Zhang Fan: Strange Creatures in the Black Water

"This is the kingdom of plankton. Anemones, jellyfish, corals... all go through the plankton stage. They bloom like flowers in the darkness, just like fireworks blooming in the darkness."

Zhang Fan

Blackwater Photographer

Hello everyone, I am Zhang Fan, an underwater photographer. I am very happy to be here at the Gezhi Lundao Forum.

"Set sail and sail far away" - this is one of my mother's two biggest wishes. Her first wish was to have a girl, which obviously did not come true; the second wish was that she hoped I could set sail and sail far away to see the oceans of the world, and fortunately I did it.

Now I do often go to various uninhabited waters on various sailboats to photograph some strange marine creatures, some shipwrecks and some magical ruins.

This is a picture I drew when I was 6 years old. At that time, I was full of curiosity about the underwater world and wanted to record it in a very realistic way, but my ability was limited.

Later I found that photography could more faithfully record the sea in my mind, so after graduating from university, I began to learn photography.

Sea Dragon

This is a photo of a sea dragon I took in Australia.

Manta Ray

This is a nighttime shot of manta rays in the Maldives. A manta ray swoops towards me with its mouth wide open because my light helped it find food.

Deep-water photography requires carrying various equipment

This is when we were photographing a World War II shipwreck in the Bikini Islands, 50 meters underwater. You can see that I have a bunch of gas bottles tied to my body, because I have to work at this depth for an hour, and I have to decompress for an hour during the ascent, so as an underwater photographer, I need to maintain a certain body shape to be able to withstand these things.

Lathe in a WWII shipwreck

This is a lathe I shot inside a WWII shipwreck. It looks a lot like a mask or a Transformer. I used a special light to bring it out.

Completed: 10% //////////

Explore strange creatures

Let's first take a look at some photos I took around the world.

Great White Shark

This is a great white shark photographed in Australian waters, which is also a very familiar shark to everyone.

Whale Shark

This is the largest fish in the world and also the largest cartilaginous fish - the whale shark. It is much larger than us humans and as big as a bus, but very gentle.

Lamarckian Sunfish

The picture above shows a sunfish taken in the waters of Bali, Indonesia. You can see the horse maws on its body cleaning the tiny parasites from its body.

Manta Ray Enjoys Full Body SPA

This photo was taken at a cleaning station in the Maldives, showing a manta ray enjoying a very relaxing full body spa.

Humans like to swim, and so do many other creatures. Some land creatures sometimes make guest appearances underwater.

Komodo dragon

This is the only "dragon" left in the world, living on Komodo Island in Indonesia. These Komodo dragons are very agile on land and swim very fast in the ocean. I took this photo while leaning forward on the boat with my camera extended, ready to pull it back at any time. If it bites me, I might have to fly to Bali for injections right away.

Galapagos Sea Lion

This is the lava landscape in the Galapagos. A female Galapagos sea lion swam over and greeted me.

I have been to many different seas and photographed many animals. Recently, I have been focusing on two aspects: one is the largest creature in the world, and the other is the black water that I will talk about today. The concept of black water may be unfamiliar to everyone, so I will slowly tell you about it.

Completed: 20% //////////

Get up close and personal with these gentle giants

When watching whales, we cannot carry too heavy equipment because we need to swim at high speed and can only rely on the air in our lungs to chase them.

Humpback whale

Every August and September, these humpback whales come to the waters of Tonga to reproduce. The female whales may be pregnant or may be carrying their babies, and the male whales will come to pursue the female whales.

Two adult male whales, rivals, send warnings to each other

The picture above shows two adult male whales. They are not actually playing, they are rivals in love, and the bubbles they spray are a warning from one male whale to the other.

So how does a male whale pursue a female whale? He will let the female whale see his strength. Sometimes we will see a large group of male whales racing. Then there will be losers in this race. The loser male whales may continue to jump out of the water to vent their dissatisfaction. We can see whales jumping all over the sea. In fact, they are not having fun, but losers venting their anger. Some crazy whales may come to play with divers if they don’t have a partner.

