 Muck
Diving
The term hardly sounds appealing, but in many popular diving destinations muck diving has become the rage. As the name suggests, muck diving involves exploring areas where the seafloor is mud, clay or sand as opposed to coral reefs, wrecks or kelp forests, which are so often thought of as diving’s feature attractions.
Marine animals that inhabit the muck tend to possess a different set of adaptations than their reef-dwelling cousins. Many muck residents are excellent burrowers, masters of camouflage or otherwise difficult to find. Creatures of the muck such as devil scorpionfish, sea moths, pipefish, flying gurnards and snake eels often lack the spectacular colors of creatures that inhabit nearby reefs, but because of their bizarre appearances and fascinating behaviors, good photographs of them are highly sought after by underwater photographers.
Pictured here is a fish commonly called a stargazer. Characterized by eyes that are on the top of the head and looking skyward, the stargazer is a lay-in-wait predator that tends to bury itself in the sand leaving only its eyes and mouth exposed. The fish is only about 8 inches (20 cm) long with a face about 3.5 inches (9 cm) in diameter, and is very easy to overlook especially when partially buried in the substrate. But the stargazer doesn’t miss much as it lurks below the surface waiting on unsuspecting prey to accidentally wander within its strike, or hit, zone. When the prey gets close, a stargazer will explode out of the sand and surprise its prey.
This particular photograph was created on a nighttime muck dive in Indonesia near the port of Maumere. Of course, the most difficult part of capturing this image was finding the stargazer. Once found, the species is usually stationary, but if you shine a bright light directly into the fish’s eyes it tends to bury itself in the sand. After spotting the fish, I turned my dive light to low power and made sure my camera was set up with the correct aperture and focusing distance. I made a “best guess” regarding how close I could get without frightening the fish and causing it to bury. Then I prefocused the lens and locked the focus at that distance before moving in to take my shot. I was then able to compose my frame using the dim, peripheral part of the beam of my low-powered dive light.
Once set up I moved slowly and carefully into position so that I didn’t accidentally stir up the soft bottom and ruin my opportunity. Then I framed and shot, varying my exposure by changing my f-stop over a series of frames to be sure I got at least one frame that was both well-composed and perfectly exposed.
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