If scuba diving is a privileged opportunity to experience critters hidden from our world then scuba diving at night takes it into a different, almost alien, world altogether.

Strange creatures come out from their secret nooks to search and hunt for prey. Sea lice and phytoplankton swarm dive lights like insects to headlights. Strange creaks, crackles and the odd indescribable sound fills the inky blackness while our lights illuminates just the tiniest bit of our surrounds.

Diving at night requires giving in to certainty and comfort in exchange for the unkown, the unexpected and alien encounters.

This southern calamari (Sepioteuthis australis) under Edithburgh Jetty on a recent dive was just such and encounter.