This is an authorized translation in English of a post in French by @marc-allaria: LA LONGUE ROUTE DE MAESHA • Mérou !

^{As my primary language is not English, there are probably some mistakes in my translation.}

Remember that the person who speaks here is NOT me, Vincent Celier (@vcelier), but Marc Allaria (@marc-allaria), a French guy.

---

PORTO SANTO - Meeting

There are underwater encounters that we do not forget and whose interaction brought by the animal dismantles in a few seconds the monopoly of the affect that we thought attributed to man. I put myself in the water at the foot of the islet of Cimah, in Porto Santo. Here, the water is perfectly clear, more than 30m of visibility. The surroundings of the island constitute a more or less respected marine reserve, and if I have already expressed myself to denounce certain drifts of these marine reserves, it must be recognized that when the fishing is slowed down, the fish returns.

It is therefore in the company of schools of sparids, dreamfish, dentexes or other red mullets in numbers that I get to know the place. It was during pleasant and unsurprising dive when suddenly. more than 20m in front of me, a huge grouper spotted me and came directly to me. Long of a at least one meter, weighing around 50kg, this grouper gave me the impression of having recognized myself from afar and came without any hesitation to get stuck under my belly! A scene quite incredible and absolutely not conformed to the normal attitude of such a wild animal. This is how we spent the last 30 minutes of this dive.>/p> Sometimes taking some distance, he never lost sight of me and came back very often within arm's reach. I was careful never to touch it. For those who don't know it, touching a fish can remove a protective veil from its skin and thus guarantee the fixation of future parasites. But to be honest, it was sometimes difficult to avoid it as it came to stick to me! Difficult to end such a dive, but by dint of cold and air consumption the ascent is very natural.

---