Magic Mola on Metritium Mountain

A story from Brian Phan.

Ocean Sunfish, Mola mola

A whole other world exists for those willing to don a wetsuit and scuba gear and venture beneath the surface of the sea. Brian, a professional scuba diver and dive technician, who grew up afraid of the water, did just that and came face to face with one of the strangest fish in the sea, the Mola mola. At five feet in length, this particular ocean sunfish, with its enormous eyes, snub tail, and prehistoric head, made an ever-lasting impression on Brian and his friends who ventured into its watery world.

BRIAN PHAN is currently employed at Monterey Bay Diving in Sand City, CA as a scuba diver and a technician for scuba divers.  He works on a lot of different gear, including regulators, tanks, buoyancy compensators, and dry suits, plus he does repair. Brian is also a commercial construction diver, where he does work underwater on the wharf using such tools as pneumatic drills, chain saws, and torches.

He is currently Vice President of the American Cetacean Society, Monterey Bay Chapter. Previously, Brian worked at the Monterey Bay Aquarium as an ambassador. He’s also been a naturalist on whale watch boats and taught students diving at California State University at Monterey Bay (CSUMB). Last year, Brian went to the Caribbean to do research on social foraging in coral reefs.

Born was born in San Rafael, Marin County, CA and grew up in Novato, the town over.   His father loved the ocean and was a fisherman in Vietnam. When he immigrated to the United States, he took up recreational abalone diving. There were no catch limits at the time, so he went diving often and took all of Brian’s seven siblings diving, except for Brian because he was the youngest.

Well, being the youngest was part of it. Brian’s siblings thought he could learn how to swim if they pushed him to the deep end of the pool. But because of his low body fat, he sank. He says he pretty much drowned, and his sister had to jump into the pool, pull him out, and resuscitate him. After that experience he was afraid of the water, but respected it. So Brian hung out on the beach, while his dad and siblings went diving.

He always knew he wanted to scuba dive, but didn’t learn how to swim until his sophomore year in college, with the help of a bunch of friends. And it wasn’t until he was in college that he asked his dad to go abalone diving with him, and his dad said “Yeah, sure”.

Brain grew up next to the ocean as a kid, went diving as a young adult with his dad, and then came to Monterey to go to school at California State University at Monterey Bay (CSUMB) where he got a degree in biology (evolution and organismal ecology).  Most of his studies were marine biology related, and while in school he did a lot of research with rockfish.

But why Brian became a marine biologist has a little different twist. He decided when he was in second grade to study marine biology, because his crush’s parents were marine biologists, and he thought he could impress her and she’d like him. Of course, he hasn’t seen her since, but his fate was sealed, at least figuratively, ‘with a kiss’.

Brian came to Monterey because he knew that CSUMB had a good marine science program. He showed up for orientation, went to the Aquarium, hung out at Asilomar Beach, and fell in love with the area, and he’s been here ever since.

You can watch Brian’s story on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xQsb3F_UYA

MAGIC MOLA ON METRITIUM MOUNTAIN

I’ve just seen amazing things in the Bay from walls and walls of jellyfish all over themselves, to thousands of sardines and anchovies swimming around trying to escape from you, cause they think that you’re something else. So the Bay is one of the most amazing places, when you go in and sit there and you just watch God’s light coming through the kelp and fish. I spent a whole dive in one spot, peeing in my wetsuit over and over again to warm up, just watching that one moment. And I’m so glad my friends are photographers, cause they sit in the same area over and over again, so I can just take it all in.

People that dive in Monterey, they know what I’m talking about. They see that and they get it. It’s amazing. And the breakwater has so much life in this area. So much, because you can look at crabs, tiny fish, different types of barnacles, anemones, and you can literally hang out in one area for the whole dive. So that’s one memorable encounter.

Another of my most memorable encounters would be off of Cannery Row, off of a boat. We were doing an advanced dive class at a place they call Metritium Mountain. You get off the boat into the water, and you go down the anchor line. The anchor goes straight into this pinnacle that is filled with Metritium – three-foot high, just ghostly white anemones. So that whole mountain’s filled with them. And as a coldwater diver, you also check out the tiny little things. You’re just sticking your head in cracks, looking at all this cool stuff. Soon I was following a bunch of little fish. I’m like, “They’re so cool.  They’re so cute (pretending to scratch a little fish).”

But all of a sudden, I hear my buddy just screaming (holds hands over mouth and makes sound like a trumpeting elephant). And I went, “Oh my goodness, what’s happening?” So I look over, and he grabs me and starts shaking me. And he turns around and points. And over there was a five-foot long Mola mola, an ocean sunfish, about fifty feet away. – five feet long and probably about five feet tall. It’s just swimming fifty feet away, and the visibility was about eighty feet that day. It was totally gorgeous. And you see all the other groups of divers just staring at this thing.

It’s a giant fish, but looks more like a blundering object coming towards us, and I’m like, “Oh yeah, got it!” I wanna go close. So I swam up so close to it, about ten feet away, and then I got scared. Because when you see that huge animal with an enormous eyeball just staring at you, you’re like, “I know you’re not going to do anything to me, but you’re huge.” I just started backing up.

My buddy and I, we stayed there just watching. Everyone’s just looking at it. And it moved fast, surprisingly. And it just kept on circling us. All the divers were watching it, and we spent the next thirty minutes staring at a giant Mola mola, and then it just swam off into the distance.

So that would be my most memorable event with wildlife here in Monterey Bay – that Mola mola staring at us with that big eye. Totally creepy, but yeah!