Whales are very lethal creatures. The flippers of a humpback whale are 3 meters long. Even the world's largest predator, the killer whale, may be afraid of it. But when it faces divers at close range, it controls its timing very well. It may be less than half a meter away from me, but its tail fin and pectoral fin will never scratch us.

A mother whale and her calf and defenders

This picture looks like a happy scene, with a huge mother whale and her baby whale, and a defender beside her. This defender is actually not the baby whale's father, because the baby whale's father will leave immediately after mating, and the mother whale and the baby whale are accompanied by other male whales.

The pursuit process begins when the mother whale brings her calf. The winner of this competition will follow the mother whale and drive away all whales, killer whales or other predators that attempt to approach the mother whale.

But we humans will not be the targets of attack. Very experienced mother whales will be happy to play with divers, and defenders will also condone this behavior.

The little whale who wants a hug

With the mother whale's consent, the baby whale will swim around us very curiously, and sometimes even open its arms and ask for a "hug".

When these whales are born, they are not very big, maybe only two or three meters long. When they come into close contact with us, it feels like our hearts are melting.

Whales are smart enough to tell who is a threat to them and who likes them. They are very intelligent creatures, probably not lower than us, but they live more freely than us.

Toothed whales (sperm whales)

In addition to the Humpback Whale, we often photograph other whales. This is the world's largest toothed whale (sperm whale), and their favorite food is the giant squid.

The calm waters of Sri Lanka are their holiday paradise, where they not only sunbathe and sleep, but also engage in other interesting activities.

Sperm whale dead skin

This is not a plastic bag, nor is it anything man-made. This is where toothed whales vacation, so we can see their relaxed side. They will do a spa here, and even exfoliate here. They will roll around here like crazy, and then shake off the dead skin accumulated on their bodies.

If it allows you to be around, you will be surrounded by these dandruff. Just grab a handful and tear it apart. It feels like seaweed and has a chewy texture, which is very interesting.

Therefore, only when you come into close contact with these giants can you understand many details of their lives.

Blue Whale

This is the largest creature on our planet - the blue whale. Each blue whale is like an island, carrying a community of organisms on its body.

There is a remora on the tail fin of the blue whale in the photo. This may be the luckiest remora in the world. Because it is a species below sea level, but because it lives on the tail of the blue whale, it has the opportunity to come to the other side of the world every 10 minutes to see the scenery on land.

Every time this blue whale swung its big tail fin, it could stir up a very huge vortex. Its tail fin was bigger than the whale watching boat. When such a huge creature passed by you, it was like a space shuttle, which was very spectacular. You could clearly see every spot and every detail on its body, and you could see its deep eyes looking at you as it slowly swam past you.

Huge creatures like this basically don't turn, they walk in a straight line, at most they see you and then dive. At this time, even if you use all your strength to dive, you may not be able to keep up with its pace.

I have always wanted to take a photo of a blue whale's tail fin from the front, but I found it to be almost impossible because it takes much longer to swim from the edge of its tail to the middle of its tail than it does to dive.

The stark contrast between an adult blue whale and a diver

This image shows an adult blue whale and a diver, both of them in disproportionate proportions. What does the world's largest creature feed on? Marine plankton.

Krill

You can imagine how many different creatures and how much volume a blue whale can swallow every time it opens its mouth. I once flipped over on my back while diving and rolled into a pile of krill, and that was the end of my dive. I couldn't swim out of the circle of krill. Being in it, I felt like I was in a pile of bait, which was magical.

Completed: 40% //////////

Stars below the sea level - the kingdom of plankton

The world of plankton is like a huge kingdom, like fireworks blooming in the dark night. These plankton may be familiar to everyone, but you may not know what they look like when they are young. The anemones, jellyfish, and corals we usually see all go through the plankton stage, and they are like blooming flowers in the dark night.

There are many different dive sites around the world that are suitable for photographing marine plankton, such as the Coral Triangle area - Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

The video shows a long-armed octopus, a leaf-shaped eel larva, and a squid, which is the main source of dried squid we usually eat. There is also a pelagic octopus with a shell, a sea snake, and a blenny disguised as a snake.

