420 Dive Log Australasia OCTOBER 2026

Nothing below us but black water.

For the first few minutes your mind searches for something solid. The illuminated line becomes your little universe suspended over an ocean that extends thousands of feet beneath your fins.

Then your eyes begin finding things.

Almost immediately I encountered a shrimp riding a jellyfish.

The shrimp appeared to be propelling the jelly in circles. I fired frame after frame trying to get both animals in the right position.

Then came the squid.

Hundreds of them.

Some were only inches long. Others approached two feet. They moved through the lights and vanished into darkness.

Larval fishes drifted past.

Crustaceans materialized in front of the lens.

Jellyfish pulsed through the water.

The ocean that had looked empty from the boat was crowded with life. This migration happens every night whether divers are there to witness it or not.

The larval stage of a crustacean photographed at night in 3000 feet of water off the island of Yap

Then we jumped in.

I like that.

There was no reef.

Between Two Worlds

No sand.

After days underwater, we exchanged fins for paddles and kayaked into the mangrove forest.

No wall.

Jellyfish, Cephea cephea

The larval stage of a shrimp riding a luminescent jellyfish, Pelagia noctiluca, Yap. Shot on a black water dive one mile into open ocean at night with the bottom 2000+ feet below.

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Dive Log Australasia #420 Oct’ 26

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