For many newly divers certified ones, the idea of night diving seems a little bit crazy. I certainly felt that way six years ago as I stood poised to step into the black waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, about to experience night diving for the first time. Twin floodlights cast pools of light onto the surface of the sea, illuminating the darting black silhouettes of predatory fish, while simultaneously making those dark areas seem all the darker. I was caught between jittering nerves and acute excitement at the thought of experiencing something completely new. Excitement soon won and I found myself submerged in the midnight ocean.
As soon as we descended, my nerves disappeared, replaced almost instantly by wonder at the sheer beauty of the reef at night. If diving by day feels weightless, night diving feels even more so: punctuated only by my torch beam, the darkness was all-encompassing. Other divers’ lights, moving faintly over the seafloor, gave the scene a surreal quality, and I found that the isolated pools of light focused my attention on the creatures they illuminated. Sleeping parrotfish and sparkling glassy baitfish; an octopus with sinuously unfurling tentacles; a stingray feeding out in the open — although we’d dived this site during the day, the darkness transformed it into a completely new stage, with a bevy of new stars.
The highlights of that dive were undoubtedly the blacktip reef sharks, caught occasionally in a beam shone into deep water. They were like ghosts in the gloom, their silvery forms wraithlike and barely discernible as they kept their distance, their eyes briefly reflecting the light before they turned away from the beam and back to their hunting efforts. Other night dives since then have offered similar moments of singular beauty, found only in the hours between dusk and dawn, including the ruthless predations of voracious trevallies, an ocean filled with ethereal, glimmering phosphorescence, and the rainbow of multi-colored lights that pulse along jellyfish tentacles when darkness falls.
Safety When Night Diving
There are several basic dos and don’ts for night diving, both from a safety and environmental perspective. Safety first: The most important piece of equipment on a night dive is obviously your torch. PADI offers sound advice regarding torch etiquette: carry a primary, a backup, and attach a chemical light to your cylinder. If your first torch fails, you don’t necessarily have to abort the dive, and your chemical light allows other divers to locate you in the darkness. It is not enough to share torches between buddies — it is imperative that each diver carries his own light.
Other tips for safety and orientation include keeping night dives shallow and simple — dealing with other concerns like strong current, as well as the unfamiliarity of diving in the dark, can lead to task loading and subsequent problems. Keeping shallow is smart because most divers use air faster at night; staying close to your entry point helps minimize the chance of navigation error. If you are not diving with an experienced guide, it is also a good idea to reconnaissance the dive site during daylight to familiarize yourself with the topography and any recognizable features. Either way, it’s rewarding to experience a dive site both at night and during the day to compare experiences: you will be astounded by how the reef changes before and after sunset. Perhaps the best time to begin a night dive is at dusk, so that divers can assemble and check gear in the light and descend just as twilight casts its spell over the underwater world.
From an environmental perspective, it is important to be aware of the intrusion humans with bright lights can create in the night-time ocean. Exceptionally bright torches and strobes can disorient and blind both nocturnal and diurnal reef dwellers; avoid keeping your beam on any creature for an extended period of time. Sleeping fish may make wonderful photography subjects, but exposing them to bright light not only disturbs them but also makes them easy targets for predators that hunt in the darkness. Night diving reveals a new spectrum of underwater life, and if approached with care and sensitivity, you can experience these creatures without harassing them.
Diving at night is spectacular, magical and unique. It adds adrenaline and adventure to previously known daytime sites, and opens a window onto a world filled with dark beauty. Following these few basic tips should help you to get the very most out of your next night diving experience — or your first.