Black Water Photography

These photos were taken while I was suspended in the bottomless ocean. This method of photography is called black water photography. The water depth we shoot may be 1,000 meters or even deeper, so we have the opportunity to see these creatures that float up at night to feed. This is a great migration that happens every day in the world. We call it vertical migration.

We have a buoy on the water surface with a long rope tied to it. There is a large searchlight every 5 meters. These large searchlights will gather the surrounding plankton.

The predators lurking around are always waiting for an opportunity to prey on these plankton, and these predation scenes are also what we want to capture.

Equipment selection

In terms of equipment selection, we generally use a SLR camera equipped with a flash, and sometimes we also need special video lights and focus lights.

A variety of floating shellfish

I have loved shells since I was a child. I like to dig in the sand to find shells. When I grew up, I drifted in the ocean and admired these floating shells as I wished.

These beautiful, butterfly-like shells we see may only be 1 mm in size and almost invisible to the naked eye, but the flesh is very gorgeous.

The flesh is spread out in the water, floating like a parachute, ready to prey on smaller creatures. Once they encounter a predator, they can retract all the flesh back into the shell, at which point they can descend instantly and disappear in an instant.

Therefore, it is actually very difficult to get close to these marine planktonic shellfish. We need to maintain a very stable state and move slowly towards them, and we may even need to "reverse".

Various jellyfish

In addition to shellfish, we can also see a lot of jellyfish. These jellyfish may be different from the jellyfish we imagine in our minds. They are not a golden mass floating around. They may be very long and radiate colorful light. Many jellyfish are very small, only 1 cm long, like a small chandelier.

They can change color or shape at any time. A jellyfish may curl up into a ball when it is nervous and then run away quickly. But when it relaxes, it may be like a spider that opens its web and waits for its prey to come, like fireworks blooming in the night, especially gorgeous.

Decapoda

In addition to these creatures that have almost no ability to move, we can also find some that move a little faster, such as the larvae of decapod shrimps and crabs. The mantis shrimps and crabs we usually eat will go through the plankton stage. At this stage, they are very weak, but still have the ability to defend themselves.

The scorpionfish in the picture above looks like a ninja throwing it on the ground to trip someone. It looks like this to prevent itself from being eaten, so it may not taste very good. But when you encounter creatures like whale sharks or manta rays that suck everything in to eat, it doesn't matter what it looks like.

Armored Shrimp

The armored shrimps in the picture above look like ancient warrior armor, and each one has a different shape.

The slipper-like lobster (left) and the adult floating shrimp (right)

The left picture shows a lobster larva. The adult is very ordinary and looks like a slipper, but the color is very bright when it is young. The right picture shows an adult shrimp floating in the water. Why is it called an adult? The bright green part is its eggs.

In addition to the groups collectively called plankton mentioned above, we can also see many predators, including various large fish, such as sharks, manta rays, octopuses, squids, and so on.

Blanket Octopus

Black water is like treasure hunting, you might hit the jackpot. This may be a magical octopus that everyone has never seen, called the blanket octopus. Because there is a huge membrane between its four tentacles, this muscle membrane can reach two or three meters when it is opened. It takes only five seconds to open.

When it finds that scaring me is useless, it retracts its entire membrane into a small ball and runs away as fast as possible. So every time I encounter it, I may only have one chance to take a perfect shot.

This is the Argonauta, a very interesting ocean-going octopus. Its female secretes a shell to protect its eggs. This shell is as thin as paper, so it is also called the Paper Nautilus. The shell is covered by a thin membrane between its tentacles, which can change into various colors. When it is nervous, it may turn white, and when it is excited, it will turn into colorful colors.

Glass Squid

The photos you take will never be able to reproduce the beauty you see with your own eyes. We may also see many special creatures from the deep sea, such as the glass squid.

When I saw it, it was transparent, like a glass bottle, but after seeing my focus light, it began to protest to me, and its body began to glow golden or even red. It continued for 10 minutes and found it was useless, so it went back to the deep sea. I could only watch it leave because I couldn't go any deeper.

