Should we dive at night?

[tarponchik]

^ this is clearly a tarpon propaganda post based on your name and picture

As to the actual topic of the thread -
As an avid night diver I've wondered the same thing. And if modern super bright LEDs can cause damage to marine creature's eyes at night. Or the lights on vehicles used in deep ocean exploration where the wildlife is adapted to very low light levels.

Of course it is. I like night diving in Bonaire, and I like doing it in the company of a tarpon or two, or, sometimes, a schoolmaster. And there is nothing wrong if some sleepy goatfish gets eaten in the process.

However, as I've said here on SB numerous times, I am against using super-bright LED lights that scare marine life away and blind other divers. My flashlight is dim.

 

[Damselfish]

Everything we do has an impact, including diving during the day...

Educate yourself on the impacts and how to minimize them. Avoiding use of a crazy bright light when you don't need to is a good start. Know where you shouldn't shine it, or for too long or too close. Making sure you have situational awareness and good bouyancy control before you night dive is another.

Stuff like tarpon hunting in your lights, I sort of see as another symbiotic relationship among species. Just like any critter feeding in the lights off a building or boat.

 

[tarponchik]

Everything we do has an impact, including diving during the day...

Educate yourself on the impacts and how to minimize them. Avoiding use of a crazy bright light when you don't need to is a good start. Know where you shouldn't shine it, or for too long or too close. Making sure you have situational awareness and good bouyancy control before you night dive is another.

Stuff like tarpon hunting in your lights, I sort of see as another symbiotic relationship among species. Just like any critter feeding in the lights off a building or boat.

Just like Mantas use lights to feed on plankton. Amazingly, nobody's complaining that night diving with Mantas gives them unfavorable advantage over other species and promotes unnatural behavior.

 

[Esprise Me]

When you are night diving try not to light up prey, much like we are being warned to NOT try to "teach" predators to eat Lionfish by feeding the carcasses to predators.
THAT has truly change the behavior patterns of predators all over the Caribbean.

I haven't hunted lionfish so this is just a matter of idle curiosity, but can you tell me more about this? Is it a problem that people are actually teaching predators to hunt lionfish, or that simply they're teaching them that humans come bearing gifts?

 

[gypsyjim]

I haven't hunted lionfish so this is just a matter of idle curiosity, but can you tell me more about this? Is it a problem that people are actually teaching predators to hunt lionfish, or that simply they're teaching them that humans come bearing gifts?

The latter.
Predators do not seem to have learned to hunt the pests, but they have been becoming much dangerous, approaching, hoping and even demanding food.

Moreys, sharks, trigger fish, etc have altered their behaviors.

 

[hilljo88]

I'm a big fan of diving at night and see no problem in predators doing what they do. We did have a talk with a buddy who brought a light that seemed as bright as an aircraft landing light. It turned night into day under water and defeated the whole idea of night time diving. He got the message.

On attempts to train predators to hunt lion fish: many DM's and others will spear a lion fish and feed it to a reef shark, moray or even a grouper. I have seen docile grouper trail us at Cayman Brac waiting to be fed lion fish on a stick. I have seen morays contort themselves to swallow lion fish with all the quills pointing in the right direction. Once in the Bahamas, DMs had been feeding the lion fish to reef sharks. A problem arose when one of the divers had a gopro on a selfy stick. One hungry near-sighted shark was convinced the go pro was edible. The shark hitting the go pro made for interesting footage, but it seemed to enrage the shark who began swimming erratically. The group hustled out of the water at that point.

 

[gypsyjim]

I have seen too much aggressive behavior recently from normally shy predators, demanding game from divers, because they have come to see divers as a source for free meals.

I have even seen normally passive nurse sharks trying to take a driver's game bag, and I've seen this same behavior from large Morey eels, free swimming to get to divers.

 

[Wookie]

If we included me, then no.

 

[gypsyjim]

I love night diving. I also love pre-dawn dives, when I'm usually the only diver on the reef.

 

[living4experiences]

I posted this on Bonaire forum just because that's where i plan to go next, but it could have gone into any other forum. I've been thinking about whether we are doing a bad thing by night diving. Although diving at night is one of my favorite things in the world to do, I've read about how the flashlights wake up fish, causing them to swim around when they would normally be at rest. This can give an edge to the predator species that they wouldn't normally have. I wonder about the long term impact on a reef when it is visited by divers night after night. Does anyone else have thoughts about this?

Night diving is a favorite of mine, too. This forum is a good place to start this conversation because Bonaire is one of those places where shore diving is very common. When you're on a boat dive, you get a briefing from the DM as to how to behave and what you may encounter, but that doesn't happen with shore diving if it's not with a professional. We should all respect the reef creatures by not shining our lights directly on them either to wake them up from sleep or stun them to swim away. The sea horses in Bonaire are a perfect example. During the day and not using a light, they will not shy away. At night, they will deliberately turn their back to you if you shine your light on them, especially if it's a giant strobe bar. I've heard from the local professionals that they really dislike the photographers blinding those poor sea horses just to get that shot and they would like to see such massive lighting banned.

For me, personally, once I seeing a sleeping creature with my light, such as a turtle or a parrot fish in its cocoon, I do not disturb them. There's plenty of other active sea life that hunt and thrive at night.