diving the abyss

Now I’m not talking about vampires or werewolves or ghouls, I’m talking about other creatures that come to life during the night, creatures of the marine life variety. I recently wrote an article about what you could expect from doing a dive course, well now I thought I would tell you what a night dive is like. If you ever try diving, you’ve got to try a night dive, it is so much more exhilarating, and it can be much more memorable. Now you may be wondering how a night dive differs from a dive during the day. Well firstly all the usual creatures you’ll see when you’re in the water during the day almost disappear and are replaced by a whole new variety of creatures. Some day creatures are still present but there are fewer in numbers and they are more vigilant and wary of larger creatures (i.e. predatory fish or humans). Species such as sea slugs, octopus, sea hares, small lobsters and brittle stars all come out of their homes to hunt their prey and fish, like the scorpion fish that are very docile during the day, almost sleepy but become active hunters at night.

Below I have written an account of my first ever night dive but remember it will differ depending on your location, enjoy.

Before I had done my dive I was told that the first night dive could be a little scary because there’s no light below the surface, anything could happen and you never know what could be lurking in the dark areas your light could penetrate, but god I could feel the excitement pumping through my veins that night.

At six o’clock after my brother and I had our gear on, we walked down to the where we met our last member of the dive group, our neighbour Steve Child.  Together we watched the sunset and went over the briefing before we walked into the water and leant against an isolated rock, to put our fins on and do the straps up before spitting into our masks and washing them out.

Once our masks were clean we put them on and switched our dive torches on before we gave the signal to submerge (thumb down) ready to enter the darkened depths.

At first it felt like forever before we actually saw any sign of marine life but when I saw a Scorpion fish swim past me and stop on a soft patch of sand, I knew that this dive was going to become a great dive.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and felt my body tense up, but I knew if it was something dangerous it wouldn’t have been able to tap my shoulder would it, I turned round and saw my brother’s face looking right back at me before he pointed in the direction of a smaller Scorpion fish, I smiled and the word’s “that’s nothing, check this out.” I got my brother’s attention and showed him my much bigger Scorpion fish. Moving on, we came across some single Damselfish and saw plenty of sea cucumbers littered all over the sea floor as well as sea urchins.

 The deeper and further we went the more Scorpion fish we saw on the seabed and then a Brittle star, I had seen one before, but not as big as this one, this one was much larger.  Being in the water when it was dark was exhilarating, in order to see anything you really need a torch, one second you can see a patch of darkness but when you shine your torch on that spot, you can see that one bit of illuminated rock or coral is full of marine life, some hiding and others in search of food.

One thing that I found pretty funny was seeing the on-board engine of the Anahi firmly in place on the sea floor (the Anahi was a Glastron boat that had washed up on the rocks a few months back, but had recently vanished in the last few weeks, at least we discovered what happened to the engine). As we moved further out we came across a fairly big marbled-coloured Common Octopus, seeing this octopus move about during the night looking for its prey was a sight you wouldn’t want to miss. Michael and Steve began to swim onwards, while I remained for a minute and watched the octopus dissolve into the darkness before I caught up to my two dive buddies.

 The last time I dived I did not see as much colour during the day as I did at night, one second you can see nothing but darkness but when you shine your torch on one spot, it’s like entering a room all lit up and full of colour. The fish that we saw outside their homes during the night behaved much differently then those during the day, much more full of life, just being in the water at night was like diving a whole new area I’ve never dived before, and it was like re-exploring a dive spot I’ve spent hundred of hours in, all over again.

 When we swam back we came across loads of Cardinal fish and a very small adorable Hermit Crab, it was so small my thumb was bigger than it. When we surfaced the sunset was long gone, instead the sky was as dark as obsidian, littered with little sparkling stars, just looking up at the sky was a sight in itself. Diving underwater at night is like diving an alien environment, it’s full of beauty, mystery, colour, it’s magical, and it was a great dive.

 Diving at night has some different factors that need to be taken into consideration. You should always stay close to your buddy, much closer then you would during the day, everything you see is only as good as the torch you have with you, because if your batteries run out you won’t be able to see anything, so if your batteries do run out, let your buddy know and surface, there’s no point in continuing the dive if you can’t see where you are going. Other things like hand signals have to be done under torchlight and never shine your torch in your buddy’s face, instead aim it at their chest so that way you illuminate their face and not blind them, but most of all only dive with somebody who has experience in night diving and be a safe diver.