Magic Island's Underwater Creatures

Kahuna nudibranch

 After our first successful nudibranch search at Honolulu's Magic Island dive site we decided to head back to see what else we could find. The water viz is usually pretty low at the entrance, around 15ft, but opens up to 30-35ft as you round the corner. We explored the Ala Wai boat channel, which you can see to the right of Magic Island in the aerial picture, on our first dive. This time we skipped most of that and jumped in almost all the way out of the channel.

Indian Nudibranch

Kahuna Nudibranch (Thorunna kahuna)

  Before rounding the corner of the breakwall we stumbled upon our first nudibranch finds, a Kahuna nudibranch. This beautiful nudibranch is white with a brilliant purple fringe. We have found it a few times already here on Oahu, however it was very rare to see on Maui. It's funny how shifting 80 miles away can have a noticeable impact on wildlife. Heidi spotted an Indian nudibranch shortly after. These are one my favorite nudibranchs to photograph. They have raised, multi-colored cerata lining their body.

Imperial nudibranchs trailing

Ardeadoris angustolutea

   Many more nudibranchs followed with 17 or 18 in total. But that's not all. We were lucky enough to see some moray eels, a slipper lobster, and a white tip reef shark hanging out in a cave. Even though the reef is more rocky and has less coral here than Maui, it still seems to be alive with cool underwater creatures.

White bump nudibranch

Slipper Lobster out during daytime

White mouth moray eel

Baby teardrop butterflyfish

Hawaiian boxfish