Capturing the Moment

Blue Dragon Red Spotted Nudibranch  Over the course of three dives Heidi and I found ourselves in nudibranch heaven. We didn't even have to go to some far off land, just right off our own coast here in Hawaii. We scoured the waters of the Big Island and a couple of spots on Lanai, but it seems that Maui is the hotspot for nudibranch hunters. Many of these nudibranchs are the 'usual suspects' which we often look for. These pictures are from Wailea Point, Turtle Town, and Dai Mar&Heidi's Reef (a site which Heidi stumbled across while researching old nudibranch surveys and we explored together.)     Over the years we have seen many rare and unusual species of nudibranchs around the world. Just the other day we spotted some of first Atlantic Ocean nudibranchs so the search continues. The bright coloration and amazing patterns never cease to amaze me. Orange Blob Tom Smith's Nudibranch Trembling Nudibranch Imperial Nudibranchs Imperi...

Frogfish Camouflage   I've been so busy the last week and a half working my new gig as expedition leader on the Un-Cruise Hawaii itinerary that I have just now gotten around to going through some of my last dive photos from my week in Maui. I took my friend Jackie out for a stellar dive at one of my favorite spots, 5 Graves, off the South Maui coastline.    I was pretty shocked that I didn't find any nudibranchs, usually it is a hotspot for those marine treasures, but we lucked out with two great frogfish sightings. It was funny watching Jackie shake her head, telling me she doesn't see what I am point at, until the last second when she separates the camouflaging frogfish from its environment. We see frogfish in all colors and sizes here in Hawaii, but these two were particularly beautiful. Since they trust their camouflaging ability so much they let me get very close in for a couple of good shots.    The rest of the dive we focused on the charismati...

Saddleback Butterfly Fish Hundreds of snorkelers kick over the coral reef at Five Graves, a.k.a. Turtle Town every day here in Maui. It is an amazing place to see turtles and lots of other popular reef fish. But almost none of these people will get a chance to see what is hiding down in the reef, camouflaging in, and lurking in the cracks and crevices. That was our mission as we donned scuba gear and headed in with my macro lens. And as always, Turtle Town did not disappoint. Longfin Anthias     Rare and timid Saddleback Butterflyfish perused the reef in tandem. They are one of the rarer butterflyfish species seen here in Maui and I had never been able to snap a good picture before as they are notoriously skittish. Moray eels stared out from cracks in the reef, baring their teeth and looking quite menacing. I have the utmost respect for their hunting abilities after watching a fish disappear before my eyes into a striking moray eel's mouth. Even so, I sometimes...

The visibility at five graves, aka. five caves in Makena had been incredible the last few days so Heidi and I jumped at our first opportunity to grab scuba tanks and kick this new year off right. This is such a great place for green sea turtle sighting but this dive turned out to be much much more. We also usually spot very small nudibranchs here, but on this dive I brought my big lens, a 10-22mm super wide angle in hopes of some bigger creatures. We were in luck! I found this octopus staring out at me from on top of the reef. It was one of the biggest octos I have seen here. After a few pictures of it under a ledge it took off in a cloud of ink. That is when Heidi realized that this octopus was missing some of its arms. Different wounds can be seen on the head and mantle of the octo as well. Their main natural predators are moray eels but this guy was so big that I think he must have had a run in with a hunter of the human kind. People love to eat octopus out here in Hawaii....

Turtle Town isn't just for turtles anymore. Today Heidi and I went to a well known turtle hotspot for a scuba dive. Knowing us we weren't there for turtle watching, we were looking for the small things like this iridescent blue striped Ewa Fang Blenny mimmicking the coloration of a juvenile cleaner wrasse in order to get in close to bite bigger fish. This frog fish on the other hand would not fit into the 'small' category. It was massive and very green. It was stationed just off the reef not moving, just waving its lure out to draw in unsuspecting prey. These frogfish are related to deep sea angler fish and have a very similar lure on their foreheads. As we were taking in the full size of this frogfish Heidi notice a small, brownish nudibranch crawling along the reef. It turned out to be a rare red spotted nudibranch. The color red is the first to go when you get deep in water but when I took a flash photo the red color really popped. Also showing off a bea...

Shore diving Maui can be very rewarding. There are many spot on the south shore in the Wailea/Makena area that are very worth exploring. My favorite to take visitors to is a place called 5 Graves. It is just north of Makena Landing and also known as 'Turtle Town' because of the number of turtles there, and '5 Caves' because of the numerous underwater caves and swim throughs created by lava.   The caves are perfect resting spots for Hawaiian Green Sea turtles and White Tip Reef Sharks. So if you are looking to see it all on one dive this is the place. My friends Nate, Kelly, and Brian all joined me on this dive and we were extremely lucky. Turtles were everywhere! Some were resting in caves, others coming up to breathe at the surface, and another very hungry turtle chomping on some of the shallow growing algae. The first cave we checked out housed a good sized white tip reef shark pictured above. I went down first, saw him, and gave the shark sign to the group. Th...