Capturing the Moment

Blue Dragon Nudibranch Small Blue Dragon next to Heidi's pinky finger  Winter is here and the swells are bringing huge waves to our north and west shores here in Oahu. This is great for surfing, we had three huge professional surf events here last month, but can be problematic for scuba diving. Especially if you want to take underwater photos. But, after a bit of a dry spell for us diving here in Oahu, Heidi and I geared up for a shore dive at one of our usual spots called Electric Beach. It got this name because of a huge factory located just across the road from this beach, which has two huge output pipes running out into about 30ft deep water. Cold, deep ocean water used for cooling in the plant is pumped out here creating upwelling and a visible disturbance on the surface. This, and the clouds of fish attracted to this area make it pretty easy to find. Desirable Nudibranch Desirable Nudibranch (Flabellina exoptata)  The real attraction for Heidi and myself...

 Maui has a plethora of shore diving opportunities which keeps me very busy, but whenever I get a chance to go out on a dive boat I jump at it. Today I went out with Maui Dreams and was happy to see both divemasters were my good friends, Josh and Jess. The sunset was beautiful on the drive to the harbor and an early morning sugar cane fire made the scene more breathtaking. It was a sign of things to come.   Not burning to come, rather beautiful sights. As the frigate birds perched on Molokini watched over us we descended along the Enenue side of Molokini. A white tip reef shark awaited us about 100ft down on the sandy slope below the reef line but I was interested in smaller things today. Nudibranchs! And lucky enough for me I found a couple of really good ones. The blue dragon nudibranch is common to find on Molokini dives, but rarely seen anywhere else on Maui. The I came across a beautiful white nudibranch with a gold rim which I had never seen before...which is a bi...