Night Dive at Pete's Reef

I'm waiting on some dive pictures to come in from our trip to Saipan (not film or anything, just waiting on our dive guide to post the pics he took!). So in the meantime, thought I'd share these beauties from a night dive we did with our friends Steve and Andrea a couple weeks ago. Night dives are generally more exciting than day dives for a couple of reasons. For one, the water around you is pitch black, and you can only see what you shine your light on. So there's a looming eeriness about what you're swimming near. But the real reason night dives are more exciting is because so many sea creatures come out at night that you never see during the day. And since you can only see them by spotlighting them against a black backdrop, the colors underwater are so much more vibrant.

Corals open up at night

Lion fish are easy to find at night

This is a crab. It is amazing that this is a living creature... so much creativity under here!

This was a new one for me. Looks more like underwater artwork than a crab.

We got to see this eel out of its coral. Usually they hide the majority of their bodies in the rocks, but tonight he was out.

Parrot fish are my favorites during the day. So gorgeous and easy to find. At night they spin a bubble sack around themselves and actually go to sleep in the rocks. They can't feel anything because of the bubble, so they sleep soundly. That is, until someone sticks a finger in there and breaks the sleeping bag open, then it's a full sprint!

Yet another unbelievable crab. It looks like a walking circus with all the stuff all over its back.

I had a blast in Saipan with two girlfriends of mine last week and look forward to sharing those pics with you soon. We took about 300 of them so I'm going to have my work cut out for me in choosing the best ones.