Dr Marah Hardt On Why Staghorn Coral Helps Her Keep It Super-Real, and ParaSwimmer Rosie Bancroft Explains Why She Doesn't Need Help From Divers With Two Legs

SPEAKER_01 0:03

The Deeper Blue podcast is brought to you by Sunto, Finnish Engineering Pioneering Adventure from Mountaintop to Ocean Floor since 1936. Sunto. Welcome to the Deeper Blue Podcast, your weekly guide to everything that is happening around the world underwater. My name is Stephen Wheelan. I'm the founder of Deeperblue.com, the world's most popular diving website. Every week, the Deeper Blue Podcast covers everything that's happening in the scuba diving, free diving, diving travel, and Ocean Advocates World. So join us as we explore the Deeper Blue.

SPEAKER_03 1:00

Hi, welcome to the Deeper Blue Podcast. This is Jason Elias, producer of the podcast. In today's episode, we start off the news of the week underwater with Deeper Blue founder and host of the show, Steven Whelan, and myself. Then, free diving icon and co-host of the Deeper Blue Podcast, Megan Heaney Greer, speaks with Dr. Mara Hart, who works at a nonprofit focused on fish sustainability. Then we hear a top tip from Rosie Bancroft, a paraswimmer for Team Great Britain, on what she needs to dive underwater. Finally, we hear best dive ever from Billbeard from Costa Rica. But first, the news of the week underwater. News of the week underwater with Steven Whelan and Jason Elias.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I can tell you back, Jason. We've got the funny intros again. So I hope you had a nice rest last week, leaving it to the hosts and co-hosts to do this. You guys did a great job. At my break a few weeks ago, it's your break this time.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

That's right. Well, a break, as you know, you have a two-year-old as well. There's really no true break ever, but yes, you guys did a great job. Thank you, Sarah, for filling in. You did a fantastic job.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

So absolutely. Yeah, no, very very British last week.

SPEAKER_03 2:12

I did have crumpets and biscuits while I listened.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

We were sitting having cups of tea and uh and scones at the uh at the same time. What is a crumpet? A crumpet? Oh dear. You're testing my British uh Britishness here. It's a form of uh bake baked goods.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Okay. Fair enough. Okay. So let's talk about the news this week. News this week. Where in the world and water are we starting at?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

So we're gonna go to South Africa. That's where we're gonna start. Okay. And this is a this is an absolutely fantastic bit of news, and actually it's been really popular this week. There's a lady called Karen Vander Over. She is South African, and she has recently broken the women's deep cave diving records. Incredible. So this is mind-blowing. So she dove 236.04 meters, which is 770 feet. And it was in the Bushman's Gat Cave in South Africa's northern Cape Province. It exceeded the previous women's deep caving record of 221 meters. So that's 721 feet.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

So a substantial margin, almost another 50 feet.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

It is, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

And it took seven hours and 15 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Seven hours and eighteen minutes, Jason. Seven hours and eighteen minutes.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

Of course, anytime that someone pushes the boundaries of the human experience like this, like it's not just a 770-foot dive, which in and of itself is incredible for seven hours, but then to be doing it in a cave is absolutely astounding. 236 meters. What is that, like seven miles?

SPEAKER_01 3:52

We're an international podcast, Jason. We have to cover Imperial Ammetric. I mean, this stuff is incredibly dangerous. It's incredibly challenging.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

I I wonder how like how do you do safety on something like you can't have safety divers down with you like that doing that, right? I mean, this I would assume she's on her own, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

She is, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my god. Uh and it's all about safeties and redundancies and all this stuff. But uh basically go in and people keep their fingers and toes and fins crossed that you come out. I mean, this is incredibly dangerous stuff. And it's uh huge hats off to her as you've spoken to Jill Heinhirth is is one of the uh absolutely amazing cave diver explorer people that we we know, friend of the podcast and friend of your podcast. It takes years and years of training to do some of this stuff. It's amazing. Absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

There's more you can read about at diproboo.com. And it's uh just uh throwing that in there. Well done.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Well done, mate. I like it. I like it.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

And just as a final lick, it's a Tri-Mix 685. No idea what that means, but it sounds super technical. So congratulations to her.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

