Touring the Blue World

The emotionless seas were relatively calm despite the light winds, the navy waves not too big or choppy for the dinky little boat and its handful of crew. One by one the divers entered the cool water, each of them fully equipped and ready to go deep. Every time a diver enters, an eruption of white water splotches the surface of the vast blue expanse like a mini volcano eruption, before disappearing in a cloud of bubbles. On the surface, one would describe the Blue World as an azure desert, no signs of anything but a few seagulls squawking their repetitive call as they hovered in the air. The same could not be said about the reef below. As the divers submerged themselves, they are teleported into a world of living color. Massive coral spires of all shapes, sizes, and color dot the seascape as fish of equal variation dart in and out and all around. The few small gaps of real estate between the coral were quickly and thoroughly covered in all manner of sea grass and sea ferns. This is the Blue World most people are familiar with in the picture books and documentaries. Luckily these waters remain unaffected by encroaching disasters that have befallen the surrounding reefs. That luck will soon run out though, as it does not take the divers long to reach the edge of what some locals call the boarder of death. True to its description, the bleached coral’s white hue is a stark contrast to the vibrantly colored, healthy, living coral. It is almost as if the reef is haunted by its dead relatives, surrounded by their pale ghosts and white unliving corpses.

All is not lost though, as conservation efforts have deemed this area protected and any human visitors to this particular Blue World have to follow strict guidelines. These efforts have only one drawback though, funding. It takes massive amounts of funding to get just one lawmaker to put in place the protection, and even more funding to enforce those laws. Still, poachers and ‘picker-uppers’ take from the reef with no qualms about how it will replenish itself. ‘My great grandfather fished these waters for years and my great grandchildren will do the same,’ a lot of them complain. Some would even be so bold as to claim that there is no environmental problem with our oceans, and this is all a big hoax as they stubbornly ignore what the divers clearly now see.

Swimming two by two the divers trace the edge of the healthy reef. The pair in front seems to know what they are doing as they are focused with their heads straight forward, while everyone behind them scan in all directions. Educational efforts like these dive tours ensure the protection racket continues, while simultaneously raising awareness of what is clearly not a political hoax. The guides lead the group in a circle around the ever-decreasing boarder until they all return to the starting point. One of the guides made the hand gesture to everyone to check their oxygen levels. The glitz and glamor of Hollywood would have you think that a single tank can last several hours when the truth is it can barely last one. Almost everyone in the group were at about 25%, and since the first rule of scuba diving is to always play it safe, the tour group ascended slowly to the surface. From the perspective of the fish, the humans all rose like angels with bubble ring halos to the heavens beyond the water.

Back on the small tour boat, the divers all grabbed sweet and salty snacks and refreshing drinking water to refuel their bodies while the crew worked on refilling their oxygen tanks. With the efficiency of a machine assembly line the workers got every single tank ready to go within 15 minutes and the divers were back in the blue in another 5. For the second dive session the tour guides lead the group through the reef, choosing to follow an old lava tube the guides knew would provide a lot of great photo opportunities. While the experienced divers had no issues maintaining smooth formation, the more touristy, first-time divers struggled to maintain their excitement and started bumping into everyone else like children trying to cut the line. It really did not bother the more experienced divers too much…that is until they spotted the shark. There was no immediate danger as it was still mid-day and the reef sharks only hunt for food at night. No, this little guy was happily snoozing under a cave recess. The problem was that larges rocks blocked off the small area the divers were going thru, so essentially the shark was cornered when all the inexperienced divers scrambled to get close and take a picture. The first idiot’s camera flash startled the shark and it bolted out from its cover like a torpedo, heading straight for one the divers that blocked it. Luckily this diver was experienced enough and knowledgeable enough about sharks to know what was going to happen and had already started backing away. As the shark swiftly swam towards him all he had to do was turn his body, creating a small opening for the shark to take advantage of. The diver was rewarded for his level-headed efforts as he got to get an up-close look at the animal that many others would probably deem too close for comfort. The young man however, would always cherish that experience as one of his favorite diving memories, despite the fact that he almost got bitten by a shark because of human stupidity.

The whole incident was not ignored by the dive masters though, as they both silently agreed to lead the group out of the tightly confide spaces of the lava tubes and into more open water. They were just about ready to head back to the surface when something caught one of the guides eyes. With practiced speed the dive leader jetted past his partner and shot out his arms to grab at something. All the other divers watched with curiosity as the guy struggled with whatever it is that he caught. When it seemed like he was done he turned his head back to his partner and gave two hand gestures. The first was just his index finger held up, the second a wave of his hand in a come-hither motion. He was trying to communicate to the group ‘one at a time’. As each one approach, the guy repeated a single hand gesture of an open hand closing and opening up again…like an octopus. Sure enough, a tiny cephalopod no bigger than a golf ball squirmed in the guides hands, still trying to worm his way out. Everyone seemed to enjoy the encounter and even eventually the small creature seemed to understand that the group posed no intentional danger to him as he even let a couple other divers hold him. He was a bit slimy and soft but still cute when he would wrap his little tentacles around a diver’s finger. When the time came to leave him be, the octopus did not waste any time and jutted into a small crack between two rocks, happy to be safe again.

As the group surfaced for the last time and loaded onto the boat, there were cheers and jeers of what they all got to experience, each one not wanting to go back to land just yet. As the diesel fumes permeated the air with the starting of the engines, the group laughed and shared stories about the whole experience while they all changed out of their dive suits and back into their civilian clothes. It was a great day for touring the Blue World.