Quick Maui Dive: Five Graves' Eels

Dwarf Moray Eel
White Mouth Moray Eel
   Moray Heaven!
  Back on Maui for a quick visit we had to fit in a dive at one of our favorite shore dive locations, five graves. This is the same location that all the tour operators have dubbed to be "Turtle Town", but we weren't going diving for turtles. Instead we look for nudibranchs, frogfish, and other hard to find creatures that may escape the usual glimpse from the snorkel masses.
  Our dive quickly turned into a moray eel bonanza. We had several dwarf morays, cute little 6-8 inch fully grown, and some huge white mouth moray eels about 3 ft long. An undulated moray showed off its razor sharp teeth and a zebra moray contrasted with its toothless grin. As I tried to get a picture right down the mouth of the undulated a large fish swam in between my camera lens and the eel. This happens sometimes as I concentrate on getting the picture, but this time the fish stayed there, which is a little abnormal. So I glanced up, over my camera only to come face to face with a huge white mouth moray eel inches away, mouth agape.
Undulated Moray Eel
Cleaner wrasse cleaning inside the eel's mouth
Zebra Moray
Not afraid?
  After a little initial shock, I realized that this eel wanted to get in on the cleaning action that the other eel was getting. Little cleaner wrasse zipped around picking off dead skin, parasites, and food particles. My patience paid off when one of the little cleaner wrasse boldly swam inside the mouth of the eel! I witnessed this several times before being called off by Heidi to go see a baby yellow frogfish!





Ewa Fang Blenny, these fish mimic the movements and coloration of cleaner wrasse to get close to fish. Then they take a bite!
Baby frogfish up close
Tiny, tiny baby frogfish

  We didn't end of finding too many nudibranchs on this dive but the fish made up for it. Baby frogfish, Ewa fang blennies, and a scorpionfish showed up. We did manage to see a couple of flatworms, a kangaroo nudibranch, a violet-gilled, and some egg eating nudibranchs all chowing down on some spanish dancer nudibranch eggs. The bright red coloration of their pigments means they have been eating a lot of the pinkish eggs.
 



Kangaroo Nudibranch

Egg eating nudibranchs feasting on the pink eggs of a spanish dancer nudibranch

www.daimarsphotos.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Leaving a comment is a great way to provide feedback, ask further questions, and inspire more answers...so go for it.

Popular posts from this blog

Secret Maui Waterfall

Image
  No matter how quick a trip to Maui might be there will be hidden gems found and great times had. After a little snafu with my flight I made it standby to Maui, picked up my rental car, and rushed off to meet my friends on the road to Hana. We met at Frog Pond, one of our favorite swimming holes near the beginning of the road to Hana. After some rock hopping and cliff jumping here we decided to check out the hidden waterfalls at mile 11. I'm not sure what the name of these falls are but there are two of them, each with their own swimming holes. It is just off the highway but separated by lush jungle. A rope swing beckons the adventurous and rocks warmed by the sun give you more than enough reason to while away the afternoon.
Read more

Search for Chameleons, Maui

Image
  You never know what might be hiding in your backyard. Here on Maui there have always been tales of people finding Jackson's chameleons in their bushes. The trick is to travel a few thousand feet up Haleakala volcano to Makawao, Pukalani and Kula towns where the temperature is a little cooler and it is a bit wetter, perfect conditions for chameleons.   There are no native reptiles on Hawaii. These beautiful chameleons were released or escaped from the pet trade. Luckily they have not become invasive like many other introduced species, however they have increased in population and seem to be doing quite well in the higher elevation areas. Heidi and I went on a search the other day at our friend's house in Kula and were shocked to find a dozen different chameleons in her side yard hedge. They were mostly at eye level, and were curled up asleep for the night. We found them easily enough with flashlights since they seem to sleep near the outer edge of the hedge at night.   W
Read more

Vermont Summer and Stave Island

Image
The launch for Stave Island Stave Island Barn  This August marked the fifth time I visited Heidi and her family up in beautiful Vermont. There are always so many beautiful things to see, tasty foods to eat, and fun times to be had. I will always think of delicious corn on the cob rolled in butter, starting off the day with a hot cup of coffee, and walking the Miller family dog around the pond when I think of Vermont.  During my summer visits we try and spend a lot of time out at Stave Island. This privately owned island is mostly wooded  wilderness out in the middle of Lake Champlain. It is a great place for colorful sunsets and I always try to circumnavigate the island by stand-up paddleboard. Deedee, Don, and Susie are always incredible hosts. It is pretty impresive to watch them work all day and then whip up a huge meal for a dozen of Heidi's friends. They are quite the team. Happy baby swingin' with Dad Noah, Anna, Charlotte, Heidi, Skye, Erin  Heidi
Read more