I I apologize to all the tech divers at least this podcast. I'll be having words with Jason after this, just to let you know. Uh so now we're going to uh we're gonna jump in the little virtual plane over to Croatia.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

I think Michael Minduna is gonna be sending me an email button not knowing what trimex 685 is. I'm sure he will be. Sorry, Michael. Sorry, MZ.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

So in Croatia, more record-breaking stuff. So four free diving world records were uh set a week ago at the Croatian pool free diving national championships. So this was a pool competition, and the first one was Avanyabeles, broke the men's seamas world record in dynamic no fins. This is a monofin swimming horizontally backwards and forwards in the water, holding your breath type thing. Did a 220-meter, that's 722 feet, swim. Then Budamir Sobat set a new It's not Budomir Sobat, it's Budamir Buddha Sobat.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

Coolest name I've heard in a long time.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

So Budamir Buddha Sobat. Do you think he's Buddhist? I don't know. It's not spelled the same.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

It's just but he's got a badass name.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Badass name. So it sets a new Guinness World Record for a 24 minutes 33 seconds oxygen-assisted static apner. So this is where I mean the record for holding your breath, floating down in the water sort of thing, is is about 11, it's about 12 minutes. And this is where they breathe oxygen for about half an hour, an hour before they actually do this, and it's it's straight down straight to it. Yeah, absolutely. And then they can do a very extended static apnea. So floating face down in the water. I mean, it's amazing. I mean, it's it's definitely dull to watch, right? Because it's sudden floating face down in the water for 24 minutes. It's not a spectator sport. Uh and I've seen many a freediving competition in my time and been at many. And I remember talking to some journalists about freediving the Olympics, and we did talk about a static apnea being not one of the events that's going to make it into the Olympics, because it really is not a spectator sport. Right.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

It looks like a dead body in the pool. A dead body in the pool. He's 54 years old, so bat. Buddha Sobat is 54 years old. That gives hope to guys like you and me. It's not over yet, Steven.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

I I'm not 54. Speak for yourself, Jason. I'm not 54. I'm just saying it's not over.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

We got we got hope.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

We got hope. We got hope. There were two other records set by Murela Kardasovic. She set two CMAS women's world records. The first one in dynamic with by fins. This is with traditional two fins, which is a separate discipline, because there's a difference between using two fins versus a monofin. Actually, two fins is harder. Actually, I don't know if people know that. It's harder to do that than using a monofin. So 231 meter, 758-foot dive swim dynamic with bifins. And then she also did a 206-meter, that's 676 feet swim in dynamic no fins with a monofin.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

Okay, moving on. What's next?

SPEAKER_01 8:03

So this one is about Greece. The Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports has announced the official opening for recreational divers. So that includes bits of flotsam like you, Jason. 91 listed ship and aircraft wrecks, uh, and they're actually going to put that they're going to open up more. They talk about it being recreational, but you know, many of these are technical diving depths, which you know is 130 meters and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

There are some that are recreational diving, and these are a lot of World War II wrecks, planes, European planes, there's American planes, and Nazi planes out there, which is super cool to think about, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:37

So what they really mean by this is you don't need to go and get government permits to go and dive these things. They may be technical dives, you may need to go and do it, but you can go and do it without needing to, you know, file a plan with the government and get agreements and permits and stuff beforehand, which is amazing. I mean, some of these wrecks, as you say, these are absolutely stunning, amazing wrecks. Yeah, the Britannic was a very famous expedition back in the 90s. You know, a bunch of British divers went to go and explore the Britannic.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

So it also speaks to the fact that things are starting to open up tentatively. It's just green spring shoots right now, but we're starting to see around the world that there's a way to travel to kind of do these things. That's what Greece is talking about. We are also talking about that Belize is now opening up. If you've been fully vaccinated, you don't even need to show a test as long as you've got your vaccination card. Belize is now open, the Maldies. So it's a good sign for the industry that we can start traveling soon. I think we're all dying to get out there.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Absolutely agree. Can't wait. Can't wait to get my girls wet. Uh so what's next? I think we've I think we've got another record to talk about, uh, Jason Foy.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

