r/snorkeling • u/Upset-Disaster7677 • 17h ago
FirstTime Swam with a Tuna
I’m in the south of Spain, near Motril. The water these days is flat as a table, and there is a lot of animal movement: 100mt+ long school of anchovies, seagulls and you can occasionally see tunas jumping in the distance.
I’m a really good swimmer, but I can’t swim over a minute where the water is more than 5mt deep, it just scares me way too much.
Well, today I was snorkeling about 10mt from shore, visibility was pretty low, and about 3mt from me a 2mt long fish emerged from the darkness. My first instinct told me it was a shark, and I immediately turned around and swam to safety. While doing so, I realized it was probably a tuna, and turned back to see it once more. This time, once I saw it, I fought back fear and stayed to look at it better, and oh boy if it was beautiful. Regardless, swimming next to something so big and fast was too scary for me, and I eventually turned back after a few seconds.
It was by far the best swimming experience I have ever had, even better than swimming in the Australian reef. It felt so surreal and rare, that my thalassofobia was beaten by my curiosity to see the tunas again and again.
I can now kinda understand people that do scuba diving for fun, and at the same time I have no idea how they can enjoy swimming with things far bigger than the tuna I saw today. It’s just mental to me.