It dont get much better than this

[skener]

absolutely fabulous you lucky bugger!!!

[Adrian Kelland]

you lucky lucky bastard although you may not have thought that at the time

Adrian

[John Gulliver]

Nice report, Steve, and nice pics. As regards orcas, there is apparently no report of a diver ever being attacked. Attitudes to orcas among divecentres seem to vary enormously in different parts of the world, some considering them harmless, others very dangerous. When we were in the Sea of Cortes (Mexico) we had a pod of orcas near us part of one dive. My buddy and I never saw them under water but heard them "singing" most of the dive. They were evidently very close to us and the Mexican diveguides were extremely anxious to get us back on board as fast as possible when we surfaced. When we got back to the divecentre, though, the owner said he and his sons snorkel with them regularly and the diveguides were just ignorant. People also dive/snorkel with orcas in Tryssfiord (close to Lofoten) in northern Norway. The orcas there feed on the herring shoals and appear to be completely uninterested in humans. In British Columbia (Canada), on the other hand, where there are two populations of orcas, residents, which eat salmon, and migrants, which eat seals and sealions, no-one is allowed in the water when there are orcas around, the reasoning being that you can't see whether you are dealing with residents or migrants and a migrant could possibly mistake a diver for a seal/sealion. It has never happened though.

[Dr Stevil]

Jammy b******! Looks great dude, just wish I was there too

Re the orcas, absolutely, no recorded instances of an orca attacking a human, However.... I'd hate to be the first statistic  I'm sure they can very accurately discriminate between the shape etc of a human and the shape of a seal (for the seal eating variant) but they are intelligent animals so at some point there's bound to be one that either takes a different approach to these unsual swimming objects or is a bit abnormal in the way it deals with the info. I'd think risk it though, given the long history of non-attacks on humans

[Tim Ingmire]

Git!!

You want to be careful, some sun-deprived YD'er might just make the trip over to lynch you!

After you shown us all the good sites of course

Nice pictures, like Steevil said, I think I'd risk a dip with an Orca esp as my sylph-like body bears absolutely no resemblance to a seal.

[Davey Willo]

Wow gunna... top stuff mate....

Awesome beast's and although there are no (recorded) cases of attacks on humans I most certainly would be very afraid of being alone amongst a pod of seal eating sea monsters.

On a recent documentary I watched about the various types of orca's and their feeding habits it appeared that even the experts were wary about being in the water with the seal hunters.. gulp!

Thanks for the report and the pic's Steve  

[Moray]

gunna do, i feel a busman's holiday coming on...

moray

[andy2tanx]

...what beautifulm surroundings to dive in.  Wow.  right, I'm off to to Stoney...

[parahandy]

Nice photos Gunna Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr envy envy lol

[Gunna Do]

Well if anyone ever trns up in the south island..
please feel free to drop me a line, im sure we can take you out for some interesting dives
Steve.
Ps and it was only when I got my digi cam I restarted seeing all the beauty around me