Diving Big Barge, Oahu

  Today I headed out to the offshore waters of Oahu for my first boat dives since moving to this island. I was invited out to ride along with Island Divers to check out their operation. Our first dive was just under 100' at a site called 'Big Barge'. This huge barge had sunk onto the sandy bottom and became a magnet for marine life. Blue dragon nudibranchs crawled over the top while fish of every color swam through the cracked structure.

  At the very back of the barge a huge superstructure, possible a wheelhouse, had toppled over. Inside grew a forest of black coral which lit up bright orange under the strobe light. I looked hard to see if there were any long nose hawkfish hiding in the coral but I didn't see any. The wreck itself looked like great frogfish habitat but I also came up empty on those.

  The visibilty was great. When we jumped in we could see the bottom about 90feet below us. Even with the great visibility you can't see the end of the wreck. It just disappears into the blue with everything else.