Associate Professor Scott Ling’s ‘lucky’ shot captures seal bait explosion

Following playful fur seals in Fortescue Bay has left reef ecology Associate Professor Scott Ling in wonder, after capturing a ‘lucky’ shot.

University of Tasmania's Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies Associate Professor Scott Ling. Photo: Supplied/Jennie Smith

When Scott Ling isn’t researching how to protect Tasmania’s unique marine ecosystem or teaching the minds of the future, he’s capturing the life around him underwater.

But one snap the University of Tasmania’s Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies Associate Professor took last weekend at the mouth of Fortescue Bay has left him in wonder.

“We’re just having a bit of a fun dive, it was just perfectly flat, there was 25m of visibility and we went past fur seals and they looked really playful so we jumped in and were following them for a while,” he said.

“One of them rounded up this school of bait fish from out deeper and was working together to keep them against the cliff face.

“They were chasing this tight bait ball and in that image, you see the bait ball exploding as the seal lunges for them, trying to peel off the individual fish.”

Following playful fur seals in Fortescue Bay has left reef ecology Associate Professor Scott Ling in wonder, after capturing a “lucky” shot. Picture: Scott Ling

The scientist, who was diving with Eaglehawk Dive Centre at the time, said he got the shot by being in the right place at the right time.

“I used to visit that site a lot in the early 2000s. It was one of my PhD sites where I collected the long spined sea urchins. We saw maybe one or two seals that would occasionally haul out in that area, but now it’s thriving with seals,” he said.

“I don’t have a professional kit by any stretch, just an entry level underwater camera set up so I just got really lucky with the lighting. It was a really bright sunny day, flat, calm conditions, really clear water.

“When I went back through my camera and saw that image, I’m like, holy hell, it’s really something, zoomed in and everything was miraculously in focus.

“Most of the people get to see them from the surface, rarely do people get to put their head under the water and get lucky with taking a photo like that.”