A dual Triggerfish duel

The first dive of the day saw us diving the Hole in the Wall, just around from Sabang Bay, Puerto Galera on the northern coast of Mindoro.

A ripping current got us into the canyons with pelagics galore propping up in the current. I first dived this site in the mid 90s, eighteen years later, I am back for my fifth trip here. An extended bottom time saw a bluewater ascent with required decompression hanging from lift bags, pretty normal for here.

The second dive saw us back in Sabang Bay on a small wreck in a relatively shallow depth. On decompression dives I wear a dual computer for redundancy, this dive saw me wearing a Suunto D6, it was old stock from the dive shop and I decided to give it a try instead of selling it cheaply. The overly conservative nature of Suunto computers saw me back in slight decompression for this repetitive dive, no big deal I thought. The Titan triggerfish is a worthy adversary, a horrible and nasty fish the shape and colour of an Australian Rules football.

When I see one of these fish underwater, I sometimes feel the overwhelming urge to drop punt this aggressive undersea chomper; I am, of course not that bold and swim away as fast as possible usually.

I saw this one coming, the big Titan looks at you in a certain manner, turns on its side and comes at you. I was beginning my ascent and moving towards my decompression ceiling, I was mid-water at a depth of six metres moving towards my three metre ceiling.

Naturally, a triggerfish fights well in tandem and as you fight one off a second triggerfish joins the battle. Now you have a fairly robust battle going on with knife in hand and fin kicking hard whilst maintaining my decompression ceiling. You never seem to make contact with these guys, they are just too agile until you finally work your way out of their protective zone and the battle is over. Man, I hate triggerfish.