Capturing the Moment

Can you see the frog fish?   As a scuba diver and an adventurer I spend a good deal of my time underwater. I always wonder if I just sat underwater for a while without moving what I would see come by. But I usually come to the conclusion that I wouldn't see quite as much as when I kick off in search mode which was again the outcome for this dive here. The dive boat Maui Diamond dropped us in for a drift dive just past the point in front of Pu'uOlai cinder cone on the south shoreline of Maui. Clear water and a depth of only 35 feet or so made for some great photos. We came across a couple of turtles including a huge one hanging out inside a big cave. It took me several tries to get an acceptable photo of the turtle in the cave because of the difficult lighting. I ended up using my strobe to light up the turtle in the foreground while keeping the bright light at the cave entrance from flooding out the background.   A few more turtles and nudibranchs were found after the...

  Today I was on a solo adventure and had a mission. I was going to find a dragon moray eel and the swim thru/cave at this site that I had only heard about. I found eels but none of them dragons, and even though I used most of my air getting there I found the swim thru. This is a picture of it at the top right.   It was a glassy morning in Makena, Maui, perfect for a dive. I entered at the black sand beach in Makena State Park just to the side of this massive cinder cone known as Pu'uOlai. Spotted Eagle Ray The reef here is dominated by finger coral until you hit the point. After that you have big boulders, walls, and patches of sand. This undulated eel looked very dangerous but acted like he needed a better hiding spot. Reticulated Butterfly Fish Trembling Nudibranch I was very excited to find a reticulated butterfly fish. I haven't seen one of these for many months. They are quite rare here in Maui as we are on the very edge of their habitat. Only a coup...