Sardine Run - by Sasha!

Forget the Sharks - these birds are lethal!

The man is just insatiable!

Having just digested his latest portfolio from Fiji, here comes a batch from South Africa!
I'm of course talking about Alexander Safonov, aka patsOn, aka Sasha, good friend, very (!) suspect financial markets geek, prolific blogger and above all, gifted and ever more successful UW photographer. Ever since discovering his pics when he first came to Fiji, I've been a great fan of his talent and his perseverance - as have obviously others!

This I believe is his second foray to the Sardine Run - or is it his third?
Anyway, like in Fiji, the pics keep getting better - whether due to experience, luck or his new mega-super-duper wideangle lens, or all of the above!
Or is it the fact that like in Fiji, he's becoming ever more reckless in risking his life when confronting the surrounding army of big predators, close and personal - especially the Piranha-like killer Gannets, pictured above?

Just kidding!
The man is no fool and the descriptions are probably good marketing by the agent, garnished with a dash of the inevitable and endearing Russian heroism!

Well done мой друг - and come back soon!

The Gaijin

Well I had to wait for a couple of days for him to upload his latest pictures -and I hear, more are in the pipeline- but I can finally reveal the winner of the Sea&Sea photo contest: non other than the very same patsOn i blogged about in February!

All I can say that Alexander has managed to even surpass his previous feats and turn out a new portfolio of our Sharks that is truly exceptional. You best click on the pix in order to see them in their full glory.

And luckily for us ignoramuses of Cyrillic, his new Fiji blog includes captions in English, enabling us to follow his adventures about camera-biting Tigers (not quite, she barely sniffed) and haircut giving Bull Sharks (quite so).

Having had to personally yank him back from some radical positions in January, this time he behaved like a lamb and was thus upgraded to pole position: very intense but as you can see, the Sharks have a full mouth and are only concerned with getting out of the way.

That's Rusi's shoe by the way.
Just kidding. As far as I know, the last time anybody in Fiji tried to eat a shoe was in 1867 when the fiery reverend Baker met his untimely death inside a lovo. The shoe was chewed on but finally, and I bet, grudgingly rejected and now adorns the display of the Suva museum.

Anyway, haircuts or not, Alexander is quickly becoming a hardened pro, as witnessed by his mind-blowing pictures of this year's Sardine Run: this is high-adrenaline action and hanging out there solo diving in the Big Blue surrounded by feeding predators is nothing for the faint of heart.
But look at the results! This is quite in the league of Doug Perrine's award-winning 2004 picture on the right (yes Sasha, it is, and I know that you'll be pleased by this comment).
As always, well done!!!

So, what's the next step in his quest for perfection?
We just e-mailed and he's come up with a tentative idea of turning the Take-Out into sort of an underwater studio. Certainly possible as much of what we do is carefully choreographed and thus predictable - but watch out for upcoming tales of big Sharks absconding with expensive strobes and the like!
Not that Sasha would have to worry as he's likely to bag many more goodies by swamping the Photo contests with his killer shots!

Looking forward to it - it'll sure be interesting to set up and even more fun to watch!

Bull Shark Mania!

The prime Bull Shark season is in full swing and the first batches of killer shots for 2008 are already starting to populate the world wide web.


The Running of the Bulls has exceeded even our wildest anticipations, with over 30 Bull Sharks turning up on every dive. Our record so far: 36 fish heads gone in 28 minutes, then the fish bin was empty and the show over.
With the exception of Kinky and Long John who usually turn up later in the year (beats me why, but that's the pattern), all of the usual suspects have already made an appearance and are busy teaching the proper etiquette -don't rush, come in from the left- to the newbies.
Word seems to be spreading that Shark Reef is the place to be and the numbers of newcomers are truly staggering, ranging from several big females to dozens of sub-adults fresh from the nursing areas. This is a big challenge for the feeders as especially the small teenage males display much, eh, attitude and always try to rush in for a quick snap. Makes Whitenose, our longest lasting regular male, look placid by comparison!
Talk about intense!

Any Tiger Sharks?
You bet, especially huge and mellow Scarface, always an awesome and amazing experience.

Also present Whitetail the Lemon Shark who doesn't stop getting bigger and loves spooking the guests. Giant Groupers Ratu Rua and Ratu Tolu with their escort of Golden Trevallies. And all of the "lesser" characters, amongst which for the first time an elusive male (!) Silvertip Shark and of course the ever troublesome Gray Reef Shark duo of Bevis and Tootsie.

Juerg of course is having one hell of a time.
The adjacent reefs are littered with acoustic receivers and the data are coming in fast and furious. Plus, we're learning about dominance, field testing the latest generation of sat tags, evaluating our huge database and ever refining our procedures.
All very very cool, and loads of fun in the process!

And what about the other reefs out there?
Despite having been pummeled by the tail ends of not one, but two Tropical Cyclones that sandblasted some of the popular dive sites like Side Street and one of the wrecks and despite the mild La Nina conditions favoring an outbreak of Crown of Thorns Starfish, Beqa Lagoon never ceases to provide for exhilarating coral dives and amazing encounters.

Take this little guy for example, one of maybe a dozen ever photographed worldwide.
Dubbed the Hairy, or Irish Setter Ghost Pipefish, it is so elusive that it hasn't even been described, i.e. scientifically named yet!

The pictures in this blog are from patsOn 2.0's fabulos Blog "dreams and nightmares of beqa lagoon". PatsOn was with us at the beginning of January, not a photo pro by any stretch of the immagination and best described as "self effacing": but what a truly gifted photographer!
Do you speak Russian? Me neither, but Alta Vista helped me to at least get the gist ("Benga of lagoons awaits you!") of the informative, emotional and humorous descriptions.

All I can say is: Whow!!!
Very, very well done and спасибо vakalevu!