Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, United States

Pelagic Magic

Pelagic Magic is an open-ocean, mid-water blackwater dive run by Jack's Diving Locker and other Kona operators about three nautical miles off the Kona coast over more than 1,500 metres of open ocean. After dark, the boat drifts down-current and divers descend on a weighted line festooned with downward-shining lights to roughly 12 to 18 metres while the ocean floor remains far below. The lights attract the deep-scattering-layer organisms that rise to feed at night: salps and siphonophores, pelagic octopuses and squid, larval flounder, leptocephali, pyrosomes, juvenile mahi-mahi and tuna, plus myriad pelagic invertebrates that are rarely seen anywhere else. The dive demands solid trim and buoyancy because there is no bottom to reference and no reef to stop a runaway descent; advanced certification, a tether, and full lighting are required. Night-only and weather-dependent; visibility is whatever the torch beam reaches but the experience is described by many as the closest a recreational diver can get to a true alien ocean.