Incredible Biodiversity: Pictures fom a scuba dive at Makena Landing

Trembling Nudibranch

Tom Smith's Nudibranch

 Some dives here in Maui we get lucky enough to see animals like frogfish, nudibranchs, sharks, octopus, and eels. Today at Makena Landing we saw all of these and more in one dive! Nudibranchs and flatworms started off the dive before we came across the most beautiful pink juvenile frogfish. It had its lure out trying to catch the interest of a passing fish. If you have never seen a frogfish eat then check out some videos on youtube. They move so fast that if you blink you might miss it. A rare sighting of a longfin anthias came next. This beautiful yellow fish has purple flecks around the eyes and is usually spotted at depths over 70ft deep. We have seen this one here in about 15ft several times over the last few months. She must be feeling pretty lonely.

Head on view of a whitetip reef shark

Juvenile Dragon Wrasses (Rockmover Wrasse)

Hawaiian Day Octopus

 I was busy trying to photograph these fast moving dragon wrasses when Heidi called me over for this day octopus swimming from rock to rock. I love it when octos emerge from their hiding places. They are one of coolest creatures in the ocean, especially when they 'walk' across the bottom using all eight of their arms.

Spotted Boxfish

Yellow Tang

 Since I had the macro lens on for the this dive I had an opportunity to get up close and personal with a few of the common fish on the reef as well, like this spotted male boxfish and yellow tang. The eels pictured below always make for great photo subjects.

Undulated Moray Eel

Dwarf Moray Eel

 The funny thing about these two pictures is just how great a size difference there was between the two eels. The undulated eel on the left was about 3feet long while the dwarf moray on the right was full grown but only 8 inches!

Zebra Moray Eel

Hawaiian Longfin Anthias

 I found a couple of zebra morays on this dive. They are not uncommon but are most active at night. This one was moving around a lot for the daytime. I finished this dive off with a very close encounter with a whitetip reef shark. I was near a cave so I kicked over and noticed a whitetip shark with a hook in its mouth swimming back under the ledge. As I got closer I saw two other scuba divers inside the cave and another whitetip reef shark swimming out in front. This is the shark pictured above as it turned and swam directly at me. Another incredible dive here in Maui.

Juvenile pink Commerson's Frogfish