(breathing thru oxygen tank)
LAURA: I remember my first night dive,
we were down at Titlow Beach
and I had this little teeny light...
and my beam of light was just big enough to light up
one little alabaster nudibranch.
And I got this in my beam and I'm like,
"That is the coolest thing I've ever seen...
it's like, crazy!"
I didn't have any words to describe it when I got
out of the water.
The process of shooting underwater
can be somewhat physically demanding.
You're actually trying to hold very still in a sometimes
very dynamic environment and so trying to hold
really, really steady and get that shot, and hold still...
it's hard on the surface to get the shots you want...
it's multiplied by four or five underwater.
And then you can't talk to each other.
It's incredibly important to have a good team that you trust,
especially when you're shooting video
because I'm focused on the camera.
You know,if I have a leak in my tanks or something's
going wrong, I know that they're right there.
(music)
To go do these dives, I need a dive buddy...
and sometimes that dive buddy's, you know,
maybe someone who doesn't have all the gear they need yet.
Well, and I've been lucky because I had a dive shop
and I could accumulate a fair bit of gear...
um, tanks, regulators, lots and lots of lights, more tanks,
rebreather, drysuit, drysuit underwear, cameras,
housings for cameras, fins, lots of fins, masks,
I think I only have one snorkel...
What else do I have?
...Lots and lots and lots.
(dog shaking)
When you get all the layers on, when I get my really
heavy undergarments, like that are twice as thick
as these guys, um, I feel like a little kid in a snowsuit
and you need like your parents to like roll you to the water.
Because of the cold, the water actually can,
hold more oxygen...
and so, the marine life is incredibly diverse out here.
It's got so much life.
It's got the metridium anemones, those are the big white
cauliflower-looking guys, you've got all the nudibranchs
and different invertebrate marine life...
you've got the world's biggest octopus?
I mean, really, how could I not dive out here.
(laughing, water splash)
I'm really lucky that I get invited to lots of different
places to give presentations...
to schools, community clubs.
I was at the West Seattle Rotary and I put on some video of a
storm drain and they were watching the video of this
very large outfall and they were confused a little bit
by what they were seeing and they were shocked
and the screen went black...
and I paused...
and then I pointed to the window and I said,
"That storm drain is right there."
When people describe that smell and that feel after a rainstorm,
what do they say...
"It's so clean,"
"It's so fresh,"
but what they don't think about is,
"Where did all that go?"
Everything's so clean because all of the trash went
right out into Puget Sound.
Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to make the
world a better place.
And I didn't know how I was going to do it,
I just knew that it was what I had to do.
Diving and Puget Sound has given me so much
that it's kind of my duty to give back.
My role in this is to use the skills I have and help share
what I see and help grow awareness and give Puget Sound
and the critters that live there, a voice.
My name is Laura James.
I'm a diver, videographer, and environmental activist
out here in Puget Sound.