I
T’S MURKY DOWN THERE,so I switch on my
torch. This does a marvellous job of highlighting
a host of underwater snottiness. It feels like
descending through a snowstorm. I’m wondering
whether I’ll be able to spot the wreck at all.
I can make out the end of the shotline, snagged
against a rock on the seabed. Drat! It’s dark, the vis
isn’t so great and there’s no dragline in the seabed
to show the way.
I block the light from my torch and signal to my
buddy to do the same. It takes a moment for our
eyes to adjust to the gloom. We look upwards and
around, hoping for a clue.
Something moved. I turn my torch towards it,
there are brief flashes of silver – follow those fish!
I tie a line onto the shot and reel off in the same
direction as the shoal. Thirty seconds later, metal
debris on the seabed tells us we’re on track. The wreck’s ahead.
Fish and ships – it’s a great combination; it just helped to save the
dive. However, following fish isn’t recommended on any wreck-
finding training. The very idea is likely to be dismissed as codswallop.
D
ESPITE APPEARANCES,fish aren’t entirely stupid creatures.
Perhaps more accurately, fish behaviour is fairly predictable,
and it’s divers who fear appearing stupid if they follow them.
Yet anyone with an interest in catching fish has no qualms about
using the fact that fish love to shoal around wrecks.
A wreck is the fishy equivalent of a shopping mall for bored
teenagers: it’s a point to which they seem irresistibly drawn. Why
should it be so hard for divers to follow fish?
By way of contrast, here is a more acceptable version of how you
should hunt for an object under water. Start at a central, fixed point –
the shotline is best.
Line out to a reasonable distance and lock your reel. Create a
visible mark in the seabed. Then perform a 360° sweep all the way
around your central point, searching as you go.
If you don’t find the object, but you do find your own marker,
you’ve completed 360°. Increase the fixed distance and repeat.
Basically, this means swimming around in very big circles holding
a piece of string. It might sound reassuringly logical, but I’ve tried it
and it’s pants.
There is little fun to be had while finning around in semi-darkness,
clutching your torch and reel. There’s every chance you’ll miss or
forget whatever mark you made at the start, unless you spend the
whole time staring intently at the largely featureless seabed to find it.
Your wreck-spotting effectiveness has plummeted.
After a short while, you start to feel spooked and increasingly
annoyed about using up your gas and bottom-time swimming
around in wonky circles.
It’s easier to let the fish find the way. But possibly best to keep
quiet about it. Because once we’re back on the boat, there is
consternation about the shot being off the wreck, and questions
about how the wreck was located.
“It was the fish,” I explained. “I couldn’t see what kind, but they
shoaled me the way.”
There was a moment of shocked pause before the skipper chipped
in: “That’s pollacks.”
Have faith
in Cod
LOUISETREWAVAS
47 divEr