Scuba diving at night can provide some amazing photographic opportunities. However, you need to be confident and relaxed, which can be difficult when you are swimming through pitch black water, with only a small underwater flashlight to guide your way. Unless I have a guide, I usually stick to dive sites that I am very familiar with for night dive photography.
This site is called Makena Landing, or 5 Graves, due to the historical Hawaiian cemetery located near the entry point.
I really enjoy going out at night because it is like a different world. I find creatures that noone else get to see because they are nocturnal. Things like nudibranchs, octopus, squid, crabs, and lobsters are much more likely to be spotted at night. My underwater camera setup has strobes and an underwater light mounted to it so I am ready for anything... at least until the battery goes out and envelopes me into the black.
- A spanish dancer nudibranch, one of the largest sea slugs in the world, dancing in the night.
An unusual pelagic jellyfish drifts through the night water.
*A nocturnal octopus lit up by my underwater lights.
This is a flatworm...I would call it the Halloween Flatworm.
A scary looking moray eel opens its mouth wide, showing off some pretty wickedly sharp teeth.
Another view of the octopus. All the planktonic creatures above it are attracted to my light. The red pokey thing in the bottom right of the photo is a red slate pencil urchin.
*A rarely seen conger eel goes out on the nighttime hunt.
You have to wait for the sun to set if you want a chance to see all the nocturnal creatures of the reef.
This is a resting porcupine pufferfish. It is very cute, but don't be fooled, one of these bit off the finger of a dive master one time.
*A beautiful find, this is a jeweled anemone crab. This nocturnal animal attached poisonous anemones to its shell as a defense mechanism. *
Hope you enjoyed this rarely seen look at the nighttime underwater life on Maui.
-Dai Mar