The Little Fish That’s Scarier Than Sharks

Triggerfish: One of the most dangerous fishes in the ocean that you’ve never heard of.

I'm ready for my close-up: Triggerfish

If you’re going scuba diving, there’s a good chance you’ll see some sharks. For most divers like myself, that’s something really exciting and to be honest I get a bit disappointed if I don’t see any. I won’t pretend my heart doesn’t beat a bit faster when I see that distinctive fin and see how powerfully they move in the water. But in all honesty, it’s triggerfish that concern me more than sharks when I’m diving. 

Triggerfish have strong jaws and teeth designed for crushing shells and can be very persistent and very aggressive, but strangely they’re a little-known marine hazard in tropical and sub-tropical waters around the world. Maybe that’s because a movie about something that looks like this (below) wouldn’t be half as scary as ‘Jaws’...

Triggerfish come in all shapes and sizes, this is a Clown Triggerfish

Triggerfish come in all kinds of colours and sizes but all triggerfish share a few common characteristics. These include a compressed oval body-shape and small eyes set far back from the mouth. The mouth is small but they have a very powerful jaw. Strong enough, in fact, to be able to crush shells and crustaceans. While Picasso triggerfish only grow up to 30cm in size, titan triggerfish can grow up to 75cm/30 inches, and so a bite from a titan triggerfish can cause more damage. They are most aggressive during nesting season, but attacks aren’t only limited to this period.

Wait, I’m not here to try to scare you about triggerfish! I’m fighting in the shark corner,  and trying to explain why there are other species that get fewer headlines but are more of a concern. It’s good to put concerns into context, plus it doesn’t hurt to be clued up on potential marine hazards so you know how to deal with problems if they arise.

The first time I was attacked by a triggerfish

The first time I was attacked was when I snorkelling in the Maldives. I was blissfully unaware of any problems until I suddenly felt a sharp, deep bite on the end of my finger. “Shark!” I thought to myself. Then turned around to see a pretty little blue, yellow and white fish looking at me. I could hardly believe it was the perpetrator, but I recognised it as a Picasso Triggerfish (I see where the name ‘Picasso’ triggerfish comes from: it looks like the colours are splashed across them like a piece of modern art).

Picasso Triggerfish: Looks innocent enough

The second time I was attacked by a triggerfish was while I scuba diving with my then-scuba instructor boyfriend, when a Titan Triggerfish started chasing me. He pulled off a fin to bat the fish away and gestured to me to move away, then it started trying to attack him for several minutes until we managed to get away by swimming backwards whilst facing it and kicking our fins at it. 

I've had a few more run-ins with triggerfish since then too, which has left me with a healthy degree of respect and caution.

Warning behaviour and what to do if you're attacked

Typical indications that a triggerfish is getting upset with you is that it holds its first dorsal spine erect or possibly rolls onto its side to take a better look at you. The best thing to do if you come across and agitated triggerfish or get attacked by one is to kick it away with your fins and try to move horizontally as far away from that area as you can because triggerfish are very territorial (particularly, although not exclusively, during nesting season). However, they never stray far from the nest site, no matter how narked they are. Their territory is a cone-shaped area stretching all the way from the seafloor up to the surface, so trying to escape to the surface is not a good idea (and let's face it, it’s never a good idea anyway if you’re scuba diving!!).

I was lucky that the ones that attacked me weren’t too big but Titan triggerfish can grow up to 30 inches in length (and almost that in width) which is why they give me the heebie-jeebies. That and their creepy eyes, which have independently-rotating eye sockets!

Ugly Titan Triggerfish: No swipes right

However, it’s worth noting that sometimes they will just charge aggressively and not actually take a chunk out of you. And some of them do look very nice (just maybe not the Titan Triggerfish!). Titan triggerfish are much less attractive than the other varieties, and they are best identified by their yellow face, fins and body set against a background of blue-grey, with a blue-grey throat and prominent eye area.

Other varieties of triggerfish

Triggerfish varieties have all kinds of colours and patterns, including the red-toothed triggerfish (which is deep blue with a scarlet mouth) and the beautifully-patterned orange-lined triggerfish. The fact they vary so much in appearance can make it a bit hard to separate them from just a normal reef fish.

Just act natural, OK: Orange-lined Triggerfish

The Picasso triggerfish is another a very eye-catching variety (see the third pic in this article). If you’ve never seen one before you’ll know it when you see it - they seem as though they were decorated by the great Spanish artist himself, with bold flashes of turquoise and yellow contrasting with muted tones of brown, black and grey.

