Q4_Fall_2016_AlertDiver

( A B O V E )

N I G H T M A N T A S

“The manta ray night dive off Kona, Hawaii, is one of

the greatest spectacles of the underwater world. It’s

accessible to snorkelers and divers of all skill levels,

almost every night of the year. The theatricality of the

dive is astonishing to witness; it’s a light show with

swirling, feeding manta rays, a Cirque du Soleil of the

sea. Afterward, when the divers have left, does the show

still go on? My team and I spent a few nights with a

boat, a generator, and a movie light intending to find

out. Of course, where there is food, there are diners. The

movie lights provided attraction to lure the copepods to

the surface, where the fish gorged themselves, and the

mantas did barrel rolls as they fed upon the abundant

food. This is a color image made virtually black and

white by circumstances, not by processing.”

( P R E V I O U S S P R E A D )

T H E M A N I N T H E

G R A Y O V E R C O A T

“I have been fascinated with great white sharks since I saw the

movie

Blue Water, White Death

in the theater as a child, circa

1971. I traveled to South Australia with my first underwater

camera to experience these magnificent animals for myself with

the consummate shark guide, host and victim: Rodney Fox. I have

been diving irregularly but often with great white sharks in South

Australia, South Africa and at Guadalupe Island, Mexico, ever

since. Only South Australia offers the opportunity to take a cage

to the bottom and see the sharks meander through rocky canyons

and around the periphery of kelp and seagrass plains. I was struck

by how graceful and serene they were when not being teased with

baits suspended from floats at the surface. I was mostly outside of

the cage when I made this image. The shark was really a lot closer

than it appeared in the viewfinder. I tried not to think about that

because the scene was just so electrifying and beautiful.”