night dive and dives Puerto Aventuras, Mexico

[Chocoholic]

We are in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico. I went on a night dive last night and it was incredible, eerie and exciting at the same time. We saw lots of stuff that doesn't come out in the daytime. IT was really cool to see the bioluminescence, we just turned off our lights and then waved our hands around and it looked like blue sparks off your fingers and lots of sparkly things in the water. My favourite thing to see at night is the squid, it sort of glows and then flashes different coloured lights and it's eyes are really wierdly lit up. I also liked seeing the octopus, it was kind of aquagreen and blue and changed colours too, just not lit up unless you put your light on it. There was one long, long worm that sqwiggled around and twisted up and went straight for our lights, then it burst and broke up into about twenty little short squiggley worms. We were swarmed by a whole bunch of little red twisty things that turned out to be little shrimp and something else, plus a bunch of tiny blue fish, they were after our lights.
Today we saw a huge, monster barracuda, four turtles, lots of tropical fish, a green moray eel, a speckled eel, a lacey starfish in a sponge, and a stingray plus lots of other stuff I can't remember right now. I took lots of pictures but I have to put them on our computer at home to figure out how to shrink them down to size to post them.
Tomorrow we head home, sigh, back to the real world.
Oh, I can hear the clank of the tanks, they are getting ready to go out diving again, but since I fly out in about 24hrs I can't dive again. Our room is about 30 steps from the dive shop so it is really easy to roll out of bed, grab my stuff and go diving.

[DevilDiver]

Sounds like a great trip, can't wait to see the photos.

[Chocoholic]

Underwater Puerto Aventuras

http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/s...g?t=1254191725

http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/s...g?t=1254191696

http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/s...g?t=1254191603

http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/s...g?t=1254191654

[DevilDiver]

Great photos!

The little red twisty things..... Did they swarm your lights and look like this?

[Chocoholic]

Yes, that is exactly what they looked like.

[DevilDiver]

I have run into these a few times, they can be very annoying on night dives because they are attracted to the lights. In the photo we took one of the rental lights and placed it on the sand facing up. In less than a min. the light was swarmed......... Usually Bloodworm's are active late summer around the full moon especially in sandy areas.

Bloodworms
The genus Glycera is a group of polychaetes (bristle worms) commonly known as blood worms. They are typically found on the bottom of shallow marine waters.
Bloodworms have a creamy pink color, as their pale skin allows their red body fluids to show through. This is the origin of the name "bloodworm". At the 'head', bloodworms have four small antennae and small fleshy projections called parapodia running down their bodies. The parapodia also contain their gills, which they use to breathe. Bloodworms can grow up to 35 cm in length.

[Chocoholic]

Thanks for the info as to what they were.

[Chocoholic]

trying again to imbed photos....

[Chocoholic]

it actually worked to do photos, yay!