Another striking variety is the clown triggerfish (not to be confused with the cute orange clownfish from ‘Finding Nemo’. As with the Picasso triggerfish, it’s pretty clear to see how they got their name. With bands of yellow and white around a clown-like mouth; large round spots on the belly and leopard-like spots around the first dorsal fin, this fish certainly is the most amusing-looking fish of its family.

Yellow-spotted triggerfish go by several alternative names including blue triggerfish, rippled triggerfish or blue-and-gold triggerfish. If there were an inappropriate juvenile beauty pageant for triggerfish, juvenile yellow-spotted triggerfish would probably be the winner. The juveniles are a yellow-gold colour with a beautiful pattern of bright blue lines running across them, and electric blue fins. These lines merge as they grow older, resulting in adults with a predominantly blue appearance. 

Juvenile blue triggerfish: If there were an inappropriate juvenile triggerfish beauty pageant, these would win the crown

Habitat and Diet

Triggerfish are carnivorous bottom-dwellers which prey on things like worms, crabs, crustaceans, small fish and even sea urchins (which they flip over in order to attack their bellies which are covered in fewer spines). When attacking prey, they flap their fins and squirt water from their mouths to waft away debris. 

Nesting

Although triggerfish are largely solitary creatures they come together at traditional mating sites at certain times. The males prepare nests on the seafloor where the females lay thousands of eggs. Whilst the eggs are developing in the nests both sexes blow water on them at intervals in order to keep them well-supplied with oxygen. 

And finally, back to sharks!

I’m not here to tell you there’s no risk at all from sharks (they are apex predators and you accept that when you venture into their territory) but if you look at the statistics, shark attacks are extremely rare, especially compared to triggerfish attacks. Especially when you think of the millions of people every day who swim, snorkel, dive, fish and wash in the oceans around the world every day.

You’re actually statistically more likely to die from taking a selfie, being hit by a champagne cork or falling out of bed. Sharks are thought to kill about eight to 10 people per year. That’s less than hippos (500), snakes (50,000), other humans (475,000) and the number one killer in the animal kingdom, mosquitoes (725,000).

And if you crunch the numbers on shark-related deaths, scuba divers are the least likely to be victims: 8% of shark-related deaths compared to surfers (51%) and swimmers or waders (38%). A marine biologist told me sharks can get confused occasionally by surfers because surfers look like turtles from below, but that divers are safer because they don’t spend much as time on the surface (sharks like to attack prey from beneath). She added that blowing bubbles is a sign of aggression amongst marine creatures, and since we have a constant stream of bubbles from our regulators, it makes us seem more badass. I've spoken to various other diving instructors and marine biologists about this too and they all reflected the same sentiments.

 Some Random Triggerfish Facts

• A group of triggerfish is called a harem. This is because in some species, the males have been observed keeping a ‘harem’ of female mates. (Not much changes then).

• Triggerfish can rotate each of their eyeballs independently.

• There are about 40 species of triggerfish around the world 

• Triggerfish take their name from the two sets of dorsal spines which have two purposes: The first set is to deter predators and to ‘lock’ themselves into holes and crevices. They then depress the smaller ‘trigger’ (spine) to ‘unlock’ themselves.

• Scientists have noted a level of intelligence in triggerfish which is not usually observed in other fish. They are able to learn from previous experiences. (Watch out, they’ll be taking over when the revolution comes!)

Learning to Scuba Dive (Part 3)

This is Part Three of the three articles I wrote each night after returning home during the process of learning to dive during 2012. Click here for Part One and Part Two here. Everybody says you should learn to scuba dive, but nobody else actually writes about the process - what you have to do, what you learn and how you get tested. Read on to find out about the day I qualified!

Learning to scuba dive is one of the best things I ever did. You see turtles, reef fish, sharks and rays almost every time

I can’t believe how quickly the final day of my PADI course came around! But then again, they do say time flies when you’re having fun. Day Three began today with me practically skipping down the road with excitement on my way to Into Scuba Dive School in Hulhumale in the Maldives. 

I brought with me some tea and biscuits for my Instructor Thomas Badstubner and his awesome team of staff to help to re-stock their kitchen after getting through so many during the classroom theory lessons! I left the theory part behind yesterday when I began my confined water dives. Today I was ready for two open water dives. The first dive was to involve practising a few more skills and the second was set aside just to purely enjoy the reef at one of the best dive sites in the area, Banana Reef.

Heading to Banana Reef 

We set off from the dive school just after lunch on the boat, heading for dive site number one, Small Maa Giri. A ‘giri’ is a kind of submerged island which hasn’t risen above the water level yet. This is the site which I also previously visited on Thursday as part of my training. 

