Bonaire trip and bio-fluorescence

[scuba_willy]

Returned recently from another great trip to Bonaire. Late November was definitely the rainy season, with rain showers (more like squalls at times) every day for the two weeks we were there. But did not spoil the fun (although we got through a complete can of bug spray) We stayed at Den Laman. We like the organization there - both service and quality of the condo's and the dive operation- BDA. As mentioned on this board, BDA now has allowed 24 hr access to dive gear and tanks. A nice feature. Be even better if some divers locked the storage again while they were doing a night dive ! I guess some people dont think about other peoples' stuff.

Diving was good (well no surprises there). We dove Winsock for the first time. Very interesting site with easy entry. Even though I heard it might be noisy, I was surprised at how loud the Cruise ship at dock sounded... Also did Oil Slick for the first - just love the jump in entry ! We had a dolphin encounter at Margate Bay - a reasonable size pod was travelling south as we were gearing up. They did not stay long, but we did get to see a couple of them briefly on the dive. A nice treat.

As a change for the night dives, I took a blue LED lamp to expose bio-fluorescence. It was an interesting experience. Most fluorescence was from corals, although some anemones and some invertebrates (e.g fireworms) exhibited colors (mostly green, but some red ). I would recommend trying this for a different experience. I have attached some photos - quality a bit variable as I had to hand hold a LED flashlight to take the shot.

 

[Mud&Rox]

now that's just too cool. I know they rent out the black lights and special masks but I've never tried it

 

[scuba_willy]

Yes - I believe there are guided dives where they provide the gear. I bought my own gear for it as I planned on doing several "blue" night dives to get familiar with the concept and take pictures. My guess was for the price of a guided dive for two I could buy most of the gear. Also I needed another flashlight and I could switch the blue LEDs for white, if I did not like the effect.

It was a different experience and I would recommend trying it.

 

[LarsB]

Cool!
And thanks for sharing!
I suppose you had the BW-1 flash light from NightSea?
It's the only commercially available blue light which you can switch between blue and white that I know of...
Did you also use the NightSea mask and camera filters?
Because if not, I wonder how you saw anything at all (I've tried that, to test a new lamp, while the filters had not arrived yet), because without the filters, the fluorescence is overpowered by the blue light, and you see only blue, but no fluorescence.

 

[scuba_willy]

I wanted to keep costs down and shopped around for the various gear needs. I bought a tektite flashlight with blue LEDs *the retail price for the light was around $80). The same light will also take a set of white LEDs if I want for about $30. I did buy the yellow lens, mask covers - about $20 each- and used a standard yellow/orange filter on my camera. Hence my set up was a little cheaper than buying a complete dive blue set from NightSea (or the similar retailers). Nothing against NightSea - I imagine their gear is more capable, I just wanted to keep my initial costs down.

Agree the yellow lens for the masks make a significant difference. Although the coral fluorescence was enough to be seen without the filters. However for $20 the mask filters are worth the investment.