Starry Night

Upon request, Miguel’s Diving can organize night diving, such as last night’s dive at Alleyways. Upon entering the water along the shallow sand shelf, our dive lights were swarmed by countless white worms. We discovered that anemones like to eat these, but that anemonefish just want to sleep. Marine encounters included an octopus, a squid, a slipper lobster, a ray, a moray eel, a scorpionfish, numerous lionfish, a Banded pipefish (Doryrhamphus dactyliophorus), several Bearded rocklings (Brotula multibarbata), and a Basket star (Astroba sp.), perched high on a coral head. Deep sleepers included numerous goatfish scattered on the sand and a large parrotfish tucked under some coral. The reef was crawling with crabs and shrimps, including many Barred saron shrimp (Saron marmoratus) and a spectacular Decorator crab (Camposcia retusa). The five nudibranchs sited included Asteronotus cespitosus, whose name means "latrine hole!" We surfaced under a moonless sky blazing with stars.