Every day I’ve been feeling more and more confident thanks to the encouragement from my Instructor, Thomas. He’s been a truly awesome teacher, and hit just the balance of getting the important messages across without making it heavy going, plus he threw in some jokes for good measure which made everything even more enjoyable. Yes, he's a funny German.

This is me, looking pretty chill on a dive by this stage! (Dive buddy is trying to show me something)

I couldn’t wait to get started so we jumped into the water. We had a look around at some of the coral and reef fish before getting stuck into practising some more underwater skills. The exercises included repeating some things which I did before such as taking my mask off, replacing it and blowing air out through my nose to force all of the water back out of the mask again. We also did some navigation skills. Thomas had showed me while we were on the boat how to use the compass and now that we were underwater he asked me to follow the compass and swim in a northerly direction for a certain distance while he followed close to me, then we turned and I navigated back again due south.

Turtle power

After this we explored Small Maa Giri some more, and came across a green turtle and a hawksbill turtle. Thomas also pointed out a scorpion fish to me which was extremely well camouflaged against the rocks. I guess that the more you dive the easier it gets to spot the wildlife! We slowly made our way to the surface to practice some more skills which included repeating the exercise of taking my weight belt off and putting it back on again, and also taking off my BCD (buoyancy control device) and then sitting on the cylinder and bobbing on the waves while I strapped it back on again.

We then headed directly to the second dive of the day, Banana Reef. The dive site is famous (not only in the Maldives but also overseas) for being particularly abundant with fish (and that’s saying a lot in the Maldives, where the underwater world is crammed with aquatic life!). It’s also noted for the beautiful hard and soft corals, overhangs and caves which all in all make it a really interesting site to explore. You may be wondering why it’s called Banana Reef, it’s because it’s shaped like a banana.  

Well, Banana Reef certainly didn’t disappoint us. There were magnificent table corals stretching away into the distance and as we went deeper there were all kinds of exciting overhangs, crevices and caves to look at, covered in coral and hiding all kinds of surprises including a particularly big puffer fish which was a beautiful bright yellow colour instead of the dull brown they more commonly are. 

We found Dory

Finding Dory 

We also saw a beautiful blue tang fish (if you don’t know what this is, think of Dory in Finding Nemo). Thomas said that this type of fish is very common in Australia but pretty rare in the Maldives. The corals were predominantly red and pink, in all kinds of beautiful shapes. I felt relaxed as we swam along taking in the scenery, but also exhilarated at the same time. This was why I wanted to learn to dive – the underwater world is truly amazing!

I'm now a certified Open Water scuba diver!

It was almost the end of my final dive – well, my final dive on my PADI course but certainly not my final dive ever! Thomas shook my hand to congratulate me and unfurled a banner for me to hold saying “Well done, you are now a PADI Open Water diver!” and I had my photo taken. What an experience. Three days of learning and fun have zoomed by. I’ve completed my PADI Open Water course and am now a certified diver!

If you’ve ever thought about learning to dive, you must do it or you’ll always regret not trying. Apart from being heaps of fun you get a newfound confidence and a real sense if achievement from it. I've been on over 100 dives since then and become a PADI Advanced Scuba Diver...Next step, Rescue Diver! 

Learning to Scuba Dive (Part 2)

This is Part Two of the three articles I wrote each night after returning home during the process of learning to dive during 2012. Click here for Part One and here for Part Three. Everybody says you should learn to scuba dive, but nobody else actually writes about the process - what you have to do, what you learn and how you get tested. Read on to find out!

It was an 8am start for Day Two of my PADI Open Water Course in the Maldives – time to leave the textbooks behind and finally get into the water! I arrived at the dive centre in Hulhumale for a briefing from my diving instructor, Thomas Badstubner, and then we slung our equipment into the back of a truck and hopped in. The truck drove us to a sheltered beach near the Ferry Terminal, because the tide was too low on the other side of the island. It was here that we put the theory into practice.

We waddled into the sea laden with our equipment, I’d forgotten just how heavy it all feels until you get into the water! Then we started things very slowly, standing chest-deep in the warm water to start with. It was a hazy day but the water was still turquoise blue and pretty clear. Thomas wanted to see how comfortable I was breathing underwater with the regulator. Satisfied that I was relaxed enough, we then went on to run through some of the techniques I had watched yesterday in the PADI video.

