ある年のマナティーズダイビングログ　その4
2001年　平成13年

Diving at Nishi Izu in Japan

By Dennis Entriken.

October 2001. Ring! Ring! Ring! "Manatees Desu" said Yama-san.
"Hi! This is Dennis", I said. "I am an Australian who has just arrived
here in Japan and I want to do lots of diving!!!". (^-^)/

One of the places I dived while in Japan was Osezaki. Osezaki,

Nishi Izu, was a strange sight for me. I have never seen hundreds of
divers spread out along a small beach like this before. It was like a
penguin colony or a seal colony, except with scuba divers. I imagined
that there was traffic lights underwater to direct all the divers around
the divesite so they did not bump into each other. And the shallow
entry/exit area at Wannai was a washing machine with visibility
measured in centimetres, not metres. But once you cleared the hoards
of divers and dived beyond the drop-off, the visibility opened up and
you saw some really cool things such as flying gurnards, scorpionfish,
stonefish, stargazers, flutemouth, cuttlefish, pufferfish, sole, schooling
catfish, sea hares, and crabs. The area reminded me a bit of a 'muck
diving' divesite in Southern Sydney, Australia, called "ShipRock".

My favourite divesite at Osezaki, Nishi Izu, is Sentan.
The thing I love about this divesite are the huge schools of small fish
of different colours, sizes, and species which are everywhere in the
shallower depths. It reminded me a bit of diving at pixie pinnacle on
the Great Barrier Reef, Far North Queensland, Australia. At Sentan
I also saw a school of squid, and some tuna hunting among the schools
of smaller pelagic fish.

The diving in Japan is lots of fun, but it is the great people you meet
when diving who really add to the total diving experience. I hope to
see you all diving in Australia one day!!! o(^-^)o

take care (^-^)/

Dennis Entriken PADI DM-468599