New Moon vs. Full Moon

[Dermochelys]

I've seen some post here on the forum about doing night dives under a Full Moon, but what about under the New Moon? Do different creatures come out under the "safety" of the new moon, or is it so dark diving under a new moon it isn't worth it? I know on land a New moon can be better for some animals being more hidden then in a full moon, snakes for example, but I'm not sure about the reef critters. I can see how predators might be out and about taking advantage of being able to sneak up on there prey.

A little background, I'll be diving in Kauai this March 16th and I have booked a late afternoon dive and then a night dive. It just so happens it will be 2 days before the new moon, so I'm wondering what to expect. This will be guided and the DM has been highly recommended by others on this website. I've never gone night diving before, and I'm really excited, it looks like a ton of fun.

Thanks in advance!

 

[trtldvr]

first of all i have too say i have never noticed if different life comes out on a new moon vs. a full moon. Now having said that i love diving both of them. There is something special about cruising around the reef at night with enough lite from the moon to be able to leave your light off the entire dive. It is also very cool to hit the surface at the end of a night dive during a new moon and to roll onto my back and look at the stars. After an hour or so of night diving my eyes are very light sensitive I can see millions of stars. I usually will tell the dm I am up and ok and ask him to let me know when every one is on board and then I will climb up. try it, enjoy the show

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Night diving is more like National Geographic footage. It's really all about the lighting; many properly lit night dives are way more colorful than the same dive in the day. That's particularly true in Hawaii. The endemic corals are nearly all, if not all hard coral and most of the vivid color needs more than ambient light to be vivid. With a strobe or video light you can make some daytime pictures and video more colorful than it looked live. On a night dive your dive light lets you see those more vivid colors as well as the shift change with regard to activity.

With a full moon, and no clouds, many dive sites are quite negotiable without lights. I have dove with guests for as much as 15 minutes without lights, da'kine chikin' skin. Lava tubes with skylights are way dope, especially if you can't see the far opening. Those same sites are still good with new to no moon, you just won't spend so much of the dive with the lights off. Even without the moon, do turn out the lights, check out the phosphoresence(?), hopefully the guide will organize it. Don't do lights out lava tubes without a really good guide.

 

[Dermochelys]

I should be a blast. So long as I remember that the bubbles go up, I should be fine. The night sky should be amazing because we'll be off of Kauai, and I'm guessing that we won't have the big city lights of Honolulu to deal with, I just hope they give me a big enough dive light to use so I can see as much as possible.