What is black water diving?
Have you ever heard of black water diving? During this particular form of night diving, you do not dive over a reef, but over deep open water. No bottom, no fixed reference, just an illuminated line and marine life rising from the depths at night. Black water diving shows you a side of the ocean that most divers never experience.
What is black water diving?
Black water diving is a special form of night diving where you do not dive over a reef or dive site, but over the open sea. The dive takes place above water that is hundreds to sometimes thousands of meters deep. You yourself are usually suspended between 5 and 30 meters, with no view of the bottom.
Instead of a reef, use a line of lights as a reference. This line hangs down from the boat and attracts plankton. That plankton in turn forms food for a variety of animals from the deeper water layers, which come up at night.
So you literally dive in the middle of the water column, in the dark, while marine life appears and disappears around you.
Why do you see so many unusual animals during black water diving?
At night, the so-called vertical migration takes place. In the process, huge amounts of plankton and deep-sea animals move toward the surface to eat. During the day, these animals are safely at great depths, out of reach of most divers.
During a black water dive, you find yourself exactly in that migration zone. That’s what makes these dives so special: you see animals that normally remain hidden.
What can you encounter during a black water dive?
During black water dives, everything revolves around small and often fragile life. Many animals are still in a larval stage, so they barely resemble adult fish or crustaceans. A fish that will later be brightly colored and recognizable appears here as an almost transparent creature with large eyes.
In addition, a variety of small crustaceans, such as shrimp and crabs, float slowly through the water. Juvenile cuttlefish regularly appear, moving about briefly but fiercely before disappearing again.
You will also see different species of jellyfish and other transparent, free-floating animals. Some live alone, others form long chains that move quietly with the current. They are often almost completely transparent, and sometimes light up brightly in your dive light.
No two dives are the same. Sometimes it stays quiet for a long time, sometimes the encounters follow each other in quick succession. This unpredictability is what makes black water diving so special.
Where can you do black water diving?
Black water diving is only possible in places where deep water is close to shore and where dive centers are experienced in this particular form of diving.
- Romblon, Philippines – one of the best places in the world, with rich planktonic life and relatively few divers.
- Anilao, Philippines – a pioneer in black water diving, well known to underwater photographers.
- Lembeh Strait, Indonesia – best known for muck diving, but also black water dives possible with local operators.
- Tulamben, Bali – in some places black water diving can be organized over deep water just outside the reef.
- Palau – For advanced divers seeking the unknown.
- Hawaii – the birthplace of black water diving: here the first night dives over open water were developed and it is still regularly offered.