The shape of water

This is the amazing house reef I've dived at Baros (house reef is the reef connected to the resort island). Photo: Baros

I’ve been on two dives before in my life. Both of them were official PADI Discover Scuba courses, one was in the French Riviera the other was at Bandos Island Resort here in the Maldives. I’ve snorkelled a lot in the Maldives and in various other beautiful locations around the world, so basically you could say that I’m confident in the water. Thomas said that gives me and anyone with similar experience to me a good grounding for starting diving, although if you’ve never dived or snorkeled before he can take you at your own pace and make sure you’re completely confident (and competent) in the water.   

So, today we started by doing exercises in very shallow water which included things like taking my regulator out of my mouth and letting go of it, then stretching my right arm behind me to swoop it up again and replacing it in my mouth. We also ran through the hand signals for being out of air and then I took the regulator out of my mouth and reached over to use Thomas’ alternate air source, he did the same with me.

The ouchy bit

This is how you clear your mask of water when underwater

The part which Thomas said I was going to hate him for making me do (filling up my mask with water while underwater, taking it off completely and then putting it on again and clearing it) was actually alright. If it’s OK to go a bit girly for a moment I’d like to say this: Ladies, if you’ve ever got mascara in your eye you’ll know exactly what eye pain is, and I’m happy to say that seawater is absolutely nothing compared to mascara-in-eye-agony. So don’t worry about it. Things look a bit blurry, your eyes are a bit stingy, but it’s nothing too horrendous. You also need to take your mask off underwater for a few others tests including breathing underwater for a minute while not wearing a mask.

As well as this, I practised taking the weights, scuba unit and fins off and putting it back on again while in water too deep to stand in, amongst other things. With Thomas satisfied that I’d checked all the boxes and was comfortable enough in the confined water dive, we headed back for lunch. In the afternoon it was time to hop on a boat to Small Maa Giri – an excellent dive spot for rays but also according to Thomas, one of the most perfect natural underwater classrooms he’s ever seen. I had a one-on-one session with Thomas while some fun PADI-qualified American pilots who had signed up with Into Scuba for an afternoon diving trip had some fun checking out the area with the dive masters and other staff.

Maa Giri reef is amazing, check out these oriental sweetlips with a friendly batfish! Photo: ProDivers Maldives

The site consists of a sandy area just three or four metres below the surface which gently slopes away into a channel. The shallower sandy area was ideal for going through some more of the techniques I need to know, including making a simulation of a controlled emergency swimming ascent for nine metres while continuously exhaling and making an “ahhh” sound. We then had a chance to float down the slope to take a look around us and see some pretty reef fish at a depth of about 12 metres before our 46 minutes was up.

I had some minor problems with my mask. It seems that I was doing it the proper way but the shape must have been wrong for my face because no matter how hard I blew through my nose to push the water out, a small well of water stayed on either side of my face. I must have a weird-shaped face. Or a kid-size face. Or both. 

Thomas swapped my mask for his, but I still had the same problem. However, I stayed calm as I knew that nothing bad was going to happen even if I felt like my nose was full of salty water all the time. Thomas later reassured me that you can’t make a mask for everybody’s face shape, so I’ll probably bring my own snorkel mask for the final day of my PADI course.

We saw bottlenose dolphins en route! They're very common in the Maldives and love chasing boat wakes

We all hopped back onto the boat and headed off directly for Back Faru, a very pretty reef close to Sheraton Full Moon Maldives and Hulhumale. On the way we were treated to a spectacular appearance from a large pod of dolphins leaping out of the water. The boat changed its course and slowly followed the dolphins. They seemed to take a fancy to us because they came within just a couple of metres of the boat, surfing the waves made from the prow. Everyone on board cheered and peered over the side, wishing our arms were just another metre longer so we could touch them! We couldn’t have asked for a more uplifting experience (or excellent photo opportunity) before our final dive of the day. A storm was on the horizon so we had to crack on…

 There was a strong current and so our last dive today was also a drift dive. Luckily there were no more drills for the rest of the day, just fun! “You have to remember to make it fun because that’s why people want to learn to dive”, said Thomas. And we weren’t disappointed. Right at the start of the 12 metre dive, we saw a white tip reef shark and then as we floated along in the current we saw some fantastic creatures amongst the beautiful table corals. There were two large hawksbill turtles and at least five large green turtles, none of which seemed in any particular hurry to get away from us. In fact, one of them let me get within a metre of him, he barely seemed to notice that I was captivated by the sight!

We saw a white tip reef shark too. They look a little more 'sharky' than black tips, but don't get them confused with oceanic white tips, these ones are pretty small!

As well as this, there were honeycomb moray eels and giant black moray eels peering out of holes in the reef, a large pufferfish, pretty anemone fish and many other brightly coloured reef fish.

