An answer to the question "Do you see more fish on CCR than OC"...

hchoat

We spent a few days divng up in North Carolina last week on a mixed boat (we were the only Rebreather's on board). On the (wreck formerly known as) the Papoose we encountered a handful of Sand Tigers and a lone Sand Bar shark (along with tons of Amberjack and other "finny friends"). Sand Tigers are very common off NC, and they are quite docile and don't seem to mind divers at all- however they allowed us to get much closer than the OC guys. It was also interesting to swim 20 feet or so away from the wreck and watch the schools of snapper and other fish move away as the OC divers came by and back in as they left the area- while paying little or no mind to us on the RB's.

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dive2dive2000

In my exp yes and they let you get very close.

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Martin

James

Yes,

Quite often, I'll just join a shoal of fish & they treat me as one of their own. Can't do that on OC.

James.

Westwinds

In my experience -- absolutely!

Westwinds

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Located in Canada

Gill Envy

for me, the contrast between diving OC and transitioning to CCR was stricking. nearly every dive now is filled with up close and personal encounters, particularly of large schools of fish. it's making diving in the north west a whole new experience.

On OC I had been observing what i thought was typical fish behavior only to find on Rebreather's that what i was actually observing was the different ways fish act when they feel threatened. I'm now seeing fish school together that i'd mostly associated as solotary bottomish fish or really skidish, now those same fish swim around and cary on their antics with nearly no notice of me.

I'm also seing predation, the food chain in action, a lot more.

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Gill Envy

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Pugwash

Absolutely!

In the Red Sea we have small (1/2") electric blue pullers that shoal and live in and around small coral heads. They are incredibly timid and dart in amongst the coral when an O/C diver gets within a few feet of them. Breath holding is required to get good video! On CCR they'll come to within an inch of your mask and swarm around the camera...

And as for sharks, Ras Mohamed National Park gets hundreds of divers a day and Shark Reef probably seems rather mis-named to most O/C divers. However once they get out of the water and it quietens down you then get the black tips and silkies coming in. And the occassional tiger . While it hasn't happened to me I know other eCCR divers that have had some oh-too-close encounters with tiger sharks who were definitely interested in the electronic emssions of the unit. And when I say close I mean bumped...