I had a chance to do one of my favorite things again tonight - night dive. I did a nocturnal fish count, some ostracod watching and, of course some habitat deck cleaning (can't let James show me up too badly in the cleaning department).

The fish count was interesting because there is a noticeable difference in the species of fish that are out and about. The nocturnal guys come out and some of the day lovin' fish actually go to bed. Take the redband parrotfish for example. I ran across two of them nestled in different crevices in their mucous "bed sack". It is thought that they secrete this sack as protection from predators.

Besides all of the large hermit crabs walking about in their whelk or conch shells, I saw a spotted moray swimming in the open, on the hunt.

I saw Aquanauts Ove and Bill coming back to the habitat to check in so I stopped in to ask how their diving was going. We started talking about the interesting sights we were all seeing. I asked them if they had seen the weird flashes of bioluminescent clouds that light up and just disappear. Ove immediately piped up that those were from ostracods. The males give off these light shows to attract a mate and each species of the little buggers gives off its own type of show. Unbelievable. Kind of handy having a scientist around when you need one to answer the mysteries of the deep. If humans had to do a display similar to the ostracod, we'd have to walk around with a pocket full of fireworks. But I digress...

As I was finishing up my REEF fish count, I shined my light on a very large silvery barracuda. We have at least a hundred barracuda that hang around the habitat, so we are used to each other. This one seemed to take offense to my light or was just curious, but he turned directly towards me and slowly started to approach at very close range. It reminded me of a show I used to watch as a kid in Venice , Florida. I'd rush home from elementary school to watch a show called Diver Dan. I'm sure not many people remember the show anymore(although, I did find an internet sight where I was able to order a tape of the show), but it was about a hard hat diver who had adventures under the sea with his mermaid friend and a cast of fishy characters, including a rough guy barracuda that always had a cigarette dangling from his mouth to make him look tough. That barracuda tonight reminded me of Diver Dan's nemesis. The show was long before computer animation. Diver Dan and the mermaid were played by actors, but the fish were all marionettes. Although I was later greatly influenced by all of the Cousteau shows and books, I guess my original inspiration for following the sea as a career began with Diver Dan. Thanks buddy! NO, THANK YOU DIVER DAN!