Fluorescent Night Diving, What is It and Why Should You Try It?

Fluorescent (Fluo), Night Diving, is a “new” approach to night diving that is becoming very popular. Divers are taking a new look at familiar dive sites in a new light. On a fluo dive, you use a “blue light” to illuminate features of the dive site.

When viewed with a yellow filter, the items seem to glow but with colors unlike those seen by the naked eye in daylight or at night with a normal dive light.You will see something entirely different, the colors and complexity can be overwhelming.

The marine life that might seem dull and gray during the day might look like a riot of colors at night. A pale yellow piece of coral is now fire red and a glowing beauty of form and color.

Also read: Here is Why You Should Never Touch Marine Life

If you were a teenager in the 60s, you might think “groovy man, groovy”.

If so, you probably had “black lights” and black light posters in your room if your parents allowed it.
Under the black lights, the posters glowed with strong colors.

A very good poster might even have a completely different image than the one seen in normal room light because the items response with a light in a slightly higher wavelength. The black lights of the 70’s are just another term used for Ultraviolet (UV) light, which is a shorter wavelength than that our eyes normally see.

When the posters were illuminated by the short wavelength in the absents of other lights, we can see the reaction. This is the same as what we see on fluor night dives.
When you think that divers who grew up in the 70’s are the ancients, here is another popular cult use of UV light, CSI.

There are dozens of television shows centered around the process of Crime Scene Investigation. They always have someone walking around with a special flashlight with either a filter above it or they are wearing strange sunglasses. They are using a UV light and a filter, to see items emitting light that are not visible in normal light. Blood does that very well.

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This article is published by The Scuba Page, the online magazine for Scuba Dive lovers around the world. The Scuba Page is part of RUSHKULT : the online booking platform for adventure sports. Visit the RUSHKULT platform to book your next Scuba Dive training, guided trip and accommodation.