Capturing the Moment

We have a new addition in the hawaiian household, a baby Jackson's chameleon. I really wanted to name it Leon, because of chame'leon', but since its a girl (we think) we went with the more hawaiian name of Leona. She is about two and a half weeks old, born on July 12th. Heidi and I searched for chameleons in the wild here on Maui but it turns out they are very hard to find. Then we got in touch with Cory who finds them on occasion doing yard work higher up on the slopes of the volcano. He saved a female chameleon and housed her with a male for about six months until one day he came home to find fourteen tiny baby chameleons crawling around the enclosure! Leona was one of these. We brought her home yesterday evening and set up a little cage with sticks and leaves for her to climb on. We will mist the leaves a few times every day so she can get her water from the droplets, just like she would in the wild. We had to buy pinhead crickets instead of the bigger crickets because L...

I had heard stories about the general whereabouts of the wreck of the old Carthaginian, a 2 masted brig that was used as a floating museum in Lahaina. Certain dive companies run trips to the wreck but the inner explorer in me wanted to go find this on my own. So with Heidi's help, we loaded all of our dive gear, strapped down our 2 person kayak, and drove towards the west coast of Maui with high hopes of finding this sunken tall ship. When we arrive at our planned launching spot we found ourselves surrounded by eager surfers...and larger than expected waves. We studied the launching area for a while, rocky beach only a few feet exposed, waves crashing on the beach and surfable waves crashing farther out sending white water in, and no clear channel to paddle out. Up and down the coast it was the same story, so not to be deterred, we packed our dive gear into the kayak, put on our wetsuits, and prepared to launch, hopefully in between sets of the bigger waves. It was a little sket...

I had only seen the island of Molokai from the air when Lea, Heidi, and I flew over it on our helicopter tour. Seeing the island up close from a boat and actually getting to jump in the water was a dream come true. The Northwest coast of Molokai boast the largest sea cliffs in the world, over 3000ft tall. Now add waterfalls cascading down these cliffs into the water and you have some movie quality scenery. You may even recognize some scenes from Jurassic Park from the same coast line. Some small fishing shacks were all the evidence seen that some people are still living the old style native Hawaiian lifestyle here on this wild coast of Molokai. Lush valleys housed countless generations of Hawaiians for centuries before the lure of a new way of life took all but a few families out from this peaceful existence. Seeing these cliffs from the water was pretty awe inspiring but it only made me want to see what beauty lay beneath the waves. True to my adventurous spirit when we all needed a s...

I have been splitting my time here at Pacific Whale Foundation between being a naturalist out on the snorkel and whale watching boats and working as an assistant researcher with the research staff. We have been working with sea turtles and odontocetes (toothed whales) like our different dolphin species and false killer whales. Yesterday we took the research boat out to track down one of the resident pods of spinner dolphins. We found them right off the bat. A few had very distinct notches on their dorsal fin which we can use to photo identify individuals. We even spotted a new born swimming very close to its mother. If you look very close at the top picture you can see the baby spinner dolphin surfacing just on the left side of its mom. The beautiful blue offshore waters of Maui really do provide the perfect habitat to study offshore marine animals.

Entering into an underwater twilight realm with my dive buddy Karen at Ukumehame Beach was a totally different experience than my usual dives. Different animals come out and the daytime usual suspects head for cracks and crevices in the reef to bunker down for the night. We didn't find any Manta Rays which have been known to frequent this reef but we did see some new creatures for me. From top to bottom: Divided Flatworm which contains the same poison as pufferfish; a female Marbled Shrimp in nighttime coloration; a Stripey; and the beautiful view we had before making our descent.

On a clear, sunny morning Heidi and I went scuba diving at one of our favorite nudibranch hunting spots, Wailea Point. The beach has golden sand, palm trees, and lots of tourist from the nearby resorts but the real treasures are underwater. Kicking out to the rocky point to the left of the beach the reef begins very shallow and extends farther out to a depth of around 40ft. Big coral covered boulders give us plenty of places to search for hard to find reef creatures. On this dive we were under for an 1hr 14minutes and came across two octopus, moray eels, peacock razor wrasse, and lots of juvenile butterfly fish. We passed a fuchsia flatworm early on in the dive and I thought we might not find any new nudis until this Gold Lace Nudibranch floated right by my face as I was checking out a cavern. The colors on these sea slugs are just amazing. It looks like it is glowing from within. It is easy to identify with its interlocking golden pattern and speckled black gills and rhinophores. It i...

Heidi and I went tidepooling at a secret spot on the North shore of Maui yesterday and were very surprised with how much we found. The rocky point at low tide was a perfect place to find deep tidepools that could sustain life during even the lowest of tides. The usual suspects were all there, long zebra blennies darting into their holes, juvenile convict tangs frantically looking for hiding places, and gobies perfectly blending into the sand and rubble. But then Heidi noticed a couple of her favorite invertebrates, the sea hare! You can see how small they are compared to her hand and how beautiful they are in the close up shot above. This is a Lined Sea Hare. They eat a blue-green algae that gives them a build up of toxins in their body which can be harmful to human eyes but is of interest to medical researchers. Then we were very excited to find a bubble shell (the beautiful blue snail with yellow spots). This is a cymbal bubble shell. These snails do have a shell but its perfectly t...

Heidi and I went on a pretty adventurous scuba dive into breaking waves and murky water in order to find some of the more elusive species of marine life. We made it out of the murky water once we hit about 20ft deep and that is when the nudibranchs, or underwater slugs, started appearing. Unlike slugs on land, nudibranchs are highly sought after by underwater photographers for their beautiful colors and unusual body shapes. You can see the frilly parts on top of the nudibranchs which are their exposed gills. If you look closely at the top picture you will notice the lack of exposed gills...that's because it's not a nudibranch...it's a flatworm! From top to bottom: Fuschia flatworm, White Margin Nudibranch, Tom Smith's Nudibranch, and a Kangaroo Nudibranch

I am still finding new places to snorkel and scuba here on my island of Maui. I had a chance yesterday to get in a quick snorkel of Honolua Bay and you can see from the pictures that it is a snorkelers paradise. From Top to Bottom: A panaromic overlook of Hanolua Bay in all of its glory; A stout moray peeking out of its crevice; a green sea turtle getting cleaned by some surgeon fish; Jon blowing a bubble ring that nears perfection; and the last two are of a massive school of big eye scad lit up by the afternoon sun.