07/09/2026
From sunset skies to a glowing underwater world… 🌅✨🌊
Last night at Sakatia Lodge, we watched the sun disappear beside the second mountain before swapping the warm colours of sunset for the extraordinary colours of a fluorescent night dive.
Beneath the sand, we found this amazing spearing mantis shrimp watching us from its burrow. Its eyes can move independently, and what appear to be three pupils are actually “pseudopupils,” giving each eye trinocular vision and incredible depth perception.
Some mantis shrimp have up to 12 different classes of photoreceptors, allowing them to detect ultraviolet and polarized light that is completely invisible to us. Their compound eyes are made up of thousands of tiny visual units—among the most complex eyes found anywhere in the animal kingdom.
And then there is the strike! Spearing mantis shrimp are ambush hunters, hiding beneath the sand before launching their spiny arms at passing fish and crustaceans. Smaller species have been recorded striking at almost 6 metres per second, completing the movement in only a few milliseconds—far too fast for the human eye to follow.
Surrounded by glowing corals under our fluorescent lights, it was another beautiful reminder that when darkness falls at Sakatia, an entirely different world comes alive. 💙💚🧡
