What's so special about them?
During my travels, I have always looked for the beauty of the night at sea, many times I have been looked at with wide eyes and full of terror, other times with eyes eager for curiosity!
In the mystery of the night we can live adventures that we would not even dream of during the day!
“What is there to see in the dark of night, in a place that is not ours in the least…?
In truth, my love for the sea at night began a long time ago, in the summer of 2009 right in the Maldives, in the Felidhoo atoll, in front of the pier of the Alimathà resort. “Armed” only with fins, a mask, a snorkel and a small underwater torch, we dived into the darkness of the night face to face with about fifty nurse sharks, not even the slightest bit interested in us, swimming very close to us with that elegance mixed with pride that only a shark can have.
That experience, which has always remained in my heart, led me to love that mysterious and at first sight disturbing world, but then extremely special, different from everything you can imagine.
A day at the coral reef
When light gives way to darkness, everything changes underwater: do you remember our cities during the day? The traffic, the people running everywhere, the noise of cars, horns, the frenzy of a typical working day? Now imagine the large and crowded coral reef: fish swimming everywhere, alone or in groups, creating trails of color among the corals or in mid-water. Let's stop and look at them for a moment: each of them really has something to do!
The butterfly fish is busy looking for its partner among the madrepores, the parrot fish has to nibble on a succulent dead coral, the clown fish has to do some house cleaning, around its beautiful anemone…
Watch out! There is also a wonderful sea turtle that is coming towards us, oh no, it really wants to eat the sponge back here!
In short, there is really a lot to do on an ordinary day at the coral reef!
But what happens at night?
We return to the city, once the excitement of the sunset and the frenzy of returning home to prepare dinner are over, the traffic begins to ease, the streets to empty and here begins the world of the night, the night owls begin to go out, meet at the bar, wander around the deserted city, “deserted” at first sight!
Do you think that in the coral reef it is so different? Here too the fish that we met during the day return to their carefully protected dens during the day, no one wants to "go out" anymore, they prefer to stay safe, precisely because the night is no longer safe!
(As Vasco says).
How do diurnal animals stay “safe”?
There are many adaptations used by diurnal animals within the coral reef. Of the thousands of fish that wander around during the day, incredibly you don't find even one at night: they hide in any crevice, between the branches of the corals and even under the sand!
But there is someone who beats them all with ingenuity: the parrot fish!
Extraordinarily active during the day, it is a master of hide and seek during the night; in fact it hides in the crevices between the corals but not content, it is also able to produce a bubble and enclose itself inside it.
"Why would you want to put yourself in a big bubble?"
Even though it may seem very strange to us because we are not able to perceive it, the sea is full of smells!
Our friend the parrot fish knows this very well, as in addition to hiding so as not to be “seen”, it encloses itself inside a bubble, trapping its smell and therefore not allowing predators to “smell” it!
"Too smart!"
Who do we meet on the coral reef at night?
As in every self-respecting city, even in the coral reef there are inhabitants of the night… Animals that rest during the day, remain hidden, never throw themselves into the daily frenzy but that at night appear as if by magic. These animals are predators, preferring the quiet of the night to hunt, they have developed adaptations as true snipers and formidable hunters.
This is the magic of the night! Meeting animals that you don't even know exist during the day and that crowd the coral reef at night.
For example, there is a group of animals that are very common in the coral reef and also very numerous: crustaceans. Finding a crustacean around the coral reef during the day is very difficult! Where are they all? Always hidden in some burrow or between coral crevices...
During the night, however, you only find crustaceans such as lobsters, crabs and hermit crabs, cleaner shrimps, wandering around the reef! Strange animals, aren't they?!
The same can be said of moray eels, rays, stingrays, small sharks, scorpion fish, they are also the protagonists of tropical nights!
These animals are also very clever and use the beam of light emitted by our torch to find hidden fish! So do not be surprised if during night dives these animals swim so close to us! They do not want "us" but the light of our torcha!
Our sight at night
And us? What are we doing in this sea full of predators at night? We observe of course! We enter this mysterious world on tiptoe and with a much more attentive gaze than during the day…
Imagine when we look at a coral reef during the day, how many things distract us: the coming and going of fish, the coral formations scattered around the reef, the blue of the depths, the rays of the sun illuminating the reef etc, with our wide field of vision we have thousands of distractions every second.
Now let's catapult ourselves into the sea during the night... What do we see? Nothing other than what is illuminated by our underwater torch! Extraordinary, isn't it? Our attention will focus only on that small portion of coral reef that we are illuminating, greatly increasing our observation capacity!
Now I know, the question arises spontaneously… And everything that is around us but that we do not see?? Eh, it is better not to know, right!?