prey, so I was safe, but it was funny to see him riled up. He basically opened his mouth really wide several times and flapped his fins at about half the normal speed of all the other fish (which is about 3 times faster than they normal move). My instructor was laughing too, after pointing him out and after I'd moved away. It was almost like watching an elephant try to walk quickly. Yes, they can run crazy fast, but walking quickly is not one of their skills. Same thing with this random fish.

So, about the last dive...we were just finishing with our skills (PADI requires that you are able to demonstrate certain skills in the water before becoming a certified diver, so we had a couple of more basic things to do like hovering or establishing neutral bouyancy, fin pivots, and emergency ascents). We were diving at a place called White Rock, notorious for a beautiful coral garden and some pinnacles, but also notorious for Trigger Fish nests. Right now is especially dangerous because the fish are nesting, so they're very territorial. Trigger fish actually look quite nonthreatening, but they certainly don't act it. They range in size, but those that I've seen are only a few feet long. They have territory in a v shape (the bottom of the v is their nest, and the terriroty extends upward in a V until it hits the surface). They lay their eggs in the sand, and protect them until they've hatched. Trigger fish are thus named because they have a fin on their back that stands up like a trigger on a gun when they're riled up and ready to attack. (Insert Jaws music here).

So, picture the five of us descending. My buddy and I were relatively fast on the uptake, and didn't have any problems equalizing, so we were following closely with our instructor. The German girls, however, were very slow on the descent, and couldn't equalize, so they were about 4 meters above us. Enter the Trigger Fish. There were two of them, and they both went for my buddy and our instructor (about 1 m in front of me). The way they attack is very similar to the way a shark attack looks on TV - swimming around you in menacing circles, then swimming very quickly at your fin, or your face, or your neck and trying to take a bite. They're not poisonous, and usually don't even break through your wetsuit, but everyone around here is crazy afraid of them...thus the newbie divers are also crazy afraid.

So, the three of us are descending (which has to be done relatively slowly so that you can equalize). The trigger fish attack our group of three. We're about 10 m from the rock aka safe zone (no nests in the rocks), but apparently we're right in the middle of there territory. We all flip over on our backs and kick with our fins to protect our faces. For me, this means propulsion backward; for my 90 pound buddy it means a few bubbles and not much movement. The instructor and my buddy were frantically trying to descend, swim toward the pinnacle (I know, my spelling is atrocious, but I can't be bothered to fix it today), and equalize at the same time. I'm watching all of this happen, trying to swim backward toward the rock, equalize, and hoping to hell that there's no trigger fish behind me. It's almost like when you're a kid and don't want to look under the bed at night. Not knowing you're going to be attacked is almost better than knowing and thinking about it...

So, we're descending, my buddy is panicking and trying to shoot for the surface (not a viable option unless you want to spend days in a decompression chamber) and I'm watching it all occur thinking holy shit, these little bastards are mean! I look up and see the German girls still tooling around, just below the surface...the trigger fish kept attacking and attacking and attacking my instructor and buddy. My instructor is trying to shield her student from the fish attack; she's looking around for the three of us; and she's trying not to get attacked herself. Finally I reach the bottom and back up toward the pinnacle, taking care not to step on anything or run into an anenome, or generally foul things up. The other two are still on their backs, kicking their fins at the trigger fish that are still attacking. Finally the fish swim away after one last attack, and we're safe. I can't remember the last time I was afraid of something, but yesterday - I was definitely afraid. So much fun though, I'd totally do it again.

We lost the German girls (they ended up ascending because they couldn't equalize). My instructor, buddy and I finished the course and did some diving...them came up about 40 minutes later. I've heard the story of the attack of the killer trigger fish about 15 times now, and I've told it about 5...definitely the most exciting thing that's happened on my trip! No one was hurt or bitten, so it all worked out a-ok. Good lesson in not panicking underwater, though - you can't really go anywhere, so you have to stay there and deal with it. I'm sure there's some symbolism in there somewhere, but my brain is in vacation mode, and thus all I can think about is what's for lunch.

Tonight we'll be celebrating the rest of the group passing their diving certification. My buddy and I started two days after the other group of 6 and were certified yesterday, a day before them. So we've had to put off the celebration until tonight, which should be fun! Lots of great people, and I'm sure many more tales of giant trigger fish to come. (Did you see that trigger fish? He was THIS big!!!!)

I'll keep you posted on my next dive (hopefully it will be soon)!

Hope everyone is well!
Genevieve