Wailea Point Boat Dive

this devil scorpionfish was walking across the sand

green lionfish on the satellite rock

 After a successful boat dive to Molokini the Maui Diamond II took us to one of their favorite spots, Wailea Pt. It was a bit windy and choppy at the surface but once we descended the peace and tranquility that comes with scuba diving immersed us. Josh, our divemaster, wanted to show us this satellite rock located far off the reef so we headed off over the sand. There were a few tiny little rocks with baby eels and damselfish on the way and also a lot of halimeda grass beds where the very rare sea horse reportedly hides. I didn't see a sea horse but we did come across a very interesting site. One sea turtle was held fast on the back of another in a mating position as the other flapped its flippers slowly rolling over and over on their way up to the surface. I have seen this behavior just a couple of times here in Maui but the really interesting thing is that pretty much all the actual mating occurs in the near shore waters of their nesting grounds about 700miles north west of here in the French Frigate Shoals. And when I looked closer at the tails of these two turtles I noticed that both had very long tails, which means they were both male! So maybe they were just practicing for the big event?

Bicolor Anthias, (Pseudanthias bicolor)

zebra moray eel looking at me

 After a little hitch with my tank being out of air at 50ft I finally made it back to the satellite rock with a fresh tank of air. I have been to Wailea Point a dozen times scuba diving and have never seen this rock. It was amazing. Rare bicolor anthias shared a crevice with a huge yellow margin moray eel. Green lionfish skirted around the edges while a devil scorpion fish plodded around the sand next to the rock. The devil scorpionfish was doing a funny walking motion across the sand which I hadn't seen before.
   The rest of the dive was spent with so many sea turtles that I lost count. One in particular proved to be a very good photo subject the way it was awkwardly resting its head on the coral. It doesn't look very comfortable does it? But he was pretty content so I snapped a picture and moved on.

close-up of mushroom coral

sea turtle resting its weary head on some coral

underwater shaka