Night Dive 7/14/15

Today has been quite the busy day with everything going on but it didn't stop at night. We had talked for a while about wanting to go on a night dive and tonight was the day that it happened! It had originally had been scheduled for yesterday but today was the day and that's what matters. Today, by the way was perfect weather-wise. Yeah it was a bit hot and still but the water was smooth and clear as glass and the clouds were well, nonexistent. We headed out about 6pm my time and got to ride out and sea one of the most beautiful sunsets that we have had here. It was that fiery orange ball that is oh-so-pictureesque and on top of that I got to do it from a wonderful boat. We dove Pelican 3 again so that we were all familiar with the place that we were going because it would be really dark. I was partnered with Tyler, who by the way is a super cool person and you should check out what she has to say on her blog as well as everyone else that I told you about (http://anotherstargazer.blogspot.com)! As I was saying she's a super rad partner because she is just as curious as I am and so we lagged behind and spent most of our time looking under the crags and in the small caves. It was really interesting to see what went away at night and what came out. My imagination started to get away form me and I kept imagining the reef as this big city at night that was mostly asleep up the fish and the shrimp that were still out were like the late night crew of folks wandering the streets of their neighborhood looking to rustle up some fun. I think I may have also disturbed what I like to think were two lovers in the night (some stoplight parrotfish hanging out together under the shelter of a some sponges and coral who darted away when I shone my light on them). The cleaner shrimp seemed like the bums on the city hanging out, one per tube, in the sponges and lurking in every nook and cranny. I think that my biggest find of the night was a HUGE toadfish that I almost missed. It's really easy in the dark to loose a species by either 1. Blinding yourself with your own flashlight and losing all your night vision or 2. Having your species swim away as you turn your head back to show your buddy. 3. Have both of these things happen at the same time. In case you don't know what a toadfish is...

Not the right species. According to Google this is a Red Sea Toadfish. Either way you get the gist. Quit the looker, huh?

I would sat that it's head was about as big as mine and was over a foot long (though I couldn't see his entire body so I am not sure). The other highlight of the dive was of course the bioluminescence. It wasn't as good as I had hoped (I've experienced some pretty awesome stuff in Maine) but it was still pretty dang cool! Tyler turned around to me and looked like she was trying to give me a high five, so I awkwardly obliged but then realized that she was shaking her hand back and forth and tiny little bright lights seemed as though they were flying off of her hand. I like to think of these little organisms as the underwater fireflies. I was talking to Chris later on that night and she says, "You think that the aliens haven't landed on Earth? Look underwater." And in some sense she's right I guess. After all I am the one who always describes SCUBA diving as the underwater form of what I think its like to be an astronaut. 

Adam stopped us all about 15 minutes before we surfaced and got everyone to cover their flashlights so that we could see the luminescence and so that he could give us a funny light show with his green laser pointer that he had brought along. This was my first time on a night dive and now I am hooked, I can't imagine not every getting the feelings that I get when I am floating along underwater and looking around and feeling the sheer mass of water surrounding me on all sides. An experience that no matter how hard you try and what words you use it still never captures what lies beneath.