Just for Fun
Scuba Diving Malta
Does Malta have especially clever fish?
My first dive in Malta was to the favored wreck of the Rozi where I quickly realized why so many divers loved it. The Rozi is a 30m tugboat scuttled as an artificial reef in 1992. She sits perfectly in the sand right off of Adrians Reef at the Cirkewwa Dive Site. Lots of different marine life have made the Rozi their home including a horde of Saddlebream that have decided to take over the wreck in the chance that they may be fed. Over the years some divers have been feeding the fish at the wreck which leads me to the million dollar question.
Do some fish only have a 3 second memory or is it an old wives tale?
In my dive brief I tell my divers about these Saddlebream. Halfway to the wreck they start coming, one at a time until you have a school of them following you down. I have never fed them before but the thing is you actually don’t need to because they know that the possibility is there. In schools they follow you around the wreck adding to the 100’s of damselfish, dentex, parrotfish and sometimes barracuda circling above. On one lucky morning I managed to be the first group to the Rozi and as we were checking out the wreck, fish in tow, I notice that one by one they are leaving us… In the very faint distance I could see another group heading to the wreck and these fish obviously saw another opportunity. As they reached the other group they were back in formation begging away. Which brings us back to the question, does Malta have clever fish or is it a myth that fish only have a 3 second memory? With this I headed to the internet to find out the truth. I found numerous articles with scientific evidence that this theory is indeed only a myth. Interestingly enough I actually found out that fish are smart, that they can use tools, and they have impressive long-term memories and sophisticated social structures. Alas, it seems as if the fish in Malta are no different from anywhere else although I still applaud our little guys for their determination and will certainly be back on the wreck soon playing follow the leader with the cutest if not most clever fish in the Mediterranean.
A diver in The Rozi's wheelhouse surrounded by saddle bream.
Just for fun, here are a few other interesting fish facts:
* Fish talk to each other with squeaks, squeals, and other low-frequency sounds that humans can hear only with special instruments.
* Fish like to be touched and often gently rub against one another- like a cat weaving in and out of your legs.
* Some fish tend to well-kept gardens, encouraging the growth of tasty algae and weeding out the types they don't like.
Just for Fun