Oh, yes. We do have a world record here that is actually of consequence. It's a man in Rockford, Illinois. A guy named Bill Lambert has the world record for the oldest scuba diver in the world. So Bill Lambert has held it for three years in a row. He saw he said it at the age of 98, then he said it at the age of 99, and this guy now just said it at the age of 100. Now, in order to do it, he had to go underwater for at least 20 minutes. He did it in South Bellwatts, Pearl Lake. And there's a great video of him suiting up, which is just fantastic to see. I mean, the guy, he's 100 years old, and God bless him. If I can be diving at 100 years old, if I can be doing anything besides watching TV and wiping my chin at 100 years old, I'm I'll be I'll be so happy. He says he wants to do it for a fourth year in a row. I hope he does it. So that's just fantastic. Kudos to you, Bill.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Absolutely. I think it's uh we're gonna do an interview with him. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

I think we said that last time we talked about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Uh yeah, I have a recollection that might be the case.

SPEAKER_03 10:46

I guess we did. Um so what is it, what's next then?

SPEAKER_01 10:50

So a bit of dive computer news. I know you like a bit of product news, Jason. Gadget guy.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

I'm a gadget guy.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

So there's this great dive computer, which actually we talked about last year in season one of the podcast. It's the S2 Supersonic. I love the name. Uh the company's called Oceans.io, and they've announced this dive computer that does all the things that a normal dive computer does. But the bit that's the most cool thing about all this, beyond all the the comedy stuff that we're talking about, is this is the first wearable dive computer with built-in body communication.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

This allows you to basically send it's basically text messaging underwater. You can send little text messages to each other and stuff. So, you know, help out of air, help exclamation mark.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

I think there's the five built-in pre-standard messages you can send. One of them is out of air, one of them is let's go up to the surface, another one is shark. I didn't understand why that was in there. But still, the the idea that you can start communicating with buddies underwater is both wonderful and terrible. Of course, it's like the idea of getting phones on planes. You know, like, well, do I really want that? But then it being able to communicate underwater, not just with hand signals, but actually doing something beyond that might be very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

So they've launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

And then that takes us to our last one. Our last story, which of course, Elon Musk. Is it about Bitcoin?

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Is it about Bitcoin?

SPEAKER_03 12:09

Bitcoin, of course. If you if you Elon Musk is in the story, Bitcoin is also part of the story. Elon Musk is now offered scuba diving on Mars. So Elon Musk is one of his many things. As we all know, he does SpaceX. And scientists recently discovered three saltwater lakes buried beneath the iconic crimson crust of the red planet. So SpaceX is now offering a program called Mars and Beyond. And what they are doing is they are looking for aliens on the surface of Mars. And part of that is they want to go dive these saltwater lakes on Mars. Now, in order to do it, there's a cool one million Bitcoin to get a ticket on the SpaceX to take you to launch, which works out in today's dollars to $60 million. But they also say by the time the mission actually takes off, it will likely be valued in the billions. Now, a simple photographer like me that runs a podcast is not going to be able to afford it. But someone who, for example, runs the Empire of DeeperBlue.com might be able to be able to report something like this.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Oh yeah, maybe. Maybe.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

But you can do it now. You can go, you can get your ticket. And I would argue, since it's a million Bitcoin and Bitcoins continue to go up, now is the time to do it, right? This is because it's only going to get more expensive.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

So it this definitely fits the Jason Elias tabloids, uh tabloid emeter thing. So amazing.

SPEAKER_03 13:41

It's fun. I'd like to go dive in there.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

I think most people think of Mars as a very dry and dusty place. But yeah, we shall see.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

Under the surface oceans there. That is a fascinating thing. And the idea of, of course, most of us are not going to go diving on Mars, but the idea of being able to do that, that is that's part of the inspirational, aspirational thing that we as human beings always look for. And Elon Musk, no matter what you feel about him, he tends to play into those kind of things, and I'm kind of a sucker for it. So I could ask for uh Bitcoin sponsorship on the podcast to get me to Mars.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

I'll give you 0.0000001 of Bitcoin and to get you started, Jason. So there you go.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

At that rate, I only need a hundred billion people to give me a Bitcoin.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

