Scorpaena porcus Black scorpion fish night dive

Diving at night always has a special charm, the marine life is completely different from that of the day, the fish and marine species that are activated at night are many and can be observed even in a few meters of depth.

The only problem is the light, to dive at night you need torches and better if they are quite powerful, and these obviously dazzle the fish. Although from a certain point of view having immobile fish can have its advantage since we can approach them without too many problems, the fact remains that we cannot film their real behavior.

However, if blue lights are used these seem to be less invasive for some species and in our case we have filmed a black scorpionfish hunting, which initially undisturbed even approached, probably attracted by the vibrations perceived in the diver’s water.

Black scorpionfish, Scorpaena porcus, is a fish that during the day lives in or at least in the vicinity of it, completely motionless and camouflaged with the surrounding environment. At night, however, it hunts and often moves away from its territory in search of food and prey.

In our case, he approached for a few seconds and then resumed his usual behavior, that is, instead of running away, he camouflages himself motionless with the environment in a sheltered place and prepares his poisonous quills in case of danger.

Black scorpionfish (Scorpaena porcus), also known as the brown scorpionfish, is a marine fish belonging to the Scorpaenidae family.

Distribution and habitat The black scorpionfish is widespread in the eastern Atlantic (from the British Archipelago to the Moroccan coast, including the Azores and the Canaries), in the Mediterranean (more common in the western part) and in the Black Sea. Benthic fish, mimetic, lives from 0 to over -100 meters deep on rocky bottoms or Posidonia meadows.

Description The head is large with characteristic appendages and spines distributed throughout the skull. The mouth is wide. The dorsal fin is supported in the first 2/3 by 12 large rays similar to spines; the anal fin presents 3 before softening with small rays. The pectoral fins are broad, robust and rounded. The ventral ones are oblong, provided with a spine. The particular morphology of this animal has evolved according to the life of the seabed and is responsible both for its exceptional mimetic abilities and for its mediocre swimming skills. The livery has a variable background color from dark brown to reddish, to sand color, spotted and marbled with brown and light.

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpaena_porcus