What is the Blackwater dive?

 

A black water is a pelagic (open ocean) night dive, done in deep waters far from shore to observe several species of pelagic critters that glow a rainbow of colors in our lights.

Read on for more Details:
 

Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain on planet earth. If measured from it's base, 14,000ft below sea level, it stands nearly 1000ft taller than everest. Along with 4 other mountains, it makes up Hawaii Island, the largest of the islands that make up the most remote archipelago on earth. Situated smack dab in the middle of the Pacific ocean, this massive upheaval of volcanic earth, makes for some of the steepest and deepest waters located this close to shore. This makes Hawaii a uniquely suited place to experience this open ocean night dive we call the Blackwater.

 

We begin our night by venturing out to sea late in the evening from the west side of the island, where the underwater topography is steepest. It doesnt take long to get where we are going. Once several miles from shore, we slow the boat to a stop above several thousands of feet of water. Here we start to gear ourselves for a pelagic dive. (a pelagic dive is an open ocean dive, no where near reef or shore, just in the middle of the vastness of the ocean.)

 

We start the dive by checking currents and winds, deciding whether we need to deploy a sea anchor. Once determined, we lower weighted tethers down to 60ft. Each diver will be attached to their own tether via a short tag line. This way divers can maintain their depth and relative location, even lacking the normal reference of a reef or bottom.

 

Without the typical references of a day dive, it can take a few moments to settle in. Soon upon leveling out you will begin to notice thousands of small specks floating by you in the water. As you take a closer look with your lights youll begin to notice each speck is a tiny creature.

Many deepwater light sensitive animals that live in total darkness deep in the ocean during the day, will make huge vertical migrations to the surafce each night, to feed or respirate in the shallow nutrient and oxygen-rich surface waters. Most of these will be animals you have not seen before. Many of them will have strange body structures that are gelatinous and nearly transparent. Some of the translucent jelly-like animals seem to produce a rainbow of colors when our lights bounce off of them. Most animals on this dive are very small only a few inches in length or less, but some animals like siphonpohores have been known to have tentacles that reach lengths of several hundred feet.

 

Several speices of larval reef fish and invertebrates are seen in these surface waters. Often looking like exact replicas of the adults except transparent and the size of a quarter. Some look nothing like their terminal phases and are draped with ornate filaments and colors.

 

Many kinds of larval shrimps and crabs dart in and out of our lights like moths to light.

 

Often the animals are found in free floating colonies or commensal, symbiotic, or parasitic relationships. It's not uncommon to see Lobster larva riding the back of a jellyfish seemingly steering the animal to it's whims while munching on a tentacle all the while.

Seeing large schools of squid on the edge of our lights is always an exciting moment, especially if we get visited by a predator like the Hawaiian spinner dolphins that come into feed on these tasty morsels. On some dives the squid come and hide behind the divers to stay away from the dolphins, skidish and spewing ink everywhere they go.

Often toted as the “Holy Grail of Blackwater Diving” Hawaii's endemic pelagic seahorse, is a rare but real possibility to see on this dive.

 

I've even seen and captured the first images of a living cookie cutter shark in 2008. An incredibly rare and unique deep water shark, that had not been documented alive before.

Every now and again bigger animals besides dolphins show up too. Pelagic sharks like Blues, Silkys, Oceanic white tips aren’t entirely uncommon, and in winter humpback whales Serenade our out of this world journey through the dive.

 

Usually at one point in the dive, I will go around to all of the divers, and have them shield their lights for just a moment. As our eyes adjust we will being to see the small light producing plankton and the water around us becomes a sparkling scape of magic. Any kick of a fin or wave of an arm will light up the tiny beings and produce a light show that rivals the most beautiful meteor showers.

 

This dive is not for everybody, and all dive shops including our selves require some experience before attempting this dive.

 

The thing to really take away from this dive is the absolute vastness of the ocean, the undiscovered beings and ecosystems beneath our waves, and the exploration that can be achieved on such epic frontiers and proportions so close to our own home.

 

-Joshua Lambus

Authur C Clarke once said:
Curious we call this planet earth, when it is so clearly ocean.