All right. Well, that's it for the news this week. Thank you, Steven.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Thanks, Jason. Good to see you as always, buddy. Everyone, remember latest news on deeperblue.com, apart from Jason's news where you have to go and search on tabloids. Thanks, everyone. Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Bye. You're listening to the world's only weekly podcast for scuba diving, free diving, dive travel, and ocean advocacy. I'm Inky Cresper, marine biologist and wildlife filmmaker, and this is the Deeper Blue Podcast.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

Hi, this is Jason Leas, producer of the Deeper Blue Podcast. In today's episode, Deeper Blue co-host and free diving icon Megan Haney Greer speaks with Dr. Mara Hart, a fellow freediver and marine scientist who works in the field of sustainable seafood. Dr. Hart has received wide attention for a TEDx talk, is the author of a book about the alien sex lives of ocean creatures entitled Sex in the Sea, and works on bringing attention to managing fishing around the world with the nonprofit Future of Fish. Dr. Hart talks a bit about her history of getting in the water, what drives her to be so passionate about being an ocean advocate, and a particular dive in the Solomon Islands that highlighted for her how the ocean inspires her to never give up.

SPEAKER_06 15:47

Yeah, my name is Mara Hart, and I'm the director of discovery at a small nonprofit called Future of Fish. And we work on creating sustainable seafood around the world, working with fishing communities to ensure that they can make a living fishing, but leave enough fish for the future. I honestly cannot remember a time when I did not want to be in or under the water. Very little. I have fond memories of always being the last one out of the water. You know, my lips were blue, my mother having to drag me out of the New England foamy seas. But I got certified when I was 12 in the Florida Keys. And from the beginning, I wanted to do scuba because I wanted to just be underwater exploring and being able to stay down there. But my first real introduction to freedom, which is my very strong passion, was at 17. And I was hooked from then on.

SPEAKER_05 16:44

What is it that keeps you coming back? What do you love the most about it?

SPEAKER_06 16:50

I keep going back because it's the place that I can really connect and be reminded of why I'm here, what it is that I want to do in this lifetime, and where I feel restored, even in the midst of like stormy crazy seas. There's just something that's very centering. I can emerge, come back to the surface, and get back to work.

SPEAKER_05 17:11

How did your background in the water launch you into writing your book, Sex in the Sea?

SPEAKER_06 17:18

The short answer is the more time I spent in the water, the more I realized that while I would have loved to have lived a life of ocean exploration and just being able to do science and explore, I felt like we really needed to act. And in order to solve the problems facing the ocean, we need all hands on deck. We need lawyers and policy folks and businesses and industry and technologies, entrepreneurs, you know, artists, everybody. But not everybody thinks about the ocean all the time. Not everybody does feel dried out like we do, right? And so Sex in the Sea, my book was really sort of a realization of a way to try to engage folks in the just weird and wondrous and remarkable behaviors that happen under the ocean through the lens of sex, which despite what people may say, everybody's curious about, right? Everybody wants to know. They might not admit it, but they do. And it's so critical for conservation, right? Sex is what creates abundance, it's what creates the diversity that makes everything hum. For me, it was a way to engage as many people as possible, and especially those who may not already be thinking about oceans, to sort of stumble into it and then hopefully be captivated and mesmerized and then want to be moved to engage and to act.

SPEAKER_05 18:43

How did you get the idea to write sex in the sea?

SPEAKER_06 18:47

Like all great ideas, there was a little bit of alcohol and a party involved. I was in grad school and I was at a party with graduate students from all different disciplines and not just marine science. And we were talking about men and women and how we will never understand each other. And I, being the nerdy biologist, made the off-tan comment if only we were parrot fish. And everybody sort of stopped. And I was like, oh, you know, parrot fish, they start as females and then they change to males, so they know both sides of the equation. And everybody just looked at me like, what? It's like, yeah, they change sex. And they're like, fish change sex? Like, yeah, fish change sex, shrimp change sex. I mean, this is really common in the ocean. This is like a thing. And they all were fascinated. It was this awakening moment of like, oh yeah, most people don't think about these things all the time. Later that night, someone who I'd been talking to, I overheard them telling someone else, like, did you know that fish change sex? And I just thought, oh, that's it. Sex. It's and in the ocean, sex is unbelievable. I mean, it is truly the most wild and fascinating subject. And I promise your imagination will never take you where nature can bring you. So that was where we went.

