How a blind scuba diver explores tropical waters (6 photos)

Jessica Pita lost her sight at the age of 11, but her disability did not stop her from realizing her dream. The 21-year-old fell in love with scuba diving and became a qualified diver.





For fans of the film, the theme tune from Jaws is pure entertainment, but for scuba diver Jessica Pita, it's a potentially life-saving tune. Because Jessica is blind and her dive partner hums the Jaws tune to signal that a shark is approaching.

The 21-year-old told MailOnline Travel that the John Williams tune came in particularly handy while diving in Mozambique, East Africa.

"My buddy and I hadn't learned how to signal sharks yet, so when one swam underneath us as we were descending, he started humming the Jaws theme song and tried to shout the word 'shark,'" she said.

Jessica couldn’t make out the word “shark,” but she immediately recognized the melody and realized that the toothy predator was right under them.



At the age of 11, Jessica underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor that was causing swelling of the optic nerves. Although the tumor was successfully removed, Jessica was left with permanent damage. Now her central vision is “totally black with little pinpricks of light,” her peripheral vision is very blurry, and she has depth perception problems and is color blind.

The motivational speaker and student from South Africa can recognize contrasts between light and dark, but mostly relies on her other senses to navigate the world and her guide dog, Fudge.

Jessica doesn't let her disability ruin her life and decided to take an affordable scuba diving course through the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) to become a qualified diver.





Unexpectedly, Jessica fell in love with scuba diving and now explores the reefs in Ponta do Ouro (Mozambique) and Sodwana Bay (South Africa). She is already planning her next trip - to Madagascar.

Although Jessica cannot see the sea life around her, she can distinguish between dark and light colors and the contrasting transitions between them. For example, it can distinguish a reef.



Jessica is also able to escape from everyday worries and experience the sensations of being underwater.

“I enjoy the feeling of peace and bliss when I'm underwater,” she says. “Because my daily world revolves around my senses, it’s rare that I have the opportunity to simply listen or feel something without worrying about whether it will affect my spatial orientation.”



She says she can “listen to a riff for fun,” rather than for a purpose, like “listening to cars when you cross the street.” She can also "feel the sand" instead of "concentrating on the texture of the ground to avoid tripping or taking a wrong step."

Jessica stays in touch with her dive instructor when she's underwater.

Instead of hand signals, it relies on a system of tactile signals that are set before the descent. For example, to repeat the "OK" signal, her dive buddy will squeeze two of her fingers and she will respond with a normal hand signal.



While these signals could be seen as a whole new diving language, Jessica says it's simply a new way to make the sport accessible.

The only obstacle she faced was coming up with new ways to signal different fish species. For example, the signal for a butterfly fish is for its dive mate to take both of its arms and make them rise and fall in a flapping motion.

Jessica says her scuba diving experience helped her realize how “wrong” her initial ideas about the sport were. Now she is sure that it is simple and accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities and physical capabilities.