Seahorse Found in Hawaii

Smooth Seahorse in Maui

  It finally happened! When we first moved to Maui, Heidi and I bought a fish ID book to learn all the local fish and try to find them all. There are only a few very rare ones that I haven't seen. And until now the seahorse was one of them! I was starting to believe that I would never see one in Maui. But thanks to Heidi's sharp eye as we were finishing up a nudibranch dive and were on our way back in we stumbled upon this little yellow guy!

Backlit

Underwater treasure hunt success!

    Known as the Smooth Seahorse, or Hippocampus Kuda, this is one of our rarest finds. I have always looked for them as we swim over beds of halimedes grass but never really expected to find one. If you ask people who have hundreds of dives in Hawaii if they have ever seen a seahorse their answer will most likely be 'never.' That will be my answer no more! 

  We found this smooth seahorse in about 10ft of water with his tail wrapped around a clump of halimedas grass. I was surprised how its stark yellow coloration really made it stand out against its surroundings. As I circled it to take some pictures from different angles it never moved away from its perch, however it did keep a close watch on us. It was easy to see how excited we both were even without being able to talk underwater.

    I always tell people that scuba diving is your doorway to a whole new world. It's pretty amazing to be finding new things after hundreds of dives over many years in Hawaii. Just think about what else is out there in the far corners of the world's oceans! If you want to take a look at sea horse pictures that I have taken from around the world you can follow this link to my seahorse pictures.