Diving Micronesia with local tropical fish collectors.

[kryppy]

Truly incredible diving. The visibility is infinite!

SD version:

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HD version:
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[aquavista99]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing :thumbsup:

 

[trueperc]

Wow, thanks for sharing that. Just curious to what they where doing to the fish. It looked like they where using some pin thing and poking the butterflies?

 

[Tahoe69]

Sick video!

 

[ViPeR_930]

Awesome video!

Wow, thanks for sharing that. Just curious to what they where doing to the fish. It looked like they where using some pin thing and poking the butterflies?

They're releasing the pressure in the swim bladder. If you look closely, you'll notice a lot of the fish swim kinda funny since they haven't had the pressure equalized yet. At 100 ft deep the pressure is 3x greater (or 4x?)than at the surface.

 

[Rennsport]

Wow, thanks for sharing that. Just curious to what they where doing to the fish. It looked like they where using some pin thing and poking the butterflies?

Wonder if this was to relieve pressure from being brought up from those depths?

 

[kryppy]

Awesome video!

They're releasing the pressure in the swim bladder. If you look closely, you'll notice a lot of the fish swim kinda funny since they haven't had the pressure equalized yet. At 100 ft deep the pressure is 3x greater (or 4x?)than at the surface.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

And you are spot on that they were releasing pressure from the swim bladder. I have some great footage of that but as I suspected, it does not go over well with the environmental crowd....

A guy on Scubaboard yelled at me and pointed out a link that showed that the "barbaric" practice was banned in Hawaii.

I would say only about 10% of the fish needed it. They had them at 30 feet for a few hours before actually bringing them up to the boat. Apparently both the fish and the divers were decompressing. Each of the collectors did three tanks in a row at 120-140ft and a fourth at 30ft for about 2 1/2 hours! No computers or dive tables in use there. haha

I have just posted another.

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[kryppy]

One more.

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[billsreef]

Great video :thumbsup:

In regards to needle decompression, it's fairly common to get fish direct from the importer that develop abdominal and swim bladder infections as a result Most die within a few days of import, especially the ones with swim bladder issues that can't control their buoyancy.

 

[snorvich]

Each of the collectors did three tanks in a row at 120-140ft and a fourth at 30ft for about 2 1/2 hours! No computers or dive tables in use there.

Definitely not recommended diving practice. With constant diving, it seems that the "slow" tissues take on nitrogen and release it faster. Still, not a safe practice.

 

[tiggerjustice]

Wow, That is incredible. Makes me miss diving. Thanks for posting!

 

[slapshot]

Thanks for sharing. certainly blows away my deep dives. It's a wonder more of them don't suffer from decompression sickness. As for the fish and the swim bladder well I guess it's better than being eaten. It is good for us to know what they go through so we appreciate them in the store a little more.