Night Diving: When the Sea Comes Alive!

Many beginner divers swear that they’ll NEVER do a night dive when they go on vacation. “It’s too scary!”, “What if something comes for me??”, “What if I get lost?!”. All common concerns, and all completely understandable. But it usually only takes one or two amazing night dives to change these views. Here, we will go over why night diving is great and what you’ll need to explore the depths in the dark!

Image: PADI

For starters, there are a great number of fish and marine predators that hunt exclusively at night. Larger sport fish like tarpon as well as our famous toothy shark friends are among these. Night diving serves as an excellent opportunity to see these predators use your lights to hunt fish before your eyes! Also, many other animals like octopuses and lobsters are much more active at night and can be easier to spot.

So, what about gear? Obviously a dive torch is a must, and a backup one if you’re smart. Brighter is not always better, by the way; you don’t want to blind your fish friends after all! Also, a signaling device, both visual and auditory is an excellent idea. Night dives make it much tougher for boat crews to spot you, so taking redundant safety signaling devices is a great idea.

Have you been on a night dive before? What did you see??