Octopus and Friends

 Back in Hawaii after a whirlwind tour through the NorthEast where Heidi and I did 6 states in 7 days, I took the first opportunity to grab my scuba gear and camera and get back in the water.
  I drove down to Five Graves near Makena Landing and broke a sweat gearing up. The water felt great and I got a good laugh at a few people heading out in dry suits. Can't explain that one. I went to check out the caves but it wasn't until I reached the southern edge of the dive when it got exciting. It seemed like every time I stopped to look at something other little animals would pop into sight. Moray eels and nudibranchs were on the move, like this yellowhead moray and trembling nudibranch below, and then I saw the real prize. A large octopus was digging around under a ledge either looking for food or digging out a little lair when I spotted him. Amazingly enough the octo didn't run and hide which has been the standard until now. This one stared back at me, ducked under the ledge a little bit, came back out, and then moved all the way up the little coral pillar he was on. It was almost as if it was posing for me. These are the first good pictures of an octopus I have taken in all my dives out here in Maui.

As I was taking pictures of all the critters I glanced up and near the surface a medium sized sea turtle was hovering and getting cleaned by butterflyfish. Shortly thereafter I noticed a few milletseed butterflyfish swimming around me. Then alot of butterflyfish. They were coming to clean me! They lightly nipped my hands, wetsuit, camera, and even nibbled on my hair! It was wild. I wonder if I had gotten a little algae on me swimming through the caves or they were just in a cleaning mood today. I tried to take a self portrait but it didn't turn out too well. You can still take a look below.