AUGUST 8TH 2023, 6.45PM: IN-PERSON MEETING ONLY
WITH LINDA IANNIELLO - BLACKWATER DIVING
Linda has been scuba diving and taking underwater images for over 30 years. Her favorite type of photography has always been macro photography, where half the challenge is finding the small, unusual subjects. She is fortunate to live in southeast Florida, where there is easy access to diving off the coast. When a local dive operator started doing “blackwater” dives she became interested. She was quickly hooked and has done over 400 blackwater dives locally, in just over 8 years. She has also traveled to Indonesia and the Philippines to do these dives.
So what is a blackwater dive? It’s a night dive, done in the open ocean, where the water is hundreds of feet deep. There is no reef or bottom to provide a visible reference. There is a broad diversity of small subjects to be seen on these dives, such as fish and mollusk larvae; a variety of shrimps and crabs, both larvae and adults; gelatinous zooplankton traveling with the current (jellyfish, salps and siphonophores); and sea snails (pteropods, heteropods and gymnosomes) that spend their entire life cycle in the water column.
Linda’s images have appeared in countless publications and her work has been the subject of several documentaries. Her passion for photographing and identifying blackwater creatures has contributed to scientific research in the field, including collaborations with the Smithsonian Institution and the Florida Museum of Natural History.
For a full compilation of the creatures she has found and photographed, check out the blackwater galleries on her website here.
Together with Susan Mears, Linda has authored the essential guide to blackwater diving, Blackwater Creatures. Now in its second edition, this compendium of breathtaking images and information is an indispensable resource for divers, photographers, and researchers seeking to identify the captivating creatures seen on these dives.