In July 2009, I spent an intense and memorable week diving with Luke Atkinson of Emperor Divers out of Port Ghalib near Marsa Alam, Egypt. As an underwater photographer himself Luke knew exactly what to do to make the best of every dive. Through a combination of some outstanding luck and Luke’s expert local knowledge, every day brought exciting new photographic opportunities. I doubted such a really remarkable week could ever be repeated but twelve years later it was.
In March 2021 I spent a week diving Victoria's Mornington Peninsula with Sam Glenn-Smith of The Scuba Doctor Australia and again that combination of amazing luck and an Instructor with expert local knowledge and photographic nous combined for a truly brilliant week. Sam took me to Blairgowrie, Portsea, Rye and Sorrento Piers as well as Chinamans Hat and The Anchors in Port Phillip Bay and Lonsdale Arches, Lonsdale Wall and RIP Bank just outside Port Phillip Heads.
I had a specific request for Sam. I had seen my first Blue Devilfish in Sydney in November 2006. It was an Eastern Blue Devilfish with a distinctive banded pattern and yellow pectoral and caudal fins. Later I learnt that the Eastern Blue can be found in coastal waters from southern Queensland to southern New South Wales and that another Blue Devilfish, the Southern Blue with very different markings, could be found from eastern Victoria round to south-western Western Australia. I wanted to see one - I just love seeing “new” marine life.
So Sam arranged for us to dive Lonsdale Wall, a known haunt of the Southern Blue Devilfish. It has numerous overhangs and ledges and as I quickly discovered, yes, plenty of Southern Blue Devilfish! To my eye they looked rather odd. Their bodies were entirely blue to bluish grey, there was no banded pattern like the Eastern Blue nor yellow fins and their bodies appeared to have bright blue spots on them. And there were plenty of them. An exciting moment for me. And for good measure Sam had thrown in one of my favourite fish, a Longsnout Boarfish.
Afterwards our vessel, MV Red Devil, took us to a nearby dive site, Lonsdale Arches and I calmed down. But that didn’t last - I was soon excited again the next day when Sam showed me absolutely HEAPS of Southern Blue Devilfish at RIP Bank. They were everywhere.