The deep sea is truly an unknown world. Every time I dive, I may see something I have never seen in my life, or something that the entire human race has never seen in their lives. I think this is a very challenging thing, and if possible, I will continue to do this.

Completed: 60% //////////

Fish changes a lot

How are these familiar creatures different when they were young? You must have eaten croaker, which is a very common fish in the market. They often gather in large groups, like fish balls.

Adult fish of Carcharhinidae

The picture below shows a juvenile Indian silk trevally. There is a reason why it looks so special, because it is afraid of being eaten.

Indian silk scad juvenile

When it was young, its body length might be only a few centimeters, but with its tentacles it was almost 1 meter long, and looked like a poisonous jellyfish. When it swam there, almost no one dared to approach it.

Adult Anguilla

This is an adult eel that we are more familiar with. When they grow up, their length can reach more than 2 meters. They are basically giants and no one dares to touch them, but when they are young, they are just a little transparent.

Phyllodes of eels

This is the leaf-shaped larva of an eel. Before its skeleton and muscles are fully developed, its entire body is transparent. At this time, its swimming is very magical. When you shine a light on it, you can see the residual tracks left by its swimming.

Once it is frightened, it will take a defensive posture, staring at you to see if you are confused by it. If not, it will run away.

Lionfish

Lionfish is also a common coral fish. When it is young, it is very gorgeous, just like wearing a dancing costume. In fact, this is its pectoral fin, and the color on the pectoral fin is like a blooming firework. It is impossible to imagine that it had such a gorgeous costume when it was young, so why did it become so "frustrated" when it grew up?

Alien-like zebra octopus larvae

In the waters of Southeast Asia, you can often see secret octopuses and zebra octopuses on the sand. When they grow up, they become a plain pool. When zebra octopuses are young, they look like aliens. The images of aliens in many animations and movies may all come from the strange appearance of these creatures when they were young. We can often see their gorgeous hunting shows. This zebra octopus is holding a crab larva in its mouth.

Adult flounder

A flounder larva that looks like the Monkey King

The pictures above show an adult and a juvenile flounder. When it is young, it has two very long tentacles on its head, like the Monkey King.

The one lying on the bed in this photo is a stonefish, which is what we call an adult fish of the Scorpionfish family. It has no special features when it grows up, but is very gorgeous when it is young. Its pectoral fins cover its entire body like a nobleman's ruff.

Larvae of flatfish (after landing)

Every plankton goes through an important stage in its life - landing. It needs to change its living space because it cannot drift with the current all its life. It needs to return to its habitat on the seabed one day so that it will have a chance to grow.

Flounder

This is a small flounder. It has an eye on each side. At this time, it can live in the float, but when its eyes turn from left to right, it must find a piece of sand to hide.

Of course, there are exceptions. Some fish fail to reach the bottom but are not eaten and eventually grow up. This is the case with the flounder in the picture below, floating around like a carpet.

Adult flounder

Completed: 80% //////////

The vast ocean is peaceful and harmonious, yet also full of hidden dangers

We have just seen the interesting changes of these fish from small to large. Next, let’s take a look at the symbiosis of fish.

We see a lot of jellyfish when we are swimming or snorkeling. If you look closely, you will find that there are often passengers next to the jellyfish. Various croaker fish will hide among the jellyfish because they have a very good ability. The fluid they secrete can prevent them from being poisoned by the stinging cells of jellyfish. Therefore, we often see croaker fish traveling with the jellyfish.

Carcharodon carcharias take shelter from predators among large jellyfish

This croaker has an interesting look and personality. When it sees a predator or a large creature approaching, it will twitch, then it may flip over, as if it was stung by a jellyfish. At this time, the predator will walk away and the fish will immediately return to normal.

Pufferfish eating jellyfish

The relationship between these marine creatures is not so harmonious. Sometimes fish will eat their companions as snacks while traveling with them. For example, the fish in the pufferfish family in the picture above.