SPEAKER_05 20:05

Over the course of your dive career, Mara, is there one particular dive that really stands out to you? That is the first one that pops into your head every time you think about your dive history.

SPEAKER_06 20:16

I'm gonna cheat and I'm gonna do two quick ones because they sort of bookend each other. So the first is a dive during graduate school. I was mapping out the coral reef in the Caribbean. It's a very degraded reef. It was the third day of our field work, and I'm underwater, I'm counting my corals, identifying the different species, and this yellowtail snapper swims by. And the thing was probably the size of my hand. This was a very small fish. And I nearly jumped out of my skin. I realized in that moment that my reaction was because there were no other fish in the water column. For three days we've been diving. I mean, I'm talking damselfish, grasses, like there's just nothing. This reef was so overfished. And so that really sticks out to me as this moment of like, holy smokes, this is wrong. The reef is quiet, the water columns empty. And I knew it was an unhealthy reef, but it wasn't until that moment it dawned on me the significance of how in trouble this system was. Fast forward to a year and a half ago, we're in the Solomon Islands. And it was the first dive. And before, you know, I'd even inverted to swim down, I lost my breath. It was so spectacular. The colors, the size of the corals, I mean, this was truly coral metropolis where every single square inch of space was covered with something that was alive and vibrant straight out of a Dr. Seuss coloring book. And I was just so overwhelmed with how much life there was still there. And healthy corals, not bleached, not dynamited, and this, again, the size. So corals, you know, their size is their age. And these things were hundreds of years old. I couldn't cover it with my arms out. I tried to do my wingspan and it just kept going. Truly mountains of corals and fields of staghorns and plating corals that were so big they were cracking under their own weight. All the things I've been reading about, my nerdy science brain was like, oh, this is what coral competition looks like. Because every place where these corals were butting one another, you had this border that was just this war zone where they were fighting for that light in that space, battles for reproduction, predator prey, all of those dynamics in full display. When you have a degraded reef, you don't see that in action. I remember I was just sitting there trying to soak it all up and feel that vibrancy and the degree to which everything was just so alive. I think it means several things. One is it it genuinely shows that we have no excuses for giving up. There is still potential. These species still exist. They are still holding on, and they're not just holding on by a thread. There are places where coral reefs are in good shape, and we need to figure out how to preserve and protect those and then learn from those instances to figure out what's going well so that we can try to replicate it in other places. It also, though, does fuel a little bit of that fire in me that gets mad. Everywhere should look like this. And so it's that reminder of what we've lost, and there's something that's motivating in that. This is why we're fighting because nature has not given up. These corals have not given up. The fish were enormous and everywhere. It was magical. I mean, it was absolutely idyllic. I will never forget the feeling, the visceral sense of that joyous elation where you just brought to tears. The world underwater every week. I'm Francesca Trotman, and I'm the founder of Luffy Oceans.

SPEAKER_03 24:35

And you're listening to the Deeper Blue Podcast. And action. When I say action, that means you're supposed to say something.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Oh, okay. Okay. So, Jason, season two of the Deep Blue Podcast is brought to you by Suntor.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

Suntor.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Today we want to have a quick chat about these dive computers look damn good, I have to say, these days. They're not these big clunky massive war clock strapped to your arm wrist type thing that I used to remember diving 25 years ago with. These are really nice. And uh the the D5 Copper, which I think comes out, came out yesterday, right? From the 15th of February. Yeah. So it came out yesterday. This is one really nice looking piece of equipment.

SPEAKER_03 25:30

Right. Well, that's important to me because uh obviously, as you know, I'm an extremely good-looking man. And so when I go diving, what I like nothing more is to walk out of the water and straight to the back rat table. You've been doing quiet while I I said that I was very good looking. You didn't respond.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

So professional journalist here, Jason. It's always always good about listening to what people say. So the the good thing is I do remember in season one you referred to yourself as a piece of flotsam. So you you've upgraded yourself to Daniel Craig, James Bond, 007.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

Uh you're gonna have to work on Gionery.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

We're gonna have to work on both your British and French accents for that to work, I'm afraid.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

Well, I did I did say I was a piece of flotsam. I'm like a piece of seaweed wrapped around deadwood floating in the in the surge. So that's my that's more of my dive technique.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Okay. Well, at least you can look good whilst doing it with a D5 copper strapped to your wrist, right?

