Biology Reference
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survival wasn't nearly as good as with fish caught in shallower waters.
Even though we deflated their swimbladders with the needle, they
seemed to su¤er from the bends, much as a human diver would com-
ing from the same depth.
One of the French divers told us that the best place to see the Petits
Peugeots was just o¤ the end of the runway of the new airport. Bor-
rowing a couple of jeeps, John McCosker, Sylvia Earle, John Breeden,
and I headed out there after dark one moonless night. A very steep,
rocky dirt road led from the runway down to the water's edge. After
getting our dive gear on—which wasn't easy in the pitch black—we
slipped into the water and headed down.
Our buddy system fell apart in the dark, and I found myself alone
after descending to fifty feet. There I saw only a couple of flashlight
fish, both exceptionally wary and unapproachable. Not wanting to go
down to a hundred feet, where there were probably more fish but where
their survival would be poor if I caught any, I started up into shallower
water and ran into Sylvia, who was also wandering around alone.
Not quite knowing where we were or where we were going, we some-
how ended up at the mouth of what appeared to be a cave. Entering
the cave, we found that it kept going for quite a way and also grew
shallower in depth. Soon we saw sparkling flashes of light ahead. Get-
ting closer, we realized that dozens of blinking flashlight fish were clus-
tered in front of us. It was an amazing sight.
I looked at my depth gauge and saw that we were in about ten feet
of water but with a solid rock roof over us. It dawned on me that the
only way to reach the surface was to go back the way we had come in:
there was no going straight up. We had plenty of air, so there really
wasn't anything to worry about. Meanwhile, in front of us was a ver-
itable diamond mine of trapped flashlight fish. Instead of seeking refuge
from daylight by going deep, these fish had found darkness in this shal-
low, underwater tunnel. Unhitching my hand net, I started netting and
bagging as fast as I could. It didn't take long before we had as many
fish as I felt would be safe to carry in two plastic bags.
We headed back out of the cave, which we realized later was a sub-
merged lava tube. Lava tubes are formed when the surface of flowing
lava cools to form a tube and still-molten lava continues to flow inside
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