Sometimes we accidentally attract some deep-sea jellyfish with lights, and these jellyfish carry special passengers.

Lobster larvae hold onto jellyfish and drift with the current

The lobsters we eat are also very gorgeous when they are young. This is the leaf-shaped larvae of the lobster. Sometimes it is not satisfied with riding on one jellyfish, and even rides a jellyfish on one foot, not knowing which jellyfish it should follow.

Ctenophores are the perfect castle for amphipods

This is an amphipod from a comb jellyfish.

A jackfish holds a jellyfish in its mouth to protect itself

This fish is very interesting. When I first saw it, I thought it had a growth on its jaw. Later, I noticed that it had a jellyfish in its mouth. I thought it was going to eat the jellyfish, but I spent half an hour filming other creatures and when I came back, it was still wandering around with the jellyfish in its mouth.

At this moment, I realized that the fish and the jellyfish were in their childhood state. When the fish and the jellyfish grow up, the jellyfish will be much larger than the fish. At this time, the fish will drill into the jellyfish completely, and we will get the scene we saw at the beginning.

What we just saw were some relatively harmonious scenes. In fact, underwater, we often see war scenes that are very bloody and cruel.

sea ​​snake

First, there are a lot of predators lurking around us, such as sea snakes. Maybe when you put your light down, a large school of fish will cover it, and then you may find a larger school of fish coming to prey on it, and then a bigger predator, a manta ray bigger than you, may come and mess with it, and then the shooting will be over.

A crab larva is tearing apart a small amphipod.

In fact, just watching these predators prey is an unforgettable thing. In addition to huge creatures, any plankton we see, no matter how small or tiny, is a predator. The picture above shows a crab larva tearing apart a small amphipod.

The insect warrior plays with the octopus shell

This is a female octopus eating a sea octopus, leaving only its shell. Why keep the shell? Because instinct tells them that this shell can be used as a "kindergarten". We can see a circle of eggs laid on the shell, and these eggs will slowly hatch into small octopuses until one day, they grow big enough to leave this "aircraft carrier".

Undigested fish can be clearly seen inside the jellyfish

We can pay attention to the inside of these jellyfish's stomachs at night, because they are transparent, and we can see clearly the fresh fish and shrimps that they have just eaten.

Lionfish juveniles stare at their prey eagerly

The lionfish opened its pectoral fins completely, surrounded its prey, then opened its mouth wide and swallowed the little bugs into its stomach with one abdominal pressure.

A squid larva eats a shrimp with a very long lance

Each prey has its own special instincts. This squid larvae ate a shrimp with a very long shrimp gun. It looked like it was swinging around with a weapon. The squid is the fastest growing squid in the world. It can grow from a few centimeters to the length of a human arm in 60 days.

Squid predation

In the dark, a squid might suddenly appear from nowhere and eat your subject. This happens every day.

Heterotail squids divide up the spoils

This is a photo I really like because normally this squid swims as fast as a rocket and you don’t have a chance to see it clearly.

One day, I was following these microorganisms and was a distance away from my main light. I needed to turn off all the lights on my body and swim back to find the main light. At this time, I vaguely saw these two heterotail squids in the shadows dividing the fish. The scene was very warm and harmonious. The two squids ate there slowly.

They would move away immediately after being flashed by the light, so I didn't dare to take a photo right away. After adjusting the settings, I only had the opportunity to take one photo, and after taking the photo, they slowly disappeared into the darkness.

I like my subjects very much, because every day I have the opportunity to see different scenes, which may not be replicated. These species are like a treasure, which is worth exploring all the time. Thank you.

The articles and speeches only represent the author’s views and do not represent the position of the Gezhi Lundao Forum.

"Gezhi Lundao", formerly known as "SELF Gezhi Lundao", is a scientific culture forum launched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, co-sponsored by the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Bureau of Science Communication of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and hosted by China Science Popularization Expo. It is committed to the cross-border dissemination of extraordinary ideas, aiming to explore the development of science and technology, education, life and the future in the spirit of "Gewu Zhizhi".