For the latter dive, Tracy again went with Rania while Reeve, Gabi and Doug ended up in a crazy encounter with a very, VERY aggressive triggerfish. We were at about 18m, and the divemaster wanted to go deeper. I said, "no" we should stay shallow due to having younger divers. What I did not know (but now know) is that the very territorial triggerfish keeps attacking you in a cone all the way to the surface - so the only way to avoid him was to go in a slightly deeper circle around the territory.
The fish started attacking Jimmy, then Gabi's fin, then I tried to get between the kids and the fish - continually trying to show my fins, which it repeatedly attacked. You could sure see the fish. At the moment, it was okay; as we were leaving, I realized how out of breath I was and how much energy I'd exerted. With quite a bit of panic at 18- 20m, trying to catch my breath, I realized I just needed to take care of myself. Yikes! It was, to date, the most panic I've had on a dive. We did end up seeing an octopus - but the triggerfish was the big memory. Jimmy, our dive master fought the fish on our way back as we kept Jimmy between us and the crazy triggerfish. Later we heard the story of how our divemaster, Jimmy had once almost been knocked unconscious on a dive by a triggerfish which gouged a big portion out of his head. Scary!
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