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Scubaverse Exclusive: Check out this incredible tool-using Titan Triggerfish (Watch Video)
The spectacular Titan Triggerfish is not just an ugly face. He is also the first fish we have ever filmed using a tool to eat. In fact, according to Google there are very few tool wielding fish, and even fewer videos of them eating.
I filmed one on a dive to a new and dramatic dive site discovered by Roger, Bryan and Menon of Ocean Spirit in Mauritius. They called it Black Forest, because it has a lot of Green Tree corals, which are actually completely black. The guys were all measuring depths, checking distances and doing the things divers do when they are exploring a new reef.
I lay on my belly on the rubble and watched a Titan Trigger. I thought he was nesting, so I stayed low. If you swim over a Titan Trigger when he’s brooding on his eggs, he will come after you and a friend has 18 stitches in his head to prove they mean business. Stay low and they can’t see you, their eyes are too close to the top of their heads.
He burrowed with his scaly snout into the coral rubble and soft sand, twisting his whole body, coming out and then diving back and burrowing in again. My buddy got bored and swam away, but I wanted to see what he was doing.
After three tries, he came out triumphantly holding a huge clam between his teeth. OK, now what does he expect to do with that? It was way too big to crush between his fangs. I thought he would drop it and swim away. But he didn’t…
He moved closer to the rock in front of me and he blew the clam out of his mouth onto the rock. It didn’t break, so he did it again, and again, until it cracked. His faithful hangers on dived in as well, but he got the first bite, and I left him to enjoy it. Blue Planet filmed the Tusk Fish using similar behavior, but I think this is the first time a Titan Trigger has been filmed using a tool.
The Titan Triggerfish: Passionate protector of his eggs and evolved user of tools…
Words, Images & Video: Jill Holloway
Copyright: Ocean Spirit www.osdiving.com
Over the next 12 months, specialist scuba holiday company Dive Worldwide will be supporting Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation with donations collected from client bookings to any one of its stunning dive destinations around the world. The independently-owned operator expects to raise £3000 for the UK charity.
Manager at Dive Worldwide, Phil North, said: “We’re especially excited to work with Bite-Back and support its intelligent, creative and results-driven campaigns to end the UK trade in shark products and prompt a change in attitudes to the ocean’s most maligned inhabitant.”
Bite-Back is running campaigns to hold the media to account on the way it reports shark news along with a brand new nationwide education programme. Last year the charity was credited for spearheading a UK ban on the import and export of shark fins.
Campaign director at Bite-Back, Graham Buckingham, said: “We’re enormously grateful to Dive Worldwide for choosing to support Bite-Back. The company’s commitment to conservation helps set it apart from other tour operators and we’re certain its clients admire and respect that policy. For us, the affiliation is huge and helps us look to the future with confidence we can deliver against key conservation programmes.”
To launch the fundraising initiative, Phil North presented Graham Buckingham with a cheque for £1,000.
Visit Dive Worldwide to discover its diverse range of international scuba adventures and visit Bite-Back to learn more about the charity’s campaigns.
MORE INFORMATION
Call Graham Buckingham on 07810 454 266 or email graham@bite-back.com
Free Octopus with every purchase of a SCUBAPRO regulator system
Just in time for the spring season, divers can save money with the FREE OCTOPUS SPRING PROMOTION! Until July 31st SCUBAPRO offers an Octopus for free
with every purchase of a regulator system!
Get a free S270 OCTOPUS with purchase of these combinations:
MK25 EVO or MK19 EVO with A700
MK25 EVO or MK19 EVO with S620Ti
MK25 EVO or MK19 EVO with D420
MK25 EVO Din mit S620Ti-X
Get a free R105 OCTOPUS with purchase of the following combinations:
MK25 EVO or MK19 EVO with G260
MK25 EVO or MK17 EVO with S600
SCUBAPRO offers a 30-year first owner warranty on all regulators, with a revision period of two years or 100 dives. All SCUBAPRO regulators are of course certified according to the new European test standard EN250-2014.
Available at participating SCUBAPRO dealers. Promotion may not be available in all regions. Find an authorized SCUBAPRO Dealer at scubapro.com.
More information available on www.scubapro.com.
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