07/03/2026
I recently started doing night dives again and they’re just the best! So many of the animals that are hidden during the day are out hunting for food and of course there’s the bioluminescent plankton. As I got out from this dive I spent a while hanging on the dive ladder and waving my hands through the sparkling darkness.
My favourite encounter from this dive were the Spotted Ratfish (Hydrolagus colliei). They mostly ignored me as they hovered near the bottom using their electrosensory organs to look for prey hiding in the sand. This species of Chimaera is unique in coming shallow enough to see while scuba diving, they range from the surface all the way down to 900m while most species in this family stay in deep waters.
