Miscellaneous Blogs
The Night Dive: Full Moon & BIOLUMINESSANCE
Words cannot describe how beautiful our full moon night dives are. As the sun sets, the vibrant colours of daylight dives are reduced to an eerily calm darkness. The ocean’s colourful fish disappear and in their place nocturnal creatures start to wake up and emerge from their hiding places. Morey eels come out of their holes and start the hunt, and can be seen swimming freely out in the open at night – it is a truly awesome sight. Octopus also come out to play, and a night dive is your best chance to experience a close encounter with one of these beautiful creatures.
Visibility at night can be vastly impaired, with just the diver’s torches illuminating the dive site in narrow beams of light. However – when you dive during a full moon this is not the case. Earth’s bright satellite reflects light into the water providing illumination beneath the waves. We love to turn off our torches and allow our eyes to adjust, the dive site now looks like the negative of a photograph and it transforms your whole experience.
But wait. What’s that?
As you make trails with your hands you notice that the water has a certain glow to it; an after image for your negative. What is it? Plankton of course – bioluminescent plankton or phytoplankton to you marine biologists out there. Invisible in daylight hours, these lights are caused by your movements which disturb micro-organisms called dinoflagellates – their cell membranes respond to electrical signals which allow them to create this unique illumination. The light is produced by two devilishly named twins – a pigment called luciferin and an enzyme called luciferase. Luciferin reacts with oxygen and the luciferase spreads out the reaction. Moving the water around you causes the oxygen molecules to stimulate this reaction – and the more you move the more it glows. I have spent many a night dive barely moving – just playing with natures floating fireworks display.
Do you want to share it with us? Book your full moon night dive today, we go without fail, so book today to avoid missing your chance! The night diver speciality is even better – so if you truly want to experience the Cyprus dive sites in a whole new light fill out one of our Scuba Monkey Contact forms today and get involved!! Visit www.scuba-monkey.com for more details.
Gemma and Ian visited DEEP and were hosted by Phil Short, Research Diving, Training Lead, and were given a tour of the facility at Avonmouth and then over to the Campus at Tidenham.
DEEP is evolving how humans access, explore and inhabit underwater environments. Through flexible, modular and mobile subsea habitats that allow humans to live undersea up to 200m for up to 28 days, work-class submarines, and advanced human performance research, DEEP completely transforms what we are capable of underwater and how we conduct undersea science and research.
You can listen to Episode 173 of the BiG Scuba Podcast here.
We hope you have enjoyed this episode of The BiG Scuba Podcast. Please give us ★★★★★, leave a review, and tell your friends about us as each share and like makes a difference. Contact Gemma and Ian with your messages, ideas and feedback via The BiG Scuba Bat Phone +44 7810 005924 or use our social media platforms. To keep up to date with the latest news, follow us:
We are on Instagram @thebigscuba
We are on Facebook @thebigscuba
We are in LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian%F0%9F%A6%88-last-325b101b7/
The BiG Scuba Website www.thebigscuba.com
Amazon Store : https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/thebigscuba
Visit https://www.patreon.com/thebigscubapodcast and subscribe – Super quick and easy to do and it makes a massive difference. Thank you.
Gemma and Ian chat to Dr. Joseph Dituri. Dr. Jospeh Dituri lived undersea for 100 Days in a mission combining education, ocean conservation research, and the study of the physiological and psychological effects of compression on the human body.
Dituri enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1985. He served continuously on active service upon various ships and shore stations where he was involved in every aspect of diving and special operations work from saturation diving and deep submergence to submersible design and clearance diving. Now that he is retired from 28 years of active service to the United States, he is the president of the International Board of Undersea Medicine. He also volunteers his time as the CEO of the Association for Marine Exploration. He is an invited speaker on motivational, sea and space related topics.
Fuelled by his passion for exploration, discovery, adventure, and making the greatest possible positive contribution to the world, he is fighting for change in a big way and with great enthusiasm.
You can listen to Episode 172 of the BiG Scuba Podcast here.
We hope you have enjoyed this episode of The BiG Scuba Podcast. Please give us ★★★★★, leave a review, and tell your friends about us as each share and like makes a difference. Contact Gemma and Ian with your messages, ideas and feedback via The BiG Scuba Bat Phone +44 7810 005924 or use our social media platforms. To keep up to date with the latest news, follow us:
We are on Instagram @thebigscuba
We are on Facebook @thebigscuba
We are in LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian%F0%9F%A6%88-last-325b101b7/
The BiG Scuba Website www.thebigscuba.com
Amazon Store : https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/thebigscuba
Visit https://www.patreon.com/thebigscubapodcast and subscribe – Super quick and easy to do and it makes a massive difference. Thank you.
-
News3 months agoHone your underwater photography skills with Alphamarine Photography at Red Sea Diving Safari in March
-
News3 months agoCapturing Critters in Lembeh Underwater Photography Workshop 2024: Event Roundup
-
Marine Life & Conservation Blogs2 months agoCreature Feature: Swell Sharks
-
Blogs2 months agoMurex Resorts: Passport to Paradise!
-
Blogs2 months agoDiver Discovering Whale Skeletons Beneath Ice Judged World’s Best Underwater Photograph
-
Gear Reviews3 months agoGear Review: Oceanic+ Dive Housing for iPhone
-
Marine Life & Conservation2 months agoSave the Manatee Club launches brand new webcams at Silver Springs State Park, Florida
-
Gear Reviews2 weeks agoGEAR REVIEW – Revolutionising Diving Comfort: The Sharkskin T2 Chillproof Suit