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According to my dive buddy, there's a 50-kilo tuna on the other end of this rope. It's tangled up at around -100ft. Unfortunately, I'm the one who has to dive down and retrieve it. On any given day my buddy James is a much better diver than I am, but at this moment in time, he can't dive. Fun fact, some freedivers have recorded their heart rate to be as low as 10 beats per minute while underwater, that's more than three times lower than someone in a coma.
So, James shot the tuna. After swimming up to the surface as fast as humanly possible and then pulling the rope up as hard as humanly possible, to keep the fish from getting tangled on the bottom, it's safe to assume that James's heart rate went from being unbelievably low to unbelievably high in a matter of seconds, which is exhausting physically and mentally. Hence why I'm diving down to get the fish instead of him. But it's not as simple as just following the rope down to the bottom - I wish it were, but there's current and I'm not just talking about a little water pushing you along the coast. This is Indonesia. With one of the strongest currents on earth, it's responsible for a bunch of fatalities every single year, and on really bad days satellites can even pick up the lines of the current from outer space.
So, the dinghy drops me off way up current, which gives me time to relax on the surface to get my heart rate down before beginning the dive. Untangling the line on the bottom of the ocean can be extremely dangerous, because it's easier than you'd think to get tangled up down there, and if that happens you'd better hope that you can cut yourself free. Do you know how a bear rubs its back on a tree when it's itchy? Well, when you put a spear through a dogtooth tuna it doesn't know that it's a spear, it just knows that something's on its back, and so it rubs its body on the ocean floor to try to get that thing off its back. And although the spear can handle the abuse, it doesn't take much for the rocks and the coral to snap the line that's attached to the spear. Many doggies have been lost because of this. A solution to the problem is to use steel cable on the end of your spear, which is essentially indestructible but there are a few downsides. One is that if the fish does get tangled deeper than you can dive, you'll lose your entire rig, and the other is that if you were to get tangled underwater in the steel line, it would be impossible for you to cut yourself free.
And this is exactly what's going through my mind because I'm well aware that James's spear has steel cable on the end of it. It's the only reason that the fish hasn't been lost already. I'm now about 30 meters deep, no fish is worth your life I tell myself. As I gently grab the line, I'm not even close to reaching the fish, it must be almost 40 meters deep. As I head back up to the surface, I plan to have the dinghy bring me back up current to try to dive again, even though I know deep down I'm never going to be able to dive that deep in these conditions. Do you know the saying, "work smarter not harder"? Well, I have an idea! The fish is on the other end of a ledge here and as far as underwater tangles go, I've seen much worse. The current is pulling the floats this way and the pressure is on the edge of the ledge here. So, back on the surface, I grab the floats and the boat brings me back up current. If I can take the pressure off that corner of the ledge before the current pulls me past, I might be able to yank the fish up without having to go back down there. I only have a few seconds before the current pulls me past the fish, so I pull as hard as I possibly can, and finally, we can see it! The poor thing is completely scarred from the battle. The harder a fish is to catch, the more delicious it is later on. You'll never see someone at Whole Foods this excited at checkout!