Night Dive With Our Marine Conservation Team

Currently our two Marine Interns, Tom and Ella, are working towards completing their Dive Master training! Part of completing this course includes leading a night dive. On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week Both Tom and Ella got the opportunity to do so. The Marine Interns as well as two Volunteers, and other Marine staff kit up after dinner and made their way down to the beach!

One of the highlights for our two Marine Volunteers, Erin and Martin, was the part of the dive where everyone turns off their torches and they got see the bioluminescence! While in the dark everyone carefully moves their hands, which causes these microorganisms to light up in the darkness. Some other amazing things they got to see were Cuttlefish, blue spotted ribbon tail rays, a slipper lobster, a baby moray eel! Our Marine Intern Tom saw also saw a stripped cat fish impaled on a sea urchin, although he wasn’t sure if it was really a highlight.

A night dive also gives divers the opportunity to see things they otherwise would not see during the day. At night, the coral polyps came out of their hard exoskeletons to feed on phytoplankton. This is something that does not occur during the day making it a unique experience to the night dive. Most fish also go to sleep at night but the venomous predator fish found on our reef come out to hunt. For example, the divers got to see tons of scorpion fish and lion fish which were out looking for their next meal. These fish are venomous, but do not target humans, so as long as the divers are cautious and mindful of them they can easily avoid contact. Another interesting event that they got to witness was a fight between two crabs which Tom said was very cool to witness!

The Marine Volunteers have the ability to sign up for multiple additional dives such as the night dive, however if you are planning on joining a night dive during your time with us be sure you bring an underwater torch! Our Marine program loves getting to offer our Volunteers a large range of dives from data collection dives, surveys, and fun dives. If you’re coming out to Volunteer with us, or are already a Volunteers be sure to ask about the extra dives we offer!