Exploring Underwater Caves: 5 Graves, Maui

Shore diving Maui can be very rewarding. There are many spot on the south shore in the Wailea/Makena area that are very worth exploring. My favorite to take visitors to is a place called 5 Graves. It is just north of Makena Landing and also known as 'Turtle Town' because of the number of turtles there, and '5 Caves' because of the numerous underwater caves and swim throughs created by lava.
  The caves are perfect resting spots for Hawaiian Green Sea turtles and White Tip Reef Sharks. So if you are looking to see it all on one dive this is the place.

My friends Nate, Kelly, and Brian all joined me on this dive and we were extremely lucky. Turtles were everywhere! Some were resting in caves, others coming up to breathe at the surface, and another very hungry turtle chomping on some of the shallow growing algae. The first cave we checked out housed a good sized white tip reef shark pictured above. I went down first, saw him, and gave the shark sign to the group. They all bolted down to check him out. My kind of divers. Eventually they all came back out of the cave and I went in for some pictures. The shark had seen enough though so when I got inside he jetted right past me and out of the cave. It must have looked funny for those guys to see me go into a cave and a shark come out.

Exploring all the caves here can be done freediving, just snorkeling and holding your breath. But scuba is the way to go if you really want to penetrate into the depths. Many of the caves go back much farther than you first think. Here Kelly is checking out one of my favorite caves at this site called the 'skylight cave'. This is a virtual playground for underwater photographers. The caves provide very dramatic lighting which can be challenging but also very rewarding. Plus you will find cave dwelling creatures like crabs, nudibranchs, and octopus that you otherwise don't normally see.

This place never ceases to amaze me. Besides sharks and turtles we saw many kinds of nudibranchs on this dive including my first ever Rosy Phyllidia. Not bad for a place I have visited 50 times. And every once in a while you can see even bigger things here...manta rays...tiger sharks...

So in short don't be put off that alot of the snorkel boats come here. It is really a fantastic site that should be on every divers list when they come to Maui. It is for me!