A Journey into Fluorescence

James Lynott · Issue 118, Jan/Feb 2021 · pp. 32–37

Products mentioned: Canon G7XMkII, Fantasea FG7XII, Light & Motion GoBe+ Nightsea, Riff/FireDiveGear TL Azur, Heliopan Y12 barrier filter, FireDiveGear barrier filter, Inon UCL-165 m67 close up lens

The phenomenon of fluorescence in marine life has been known of for some time, with the some of the first observations as early as 1927 which were anemones in rockpools in Torbay England. There are more reports from the 1950s and 1960s, with the possible first use underwater recorded as being between 1959-1961, Jacques-Yves Cousteau even mentions underwater fluorescence in The Silent World. In the 1970s Charles Mazel began experimenting with underwater fluorescence and would later go on to develop the Nightsea light range with Light & Motion. My journey into fluorescence started much later than this, it was in 2011 during an episode of ‘Britain’s Secret Seas’ that I was first introduced to the phenomenon of fluorescence diving. In one of the episodes there was a small segment filmed during a night dive at St. Abbs where the presenters used blue lights to observe fluorescence in lightbulb…