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Underwater high Hidden worlds lie under the surface in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Article Excerpt
Byline: George Oxford Miller Daily Herald Correspondent

Overhead, Orion hangs sideways in the sky like a string of crumpled Christmas lights and a crescent moon casts a dim glow on the foam riding the surf. We wade in waist-deep water along the dark beach, snap our light sticks, then fasten them to our snorkels with rubber bands.

Gingerly, we slide deeper into the black water.

"Are you sure there aren't any sharks around here?" one fellow asks, voicing our common concern.

Night snorkeling adds a new dimension to one of the most popular activities in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Coral reefs surround St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix and often extend to within yards of the beaches, making snorkeling easy for first timers. With superb visibility in the aquamarine water, scuba and snorkeling don't get much better in the Caribbean - but I've never ventured beneath the waves by the dark of the moon.

When the sun sets, lobsters, moray eels, octopuses, sea cucumbers and turtles begin nature's underwater night shift. "We never...

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