At 05:19 this morning it was winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. Finally, the days are getting longer again. Today was only six hours long on our longitude.

A dive, of course. Like a pagan ritual, we had to celebrate the return of the light with a dive. I’m obsessed with light. Natural light. We didn’t see much natural light underwater today, but from now on a few moments of daylight are added to every day until the summer solstice.

Aplysia punctata was the dominant species of the day. There was plenty of them, large and small, at all depths. This individual was quite large, about five centimetres long, sitting on the kelp at only two meters.