Massa d'ors

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Some days are just more special than others. Have not dived a lot in Cap de Creus, but Massa d'Ors was on my bucket list for this year, and sometimes the stars do align. The one spare holiday day to take off from work. The 5am wake up to drive from BCN to Port de la Selva. The absolutely calm day with beautiful sunrise, just a day before the winds started and many of us in Catalunya received INUNCAT storm warning alerts on our phones. The smile on my face when I heard in the boat we will dive the Massa d'Or. The final confirmation comes always from the spot - at least with CIPS - does the current permit diving it today, and it did indeed. Dropping down at the al bolet, the champignon, a mushroom-like rock at the shallows, following the little canyon in the direction of the crest that continues the mountain formation out to the sea, the first meros were in sight right away and there was no stop to it. In the open water, not shy or hiding, minding their business, and there was no stop to it. It's hard to estimate how many we saw in the dive - fifty or more. At times you could likely spot 10 or more, some easily over 20kg. Huge barracudas in big schools that circled you from both sides. You did not need to try to approach them; they were all over you, school dividing between left and right at almost hand's reach. There seemed to be no end to the schools. I normally shoot 10 second short video clips, and this day many were 30 seconds, a minute or two. I had no idea there could be so much marine life in the Mediterranean. It was just perfect! Sargos, big ones, somehow so fearless - you could easily approach them. Corvinas hiding under the rock ledges. No time to look for nudis - I recall I saw one - but no interest today. There was just so much big fish in the water. On the sad side, big part of the Paramuricea clavata on the reef walls on the depth we dived (~20m) was dead or in bad shape, which seems to relate to Jun-Sep 2022 hot summer, with ~50 heatwaves days reported, and divers starting to observe from late Sep the colonies "recently dead, bare skeleton" especially on those depths, while deeper 30-35m populations apparently are best preserved. Based on quick research there seems to be positive evolution from 2024 onwards (deed tissue does not heal, but the further necrosis stopped). Let's see how the 2026 heatwaves affect. On the boat I said to Xavi that my camera is worth gold now with all the video footage after the dive, and what a disappointment checking it on the big screen at home - all clips seem mostly unusable (heavy grain on all clips). Still investigating if it's a camera failure or settings issue. Made me reflect a long time on why I shoot video, and for whom, and the value from it versus just living the moment. More to meditate on that. Underwater photography and video has always passionate me, but on days like this, it took a mental toll. And talking about fails - dived on air with computer set on Nitrox 32. Stupid mistake, especially as we had a double dive. We agreed to take the next one shallow and conservative, and follow closely Xavi's computer.

Vida marina