I've never been a big fan of Night Diving. You do a couple of dives in the day, then get all cleaned up, nice and dry and cozy ... then put on wet clothes and get in the water when it's almost dark. However, I do understand the benefits. There are 'things going on' during the night that you won't see during the day. I was having such a good time with Mark and he was showing me such great critters, that I knew I needed to do a Night Dive with him.
So off we went, into the water at dusk. At least when you enter the water, it isn't completely dark. And we walked in from the shore, so it was ok. It wasn't Muck Diving as I imagined, we were actually winding our way around a beautiful coral reef, that I didn't even know existed. Weaving between this, and over that.
The first thing he pointed out was a Wonderpus Octopus. It's a small-bodied thing, 2", with a lot of very long arms, up to 12" long, ...and blended in very well with the sandy bottom. He said they had not seen one of these here in a while. So it was special. Also on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dC3FXD1PTDU
Then a real nice white Octopus that looks blue in the photo. Arms are about 6" long
And moved around for me. I don't know what the head bopping up and down means ... probably 'leave me alone'. https://youtu.be/BGJCTbFWezA
And then the 'Big Find' ... a Blue Ring Octopus ... VERY special, and not seen here in months. Everyone wants to see the Blue Ring. It is quite small ... but the BLUE is BLUE and so cool ! It is only 3"
A photo doesn't show you how cool it is. Mark placed a crab within the Octopus' reach. I keep wanting to ask him ... 'do you just carry crabs around in your pocket?' ...... Watch the first part of the video closely. The crab is above and to the left of the Octopus .... the Octopus grabs the crab and puts it in it's mouth .... gone ! You Tube https://youtu.be/o-9Fuq4zhCg
Another one .... watch it 'walk' away and then take flight and turn BLUE. https://youtu.be/Z80-BswXXg0
One more, really flying .... and yes, they are poisonous. YouTube: https://youtu.be/QfT7FrlP-jc
After all that excitement, he found this little Crab hiding in it's coral home.
About this time, I am getting cold. I tapped Mark and 'hugged myself', which is the sign for I am Cold. He agreed. But then he found this colorful tiny Nudibranch.
And it continued ... then a Donald Duck Shrimp, one of my favorites. We wanted to quit, but he kept finding cool critters.
By the time we got to one of the most special Nudi's .... my entire body was shaking. This is a Cyerce, also called the ButterFly Nudi, with transparent 'wings'. I Love this Nudi, but I just could not get a good photo. If you can get a nice simple or black background, it's beautiful. But it just wasn't going to happen.
And 2 more colorful ones
We were under water for over 90min .... that is too long for a body to maintain comfortable temperature ... but ... it was worth it. A hot shower and dinner, and after 25min my body quit shaking :)
If you are not able to pull the videos up with the link, you can go to youtube.com and in the search area type "donna27p" ... and it should bring up all my videos.
dp
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