Just under an hour later we emerged smiling from the incredible experience of seeing so much marine life to discover half a rainbow hanging in the sky and some dramatic-looking storm clouds. It was a beautiful end to an amazing day. I floated on the surface for a few moments with a smile on my face. Yes, diving sure is fun!

Well, I now have one more day left of my PADI Open Water Course. I have the day off tomorrow but the day after that we’ll be running through some more techniques and enjoying the incredible underwater world, after which time I’ll hopefully be a certified diver! Read all about my final day of learning to dive in the Maldive here!

From the archives: Interview with world champion freediver Sara Campbell

Today I read a superb article by journalist James Nestor about what happens to your body when you dive into the sea. James described very eloquently the physical and psychological effects of triggering the Master Switch of Life (mammalian dive reflex). As someone who tries to spend as much time as possible either on or in the water it was of particular interest; spending much of the year in the Maldives I have daily access to some of the best diving in the world. 

I'm currently an Advanced Open Water Diver and without a doubt will continue to work my way through the PADI system, although I'm not about to ditch travel journalism for a new career as a Diving Instructor! However, free-diving is something pretty different. As James explains in his article, when you dive without compressed air your body's natural instinct kicks in with an incredible ability we've had lurking inside ourselves as part of our physical constitution for millions of years. This allows professional free-divers to dive to depths of 300 feet.

Last year I was lucky enough to be able to interview women's world champion free-diver Sara Campbell about her career. She was in the Maldives to take part in LUX* resort's Underwater Festival; a showcase of diving, free-diving and underwater photography.

This is the interview, published in Fah Thai magazine (Ink Media) also with a scan of the original version below.

Meet Sara Campbell, a record-breaking world champion in the extreme sport of freediving.

Imagine holding your breath for
three minutes. Now imagine doing that at
an ocean depth of 104m. Record-breaking
world freediving champion Sara Campbell
did just that two years ago, earning instant
international acclaim. In April, Campbell
will detail the techniques behind the feat at
the spectacular Underwater Festival at LUX*
Maldives, where she’ll share the spotlight with
the makers of the acclaimed BBC documentary
series The Blue Planet. We spoke to her ahead
of this maritime extravaganza...

Why are you taking part in this festival?
I was excited by the opportunity to develop
a programme for budding underwater
cameramen that includes relaxation, breathing
and breath control. And of course, the fact that
it’s in the Maldives was a bonus – a part of me
still thinks those images of turquoise waters
must be Photoshopped!

How critical is marine conservation in Asia?
It’s a tragedy that such little care and
consideration is given to the health and
sustainability of our oceans. They’re treated as
playgrounds and dumping grounds. Unless we
stop our destructive behaviour there’ll be no
beauty left in our oceans in a very short time.

The Maldives hangs in the balance, doesn’t it?
There’s a lot of conservation work going in
the Maldives and this is partly because of its
enviable position as a place with a rich and
diverse ecosystem. From turtles and corals
to whale sharks and mantas, there’s a lot
going on and this is positive for the islands.
Ecotourism is growing, but there’s also the
ethical question surrounding bringing tourists
into these areas.

So how are you planning to spend your free time
in the Maldives?
I’d love to dive with mantas and whale sharks.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we get
lucky during the festival!

Is freediving something anyone can try?
Yes, freediving is for everyone. If you can
breathe and have a reasonable ability to swim,
you can dive. It helps if people are naturally
calm in the water, but there really are no
prerequisites to getting under the water.

How did you first get under the water?
I started freediving when one of my yoga
students needed a buddy to “safety her”. I fell
in love with the peace and with the happiness I
got from diving. It’s the perfect combination of
meditation and physical challenge.

And you became a record-breaker...
I set all three deep world records in under
48 hours in 2007 and it was a very surreal
experience. It came as a complete surprise to
everyone, and I was no less in shock. I was a
bit overwhelmed by the attention and didn’t
really feel comfortable with it. I had just
been doing what I loved to do, so was a bit
bewildered by all the fuss.

Have you ever panicked in the deep?
Not really. I felt a bit stressed on a dive to
around 55m once, and when I tried to figure
out why, I realised it was simply my mind
playing tricks on me. I also realised that this
happens to us all the time in life, and from that
moment on I vowed never to allow that to
happen to me in the water again.

Finally, Sara, what motivates you?
My motivation is the pleasure I gain from
diving and teaching. I don’t have any goals at
the moment, just to keep on sharing what I
love. What comes after that? Who knows?
The Underwater Festival runs from 15-21
April. www.luxmaldivesresort.com