Coming up!
The Bird family visits an octopus garden in Portugal, meets a silly cephalopod, and gets
inked!
Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
The rugged coast of Portugal’s Cape Espichel is known for its massive cliffs and beautiful
vistas.
This quiet and rural region is located just an hour’s drive south of Lisbon.
It’s an arid region of the country, with historic landmarks and incredible views of
the Atlantic Ocean.
And it’s the ocean that brought us here.
In the nearby town of Sesimbra, we hook up with Cipreia Dive Center to spend a couple
days exploring the local dive sites.
Arlindo Serrao from Portugal Dive, has organized our itinerary and brought us here to see something
amazing.
The whole Bird family has come to Portugal on an epic dive adventure.
Our kids Elise and Liam learned to dive in New England, where the water is chilly, just
like it is here.
As we leave the dock, I’m super excited, because the place we are diving supposedly
has lots of octopuses.
We head down the coast, to a popular dive site known as Garden of the Gorgonians, but
I’m hoping it’s more like an octopus garden!
Divemaster Ricardo Germano gives us a quick dive briefing…
…under, so like a narrow passage and wider passages…
…and then its time to go on an octopus search.
As we hit the water, I’m really glad we have nice warm 7mm wetsuits from Fourth Element,
because the water is a chilly 65° Fahrenheit.
Sinking down, we discover fields of swaying kelp.
It’s not a kelp forest like we see in California, but more like a kelp shrubbery--as far as
the eye can see.
The kelp provides ample protection for tiny baby fish, which grow into bigger fish.
Hiding in the kelp, the baby fish try to avoid predators long enough to become adult fish.
We follow Ricardo towards the shore, because he has something fun to show us.
In the shallows, there are cracks between the rocks that we can swim through.
You can only do it on a nice calm day like today, when the waves are small.
Single file, we swim through.
I notice a small hole in the rock with a face looking back at me.
I have found my first octopus!
He appears to be guarding a nice round stone.
And when we come in for a closer look, he flexes on us.
This is my rock, don’t even think about it!
All around his den are thousands of tiny anemones, green with pink tentacles, like living jewels.
We find another cool swim-through to investigate.
At first it almost looks like a cave, but when we poke our heads inside, it doesn’t
go anywhere.
It’s still fun.
We decide to head back out into deeper water, to see if we can find another octopus.
We swim above the kelp shrubbery and Elise finds a sea star.
Even through this is the Atlantic Ocean, just like home in Massachusetts, there are so many
different species that I’ve not seen before.
In deeper water, the kelp gives way to the gorgonians for which the site is named.
Gorgonians are nice, but octopuses are better.
Fortunately, Elise soon finds a much larger octopus.
The sneaky cephalopod has used an octopus camouflage trick to make her skin all bumpy
like her surroundings.
But she is not making any effort to hide from us.
In fact, she seems quite curious.
When I go in for the close-up, she stares right into my lens.
But once she gets bored, she moves on, leading us on a tour around the reef.
Under an overhang, I find a hake, a fish known for it’s chemosensitive barbels, which are
like fingers that can smell.
There are tons of anemones swaying in
the current.
And brightly colored sea urchins.
Looking very closely, I can even find some nudibranchs, which are like marine slugs.
That doesn’t make them sound very glamorous but underwater photographers love their colors.
Hiding in many of the holes, we find conger eels, which may reach lengths of more than
a meter, but we will never know, because they won’t come out.
And just as I’m getting ready to head back to the boat, I find one more small octopus.
This guy gives me a great demonstration of his ability to change colors.
Watch it again in slow motion!
Crazy!
After the light show, he grabs my camera for a selfie.
I look good!
Then he goes into camouflage mode and doesn’t want me to bother him.
I get the ink treatment.
And he makes his getaway.
I catch up with Ricardo to head back to the boat.
Along the way, we pass an old abandoned anchor.
Then finally back to the surface.
Woo hoo!
Big old starfish!
Well, that dive would have been great if it was just the kelp, because the kelp was so
fun.
But the octopus, the swim-throughs and the tiny little anemones?
Such a great dive!
Oh man!
The water around Sesimbra is chilly, like it is at home.
But there are so many different things to see here on the other side of the Atlantic
that we don’t have in New England, like octopuses.
No matter where I dive, I almost always see something new and interesting.
It’s just one of the great things about exploring the Blue World.
Hey Guys!
If you want to learn more about diving in Portugal, check out portugaldive.com.
They’re the Portugal diving experts!