Coming up, a Red Sea night dive with unwary sleeping fish….and a hunting moray eel!
Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
Nobody is quite sure how the Red Sea got its name, but if you look underwater, the reason
might be the abundance of color on the reefs.
The Red Sea is on every scuba diver’s bucket list.
Todd, Bill and I head to Egypt for the trip of a lifetime to dive the Red Sea.
We board the liveaboard dive boat Seawolf and set out on a voyage of adventure.
Our dives are spectacular.
We see dolphins, sea turtles, and stingrays, not to mention colorful reefs and breathtaking
coral caverns.
But once the sun goes down, we are ready to see what’s happening on the reefs at night.
Cameraman Bill and I suit up for a night dive!
You would think that night diving would be scary, but believe it or not, once you get
down there, it’s a lot of fun!
Woo hoo!
Bill and I hit the water, to go see what we can find on the reef after dark.
Immediately we notice a lot of plankton in the water.
Plankton comes up from the depths at night, so the animals that feed on plankton also
get active at night, like the moon jelly, catching plankton in its short tentacles.
A small school of fish is scurrying around grabbing plankton.
The coral polyps down on the reef open up at night to catch plankton too.
A basket star spreads its net of arms into the current to catch plankton.
These animals are super sensitive to light.
As I come in close with my video camera, the basket star begins to fold its arms up.
During the day, these animals curl up into a tiny ball and hide in the reef.
Speaking of hiding in the reef, most reef fish are diurnal—meaning they’re active
during the day.
At night they sleep.
A parrotfish is catching some Zs.
Without eyelids, the fish may look awake, but it’s not.
A lizardfish looks ready to pounce, but not really.
Watch for the eyes to move.
There, now my video lights are waking it up.
Lionfish are typically most active during the day, but they are opportunistic.
They have been known to hunt by divers’ lights.
A sea urchin is combing the surface of the sand for food, protected by its venomous spines.
This is a nocturnal animal—active at night.
It buries itself in the sand and hides during the day.
Also roaming the sand, another nocturnal animal, a red nudibranch called a Spanish Dancer.
This nudibranch—the size of a shoe--is basically a snail without a shell.
And it has a hitchhiker, a tiny imperial shrimp, hanging on for a free ride, and picking the
sand for food as the Spanish Dancer cruises along.
Nearby, on the reef, one of the nocturnal reef predators has come out.
An octopus eyes me suspiciously, unsure if I am to be trusted.
I hold really still and try not to present a threat.
The octopus changes color to match the reef, and goes hunting.
The octopus has amazing camouflage capabilities, able to change not just color but also skin
texture, from smooth to wrinkled, as it moves over different parts of the reef.
Sometimes it moves with jet propulsion, swimming up into the water over the reef to look for
a good place to land for hunting.
Then it proceeds to move along the reef, sticking its 8 arms into different holes and cracks,
trying to grab something that might make a good dinner, like a fish or a crab.
No place is very safe from an octopus.
Finally the octopus has grabbed a crab.
With the crab tightly held in its arms, the octopus squirts it way to a private place
to eat its meal.
Another nocturnal predator is out too.
A moray eel slithers its way through the reef searching for food in the same way as the
octopus.
Sleeping fish tend to hide in holes in the reef.
But the moray eel is perfectly designed to reach into these hiding places and grab fish
that never see the moray coming.
Still, it’s not as easy as it sounds.
Not every hole has a fish, and lots of fish get away.
Sometimes though, you get lucky.
A fish sleeping in plain sight.
As much as it struggles, this fish is not going to get away.
The teeth of the moray are shaped like needles and point backwards into its mouth.
Like the barbs on a fish hook, they prevent pretty much anything from escaping.
This fish is dinner.
Night diving is always fascinating.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad night dive, and the Red Sea certainly hasn’t disappointed
me when it comes to night diving action.
An octopus hunting and a moray catching a fish were certainly highlights of the dive,
and that shows that you just never know what you will see when you drop into the water
and have a look.
At night especially, it’s an amazing Blue World.
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