diverrex
Contributor
I’m late in posting this. We did our 3rd trip to Bonaire in September. I planned to write up a whole trip report but probably won’t get to that so I at least want to review the UV night dive we did with Buddy Dive off their Belmar location. The dive is a little pricey, $45 pp, for a guided shore dive, but it was worth it. It was one of the cooler dives we have ever done. They give you a blue light to use and a yellow filter that slips over your mask. The dive was really in two parts. For most of the dive we swam around like a normal night dive shining the blue light on different creatures and seeing how the fluorescence of the creatures shine. Some of the colors or shapes are amazing. Sand Divers for instance have a really cool bright neon outline along their body. It was interesting to see how different corals, sponges and fish gave off bright colors at night. But the best part for me was in the middle when we settled at around 45 feet and all 3 of us turned our lights off so it was pitch black. Then the guide turned his light on and shined it out front moving it back and forth then shut it off quickly. Right where he shined it lit up like a field of fireflies twinkling away for 15 seconds or so. He kept repeating it sometimes shining his light quickly and we only got a quick response and sometimes shining his light for longer and moving it back and forth, up and down, and then we got a longer response. It was like being in something like Avator and the creatures were signaling back to us. I laughed the whole time through my reg. We did this for about 5 minutes. The part I found most fascinating was right in front of our face the creatures that would emit a single diode type light for just a second then successively another one a half inch higher would light and that sequence would continue for maybe 10 – 15 lights moving up each time. It really looked like some kind of man-made Christmas light, or something you’d see in Vegas. Really cool, pricey as I said, but something I highly recommend.
Quick plug for Buddy Dive out of Belmar. This was the first time we used them after using two different ops on the other trips. From now on we will only use Buddy Dive.
I didn’t get any photos or video of the UV night dive since my lights and strobes would have messed up the effect but below are links to my regular photos and a video taken on this trip.
Photos:
http://diverrex.smugmug.com/Underwater/Bonaire-September-2012/25473079_7R23tZ#!i=2098421882&k=8Cb8c8R
Video:
http://diverrex.smugmug.com/Underwater/Short-Underwater-Videos/23345061_VzBDxd#!i=2165444642&k=4FQcSC8
PS: the new grocery store is great!
Quick plug for Buddy Dive out of Belmar. This was the first time we used them after using two different ops on the other trips. From now on we will only use Buddy Dive.
I didn’t get any photos or video of the UV night dive since my lights and strobes would have messed up the effect but below are links to my regular photos and a video taken on this trip.
Photos:
http://diverrex.smugmug.com/Underwater/Bonaire-September-2012/25473079_7R23tZ#!i=2098421882&k=8Cb8c8R
Video:
http://diverrex.smugmug.com/Underwater/Short-Underwater-Videos/23345061_VzBDxd#!i=2165444642&k=4FQcSC8
PS: the new grocery store is great!
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