There are moments in life that sometimes make you take a good hard look at yourself and you realize just how insignificant you could be in the entirety of the world. This can be a bit frightening for some people, or it can be a grounding experience to help keep you from becoming to full of yourself. No matter how it effects you, you always come away from such an experience just a little bit different that you were before. Hopefully the changes in you are for the better.
A few years ago I had a chance to go scuba diving at a location in Grantsville, UT called Bonneville Seabase. It is a small body of salt water that is heated by geothermal pockets of water in the middle of the Utah desert. Many Tropical fish have been planted in the water and are thriving. It is very similar to diving in a tropical location, only you are in the middle it Utah.
I was very excited about this opportunity to use my new diving skills and left my hotel early so that I could be there just as they opened and maximize my dive time for the day. I was greeted warmly by the staff and informed that I would need to watch a small training video before they would allow me to enter the water. The video was enjoyable and informed me about the various types of critters that I could see in the water and how to treat them. There are lobsters, shrimp, various tropical fish, and a multitude of corals. I watched the video as the staff released a foot long nurse shark into one of the bay. I was going to be swimming with sharks, even if they were only a foot long!! I could barely contain my excitement. At the end of the video I was informed that I could purchase some frozen fish food from the snack bar and would be able to hand feed the fish if I wanted to. I made a mental note that I would definitely be doing that at some point today.
A small nurse shark being released into the water
Once the video was complete I was given the OK to dive at my own leisure. I changed into my dive gear as fast as I could and headed for the entry area. I had decided that I would take my first dive as an opportunity to explore the whole area. Seabase has 3 distinct dive zones, the entry area is known as White Rocks and has a dome covering over it to help accommodate diving in the winter months. From there, you can swim through a channel that connects you to an area know as Habitat Bay. Habitat Bay has a sunken ship to explore as well as an underwater air dome where you can swim inside and watch all the fish through windows while removing your face gear and talking to your dive buddies. The next area is called the Abyss, it is a deep water area going down as far as 67 feet. It is mostly used for training, but there are ledges you can stop and hang out on to watch some of the fish that prefer a little bit cooler temperatures.
A picture of the entry area known as White Rocks
I had my plan and entered the water. Immediately I was surrounded by a multitude of tropical fish with brilliant colors and unique markings from any fish I have ever seen in the lakes if Montana. I was captivated. There were angel fish, puffers, Jacks and Tangs. Fish that could only be seen off the coast of some tropical resort , yet here I was in Utah seeing them all.
Some of the fish that can be seen at Seabase
I made my way around all three bays taking in all the sights, and becoming familiar with the underwater terrain. Those first two hours absolutely flew by and soon my tank was getting to low on air to stay under water and I would have to have to go back to land, eat some lunch and get a new tank. It would be necessary for me to spend at least an hour out of the water so that my body could get rid of some of the extra nitrogen that builds up in your blood stream when you are under water. Failure to do this could result in a painful condition called the bends, if severe enough, it could even be fatal and I did not want to risk that.
The only thing I did not see on my first dive was the shark. I was really hoping to get a good look at him, but nurse sharks do have tendency to be a little shy, so I guess I wasn't to surprised. I asked the staff about him and they gave me some good ideas of where his usually hang outs were. I knew I would only be able to squeeze in two more dive today and I really wanted to hand feed the fish, so I decided to by the fish food for my next dive and then if I didn't see the shark, I would take my last dive searching for him.
I walked over to the snack bar and order my bag of fish food. I chuckled to myself as I discovered that the "fish food" was really a zip lock bag full of dead frozen guppies. The very same guppies I am sure that were abundant in the pools I just finished diving before lunch.
I put my gear back on and descended into the water for dive number two. As soon as the local wild life realized that I had a treat, I was completely surrounded by hungry tropical gluttons. They were darting all around, each trying to be first to zip in and grab a bite as I released it from the bag. I even had a couple over eager fish nibble the end of my fingers before I could reach back in to the bag and get another morsel out for them. Before I knew it I was in the middle of a feeding frenzy. Literally hundreds of fish now surrounded me each trying to get a bite of the meal I had brought for them. For a moment I wondered if maybe they would start eating me if I ran out of frozen guppies.
I tried to back away just a little bit from the growing school of fish in order to make a little more space for those that were showing up late for dinner. In the process of doing this, I caught a glimpse if some movement form the side of my mask. I turned to look, but whatever it was had already moved beyond my visibility in the water. As I turned back to deal with expectant group of fish I had in front of me, I realized what had made the movement I glimpsed earlier. It was the shark I had been longing to see!
Only this shark was not the foot long darling little fish I had seen in the video earlier, but it was an eight foot long behemoth that cruised through the water with startling elegance and efficiency. I considered myself to be fairly comfortable in the water and could swim with ease while wearing my dive gear, but it became very obvious to me that I was nothing more than a bungling incompetent mass compared to the obvious skill that this creature had in the water. In a flash, the shark swam under me and grabbed a guppy that had fallen out of my bag while I was distracted.
My mind instantly shut down and went into panic mode. I began to back peddle away from the giant of a fish, letting loose my bag of guppies while my mind was occupied only with my eminent demise.
Now those of you that are familiar with the nurse sharks, are probably getting a great laugh at my expense, as they are probably one of the most docile and harmless creatures that mother nature has ever graced the earth with. Soon my mind came to terms with this and I was able settle down and regain control of my actions, but for a brief moment in time I experienced a level of terror and absolute panic, that I fail to find the words to describe.
What was really lurking in the waters below
I enjoyed the rest of my dives after gaining control of my self, but when I left the water for the last time that day, I had a new found respect for mother nature and some of her creature of the deep. Hopefully I am a better person for it.
