Flashlight fish live on the seaward slope at Kwajalein. They emerge from caves and holes in the reef on dark nights with the white light organs below their eyes glowing brightly like little headlights. The lights can be extinguished by "eyelids" that come up from under the light organ to block it off. We have seen them at depths of about 15m and deeper. The first photo was taken by Jay Lord.
This photo was taken by Stan Jazwinski.
I first saw these in the early 1970s night diving on the seaward slope at Kwajalein Atoll. In the early 80s, the chief scientist at the Mid-Pacific Research Lab on Enewetak Atoll and I went out on the seaward reef there to see if we could catch one. Apparently at the time they had not been officially recorded from the Marshalls. Just before entering the water, he told me we needed to go down with lights off. The little headlights of the fish would be easy to see and approach. Right next to the fish, we'd shine a bright light at it, which would stun it long enough to get it into a bag. A specimen was necessary to confirm the species and make the record official. Sure enough, dropping down in the darkness we spotted some little headlights right away, stunned one with the flashlight, and got it into a plastic bag, where it lit up my dive buddy's hand as he held the bag. By this time, with lights once again off, we were not sure which direction it was to the reef, so we turned on a light to get our bearings. Within the beam of one light, I could see half a dozen agitated gray reef sharks zipping back and forth, some almost within touching distance. Enewetak was well known for aggressive grays. We looked at each other and knew we were both thinking the same thing: "We've got our fish. I think that's enough!"
Created 11 August 2018
Updated 31 May 2019