SPEAKER_03 26:24

There is something to be said. You know, there's a lot of smartphones and smart watches out there. There is something nice about identifying with an adventure watch like Cinto, like a dive watch. There's something about having that on your wrist that kind of keeps you connected to the ocean in a way when you're not there. I really do like that.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

And I think one final thing I'd say on this point is there's been numerous times where I've looked over and seen someone wearing a dive computer smartwatch like the Cinto D5, and give that knowing look, yeah, that wink and a knowing look, and then you start our conversation about diving because you know that they're a diver. On that note.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

Yeah, thank you for sponsoring Cinto.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Thanks, Cinto.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

Today's dive tip comes from Rosie Baincroft, a Great Britain paraswimmer and a zoologist who gives a tip for a unique part of the dive community.

SPEAKER_04 27:17

I'm Rosie. I was a Great Britain paraswimmer. I'm missing my leg. I'm a zoologist and a scuba diver. One of the biggest questions I get asked is what do I need to help me swim? Or how do I dive with one leg? How do I swim with one leg? And my top tip for anybody who has missing a leg, missing an arm, has anything maybe that they think could be a limitation on them to dive or to swim is that you do not need anything. I do not need anything. I don't have any special tricks up my sleeve, I just have one fin and it works pretty well for me. So that's my top tip.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Finally, every episode we share a story from you, the dive community, where we ask you to tell us about your best dive ever.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Hi, this is Bill Beard from Bill Beards, Costa Rica. I have been diving in Costa Rica since 1970, and my best dive day ever would have to be on New Year's Eve day a few years back. Conditions were perfect, no wind, no rain, and the water temperature was a great 80 degrees. Me, my wife, and ten friendly Texans were headed to the Bad Islands, hoping to see the bull sharks at the big scare. We had barely begun our descent when we spotted an enormous bull shark known as freight train. That set the tone right away. We knew it was going to be a great dive. Soon we had sixteen to twenty bull sharks coming at us from all directions. Divers were pumping their fists and whooping and hollering through their rigs, and we swam through a huge school of horse eye jacks and spotted two giant Pacific mantra rays. And returning to the boat we saw four sailfish. Everyone was buzzing about the great dive and enjoying some fresh pineapple when we double hooked a Mahi Mahi and a yellowfin tuna. As they were being reeled in, a humpback whale breached near the stern. No one knew which way to look. There was so much going on. Knowing we had dinner in the cooler, we gave high fives all around and headed to the next dive site. And Black Rock didn't disappoint. It was filled with numerous schools of fish and a huge squadron of eagle rays. Near the end of the dive, a whale shark hung around with us for almost fifteen minutes. Divers were grinning from ear to ear. And back on the beach we enjoyed a hot shower, a cold beer, and a great meal from our fresh catch. It was the epitome of why we love this business. Great diving, tremendous marine life, and happy clients. Who could ask for more?

SPEAKER_01 30:01

We'd love to hear your story about diving. So at the end of the show, you'll find out all the info you need to submit your best dive ever. Thanks for listening to the Deeper Blue Podcast. Find out more on all the stories you've heard this week, plus connect to the world's largest online dive community at deeperblue.com. And if you like what you've heard, please subscribe, like, and comment wherever you hear your podcasts. These comments and subscribes really make a difference. Before we go, I want to give a big shout out to Jason Elias, our producer. In case you didn't know, he has an amazing podcast about people who have a deep connection to our world's oceans. Connections strong enough that they've dedicated some part of their lives to being in or working on behalf of the water. Take a listen when you get a moment to Jason's show, the Big Deep Podcast. Every week, we want to hear your stories and share them with the world. So please record and send in your short story of your best dive ever. Keep it brief, no longer than two minutes, please. And in it, tell us your name and location, where you were on the dive, what happened that make it so great, and why it's meant so much to you. You can get that over to us at bestdiveever at deeperblue.com or head to our website podcast.deeperblue.com forward slash best dive ever. Join us again next week and explore much more of the deeper blue.