Welcome to Total Bottom Time!

Total Bottom Time is my online personal dive log. A place where I can share my dives with friends, family, other divers, and the world. You can find out a bit more about me and see my full log of dives by clicking on my profile on the right. Feel free to subscribe to my dives via email or RSS.

Below are just some of my latest dives.

The last dive of the trip was absolutely amazing. I'm always on the lookout for octopus but sightings are rare in New Zealand and my expectations are low. So as I was looking under every ledge and every crevasse, I was excited to find an octopus tucked away under a ledge.

 Female Octopus

I probably spent a good five minutes with this octopus. It wasn't very active and stayed put while I observed it.

As I left the area, I made a mental note of where it was as I wanted to stop by again on my way back. When I returned, I was astounded to find another octopus in the area!

Male Octopus

Shortly after, the second octopus moved out from under the ledge and changed shape and colour to match the reef.

Male Octopus

Then I noticed that the second octopus was reaching back to the first octopus underneath the ledge. That's when I realised what was happening. They were mating.

"When octopuses reproduce, the male uses a specialised arm called a hectocotylus to transfer spermatophores (packets of sperm) from the terminal organ of the reproductive tract (the cephalopod "penis") into the female's mantle ...

Click here to continue reading...

For the final day of the Tauranga dive trip we went back to Motiti Island. The first site is known as Baby Jacket because its something of a nursery for juvenile Leatherjackets. It's aptly named.

Juvenile Leatherjackets

There was some interesting coral on the site too.

Coral

My navigation was a bit off and when we surfaced at the end of the dive, we were a good ways from the boat. No big deal and we started the surface swim back to the boat. But then the boat captain turned up in the dingy and offered to tow us back to the boat. We gladly took him up on the offer!

Towed Back to the Boat

That was a first for me and was much better than kicking all the way back.

Click here to continue reading...

The second night dive was instantly interesting. As soon as we descended and got to the base of the shallow bay we were moored in, I noticed a something making subtle movements. It was a small squid tracking a tiny fish as its prey. It made a lightning quick strike and caught the fish. I managed to start a video as it was feeding on the fish.

Squid

Lots of other creatures out at night too.

Moray Eel

Goatfish

Starfish

Click here to continue reading...