BSAC Advanced Instructor Course

March 2009

Dive Deep Blue, Malta

Marine Life Recognition during a Dive

Mick Peakman

OWI 5367

Dive Deep Blue

IntroductionOne of the great pleasures of diving for many people is to see marine life in its’ natural environment.

There are thousands of different species of fish, hundreds of different types of coral, sponges & so on, so how can we possibly recognise them all?

The answer is, of course, that we can’t!

What we can do is to recognise classes & families by their unique features & where we might find them. That way we start to build up our knowledge of marine life & increase our diving pleasure.

Marine Life

• The subject of todays lecture is Marine Life Recognition during a dive.

• I will be concentrating on diving in the Mediterranean.

Classification• All creatures are identified by Class, Order,

Family, Genera & finally Species.

Stationary Marine Life

Slow moving Marine Life A diver could catch it

Fast moving Marine Life No chance!

• We are going to look at three types of Marine Life.

Recognition• Demersal

Starfish, sea cucumber, Gunard. Some slow, some fast.

Barracuda, Damsel fish, Jacks, Groupers. All fast moving.

• Pelagic

Flying GunardBarracuda

Bottom dwelling Mid-water dwelling

Recognition

• Benthic

Sea urchin, sea fan, neptune grass, sponges.

Sea Urchin Sponges

Attached to bottom

Stationary marine life

Examples include Sponges, tube worms, grasses, sea fans, anemones & sea urchins.

Tube Worm Sea Urchin

Moving marine life

• Slow moving creaturesFish, eels, rays, octopus.

• Fast moving creaturesStarfish, Sea Horse, Snail.

Sea HorseEagle Ray

Marine Identification

Moray EelConger

• Eels Snake like.

Marine Identification

Ornate Wrasse

• Wrasse Often brightly coloured.

Marine Identification

White or Saddled Bream

• Bream Silvery colour, often banded.

Marine Identification

Scorpion fish

• Scorpion fishWell camouflaged in grasses, timid.

Raised dorsal fin when threatened.

Marine Identification

Starfish• Starfish Five legs, star shaped.

Marine Identification

Jelly fish

• Jelly fish Jelly like with long trailing tentacles.

Marine Identification

• Cuttlefish Chameleon, hovers in water, no fish-like fins.

Cuttlefish

• Today we have looked at how we can recognise Marine Life during a dive.

Summary

• Many thousands of fish species.

• Marine life can be classed into three habitat types.

• Are there any questions?

• Many hundreds of coral, sponges & grasses.

• Need to recognise family features including physical & habitat.

• What does this mean?

BSAC Advanced Instructor Course

March 2009

Dive Deep Blue, Malta

Thank you for listening

Mick Peakman