This incident happened during my recent trip to manado/lembeh straits/bangka. I was diving the Lembeh straits with a friend on December 1. On the 3rd dive of the day at a site called Aer Perang, we were diving there to go look for the rare Rhinopias; weedy and paddle-flap scorpionfish. As we arrived on site in our boat, another boat from Kungkungan Bay Resort (KBR) pulled up alongside. Incidentally, the Asian Diver Magazine Shootout (http://www.eco-divers.com/ocean_odyssey.html)was taking place KBR at that time. Thinking that the divers from the newly arrived boat were competitors from that shoot-out, our guide decided we should wait for these diver to head down first so as not to crowd the dive site.
After a wait of around 10min or so, we descended to hunt for the rare fish. The hunt proved futile till our guides found the guides and divers from KBR who found one at 15m around a mass of staghorn corals. I settled down with my friend to wait for our turn to 'shoot' the subject and observing what the diver from KBR was doing.
He was using 2 pointers/pokers to position the Rhinopias in a certain way and seemed to be growing increasingly frustrated. How do i know that? Cause a while after we arrived, he basically threw his camera rig to his side and proceeded to try and poke the fish to the postition he desired (tsk tsk tsk i thought). I slowly inched forward and picked up the diver's camera rig as he seemed to be on the verge of squashing/kicking the camera with his legs, so intent he was in getting the fish to the position he wanted. That was when i saw the label on the camera, 'Rod Klein'. Recognizing his name from various dive magazines that i've read, I thought to myself 'wow a photopro!' (http://www.eco-divers.com/uwphotography_rodklein.html)
While waiting, our guide signalled us to another location amongst the staghorn corals where he pointed out a yellow(female) ribbon eel. So i left the Rod Klein's camera set-up at a safer distance before going over to 'shoot' the eel.
Coming back to the Rhinopias later on to wait, my friend Esther suddenly came up to me pointing at Rod Klein. Through her hand signals, it seemed that Rod Klein had poked her with his pointers and she seemed very upset. At the time, i thought he had just nudged her away, not very friendly but no real harm done. So i signalled to her that she should poke him back with his pointer. ;p
By this time, Rod Klein had turned around and pointed to me in what seemed like ' do you want to take the fish?' I signalled back that he should go ahead first. He then abruptly packed up his stuff and took off, in a cloud of silt. In my mind i thought now that's an angry man. Waiting for the silt to clear, our dive group proceeded to take a couple of pics of the much harrassed Rhinopias before ending our dive.
Back on the boat, my friend Esther was complaining loudly about how she was 'attacked'. Apparently she was hovering above the staghorns (about 1m plus in height) watching what Rod Klein was doing when he reached out with his pointers and jabbed her hard around the hip/thigh area. It felt very painful she said and when she showed us the area where she was poked, you could the beginnings of a bruise forming.
Incidentally, our mutual friend is the new editor of Asian Diver magazine and was staying at KBR overseeing the competition. So back at our hotel at bitung, esther rang our friend up at KBR to tell her of the incident. It was then we realised that Rod Klein was actually one of the judges for the shootout.
The next day our friend called up, saying she confronted Rod Klein about the incident and he claimed that he jabbed Esther because she was stirring up silt and he was waiting to shoot the Rhinopias for a long time.
Now that is a lame excuse if there was ever one. No amount of reasoning can be used to justify this unprovoked underwater attack on a fellow diver. Sure there a certain kinds of etiquette that most underwater photographers will follow. However the ocean belongs to everyone and not just for photographers and divers. And no picture is worth injuring a fellow human being over. There is always another time to take a picture if the conditions are not right.
Attached below is a photo of the bruise on Esther's thigh taken a day after the incident. Make your own mind up on how serious was this 'attack'.
After a wait of around 10min or so, we descended to hunt for the rare fish. The hunt proved futile till our guides found the guides and divers from KBR who found one at 15m around a mass of staghorn corals. I settled down with my friend to wait for our turn to 'shoot' the subject and observing what the diver from KBR was doing.
He was using 2 pointers/pokers to position the Rhinopias in a certain way and seemed to be growing increasingly frustrated. How do i know that? Cause a while after we arrived, he basically threw his camera rig to his side and proceeded to try and poke the fish to the postition he desired (tsk tsk tsk i thought). I slowly inched forward and picked up the diver's camera rig as he seemed to be on the verge of squashing/kicking the camera with his legs, so intent he was in getting the fish to the position he wanted. That was when i saw the label on the camera, 'Rod Klein'. Recognizing his name from various dive magazines that i've read, I thought to myself 'wow a photopro!' (http://www.eco-divers.com/uwphotography_rodklein.html)
While waiting, our guide signalled us to another location amongst the staghorn corals where he pointed out a yellow(female) ribbon eel. So i left the Rod Klein's camera set-up at a safer distance before going over to 'shoot' the eel.
Coming back to the Rhinopias later on to wait, my friend Esther suddenly came up to me pointing at Rod Klein. Through her hand signals, it seemed that Rod Klein had poked her with his pointers and she seemed very upset. At the time, i thought he had just nudged her away, not very friendly but no real harm done. So i signalled to her that she should poke him back with his pointer. ;p
By this time, Rod Klein had turned around and pointed to me in what seemed like ' do you want to take the fish?' I signalled back that he should go ahead first. He then abruptly packed up his stuff and took off, in a cloud of silt. In my mind i thought now that's an angry man. Waiting for the silt to clear, our dive group proceeded to take a couple of pics of the much harrassed Rhinopias before ending our dive.
Back on the boat, my friend Esther was complaining loudly about how she was 'attacked'. Apparently she was hovering above the staghorns (about 1m plus in height) watching what Rod Klein was doing when he reached out with his pointers and jabbed her hard around the hip/thigh area. It felt very painful she said and when she showed us the area where she was poked, you could the beginnings of a bruise forming.
Incidentally, our mutual friend is the new editor of Asian Diver magazine and was staying at KBR overseeing the competition. So back at our hotel at bitung, esther rang our friend up at KBR to tell her of the incident. It was then we realised that Rod Klein was actually one of the judges for the shootout.
The next day our friend called up, saying she confronted Rod Klein about the incident and he claimed that he jabbed Esther because she was stirring up silt and he was waiting to shoot the Rhinopias for a long time.
Now that is a lame excuse if there was ever one. No amount of reasoning can be used to justify this unprovoked underwater attack on a fellow diver. Sure there a certain kinds of etiquette that most underwater photographers will follow. However the ocean belongs to everyone and not just for photographers and divers. And no picture is worth injuring a fellow human being over. There is always another time to take a picture if the conditions are not right.
Attached below is a photo of the bruise on Esther's thigh taken a day after the incident. Make your own mind up on how serious was this 'attack'.
