Turtles galore! Along the south shore of Maui anywhere you see black lava rocks at the shoreline you have a good chance of finding sea turtles nearby. They have been making a great recovery as a species. However I have not often gone out with the sole purpose of photographing these reptiles of the sea since those same rocky habitats often house nudibranchs as well. But I wanted to change that so I headed to a spot called Wailea Point.
I was a little worried at first, only having one encounter as I kicked all the way out to the deepest part of the reef. But as I went farther out into the halimeda grass beds to find the satellite reef I found the turtle mother load. One turtle swooped in and pulled its best ostrich move by sticking its head into a crack in the rock. Shortly after another swam over from the blue but quickly left, only to be replaced by another, much friendlier turtle. This new turtle obviously wanted the same "hiding" spot as the first one and let it know by nipping at the exposed hind flippers! But the first turtle would not be moved. So this new feisty turtle turns toward me, takes a big bite out of the sea grass, then starts trying to get its mouth around my fins! It was pretty cute. In the picture it looks like the turtle is resting its head on my fin but check out the open mouth...he was trying to eat it!
After watching the turtle shenanigans out off the reef I headed back to find the turtle cleaning station. This little turtle pictured on the left plopped down at the station and soon had a couple of little fish picking algae growths off its shells and flippers. The last turtle I encountered was this beauty swimming over the sand.
Turtles galore! Along the south shore of Maui anywhere you see black lava rocks at the shoreline you have a good chance of finding sea turtles nearby. They have been making a great recovery as a species. However I have not often gone out with the sole purpose of photographing these reptiles of the sea since those same rocky habitats often house nudibranchs as well. But I wanted to change that so I headed to a spot called Wailea Point. 
I was a little worried at first, only having one encounter as I kicked all the way out to the deepest part of the reef. But as I went farther out into the halimeda grass beds to find the satellite reef I found the turtle mother load. One turtle swooped in and pulled its best ostrich move by sticking its head into a crack in the rock. Shortly after another swam over from the blue but quickly left, only to be replaced by another, much friendlier turtle. This new turtle obviously wanted the same "hiding" spot as the first one and let it know by nipping at the exposed hind flippers! But the first turtle would not be moved. So this new feisty turtle turns toward me, takes a big bite out of the sea grass, then starts trying to get its mouth around my fins! It was pretty cute. In the picture it looks like the turtle is resting its head on my fin but check out the open mouth...he was trying to eat it!
After watching the turtle shenanigans out off the reef I headed back to find the turtle cleaning station. This little turtle pictured on the left plopped down at the station and soon had a couple of little fish picking algae growths off its shells and flippers. The last turtle I encountered was this beauty swimming over the sand. 
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