A Dive Back In Time - The Chambered Nautilus

Linda with a beautiful Chambered Nautilus 









A dive with Sam's Tours, yesterday, promised to be special

We had to wait for two weeks for enough interested divers to sign up with us for the Chambered Nautilus Dive. This is not your typical dive. As you can see we were able to hold, stare at, play with and safely return several Chambered nautilus, Nautilus pompilius, to their natural environment.

These animals, relatives of the octopus, and squid have an ancestry that goes back 400 million years. There are only six species remaining, but in their hayday, some 10,000 species existed. These guys are OLD!

The divemaster shown here, was part of a team that lowered  a stainless steel cage 900 feet below the surface the day before the dive. In the cage a whole chicken was offered as a tasty meal for the Nautilus. (Note: Chambered Nautilus can dive as deep as 1800 feet and come close to surface to feed. Their eggs are laid on the reef and can take up 12 months to mature.)

The day of the dive, the dive boat is joined by a second vessel at the dive site. The dive boat ties stern-to a mooring and a block is placed on its bow. The line from the cage is passed through the block to the bow of the second vessel and it reverses pulling the line through the block thus raising the cage. At thirty feet the cage is set atop the reef and divers drop to handle the creatures. 

Bill:  Eye To Eye With The Past

When done, the nautilus are placed back in the cage and lowered to a depth that protects them from predators and the cage is opened allowing them to swim free. We hope that from their point of view, the free meal was worth putting up with the admiring humans.