DIVE LOG Australasia

Adult male Steep Headed parrotfish sleeping in his coccoon of coral slime

I love diving at night. My passion for night diving received another huge boost on each of my three night dives on the house reef at Wakatobi. Picture this moment for starters! My torchlight revealed a large 1.4 metre Java moray hunting. Less than half a metre from its jaws, a Saddleback butterfly fish was snoozing. The moray swam past the sleeping fish and turned tail. In a massive explosion of power, the moray lunged at the Butterflyfish. I blasted off as many photos as I could in those few seconds of total adrenalin filled excitement. It was all over in a flash. Huge plumes of fine coral silt clouded out the little coral crevice. The large killer was on high alert, frenetically examining each corner of the little coral cave in and out of the dust storm. Thank heaven that it did not show any interest in me. I usually think the ultimate safety measure… fingers under the armpits as I retreat.

As I checked my playback in the camera, I was thoroughly delighted. I had captured the moment when the monster went in for the kill. There was no sign of the hapless Butterfly fish! However, back in the resort, I downloaded the photos. There was a tiny tip of its tail fin just exiting the screen. It had survived! My beautiful Butterfly fish had escaped by a thousandth of a second with its life. This violent predatory attack followed by this miracle of survival. These magical moments in the darkness propel keen night divers such as myself into a state of ecstasy. In a curious twist of human logic, the moray did not seem to ‘see’ the prey in my torchlight! We are told that they hunt by smell. My observation causes me to wonder why morays do not hunt visually. They usually hunt exclusively by smell in total darkness! My guess is that they never hunt under torchlight; hunting exclusively by smell. As I have seen many times, they are a formidable hunter and are able to feed themselves so

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DIVE LOG Australasia #408 - October ‘24