Night Lighting on the Dock

Night lighting was a fun experience. We basically took the extended light out of the shed on the docks and placed it in the water. There wasn't a lot of visibility, but we could still see pretty far down.

It took about 5 minutes for the sand lance to start appearing. They were adorable! They swam together, getting closer to the light then getting further away. I tried to catch the sand lance with a net, but they were a little tough to get. They're super fast! Some of them weren't as smart and swam right into my net. There were also a lot of shrimp! They were up on the pilings, some green ones, some translucent ones, and the normal striped ones.

After about 10 minutes of that we went to flip the tires. There were so many tiny decorator crabs on there and barnacles. I think during the night is the best time to go out and see what's lurking around in the water. During the day, there isn't as much variability in the organisms.

I wish we could have seen dog sharks or other cooler fish. It was still fun and I'd probably do it again. The luminescence in the water was pretty cool as well!

Posted on November 28, 2012 01:54 AM by huangt3