Capturing the Moment

A humpback whale doing a peduncle throw   While relaxing in the Hawaiian Islands after a winter of working on a small adventure cruise ship, Heidi and I decided to head out in slightly smaller boats to explore the waters around the islands. We went out on our favorite whale watching boat, the Ocean Adventurer with Pacific Whale Foundation and our good friend Captain Ben. Heidi hovering over the deep blue Brown Booby overhead   Maui is one of the best places in the world to look for humpback whales, especially in March. We had a great show with active whales and even a flyby from a brown booby. There has been a lot of talk about the number of humpbacks in the area this season not being as high as usual, with the possibility of many whales staying up in Alaska. It will be interesting to see if the whales are more dense than usual up in Alaska when I head there next month. While I didn't get any great breach pictures from this trip we did get a close up view of a ...

                 Thresher Sharks of Monad Shoal    When we started researching our dive trip to the Philippines we started hearing about a site near Malapascua Island where divers frequently encounter thresher sharks. Before this I had never heard of any scuba divers encountering this shark before. They usually live offshore and stay very deep in the water. The more I read about this place called Monad Shoal, the more I wanted to go see it for myself. I am a huge shark fan, and seeing one in the water is always a dream come true. This would be the 21st species of shark that I have swam with if I am lucky enough to see one. It turns out I did see a thresher shark here in Malapascua, but not just one, I saw 5 thresher sharks and had some incredible close encounters. Now the thresher shares a place on my list alongside an oceanic white tip, great whites, hammerheads, and whale sharks. Only about 360 ...

La Perouse Bay, Maui   I had always heard that spinner dolphins would cruise over the sandy bottom at a protected bay on the south shore of Maui called La Perouse Bay. On one of my snorkel trips that I drive called the Molokini Wildside we can sometimes make it through the windy and wavy conditions on the way to La Perouse to check out Maui's youngest lava flows and check for dolphins. Last week we saw the dolphins several days in a row so I planned on my first day off to grab my big underwater camera, wake up early, and head down to see if I could get some good dolphins pictures.   After a beautiful sunrise I saw a glint of silver from the middle of the bay. The dolphins were here! I grabbed my snorkel gear and and jumped in, carefully avoiding all the sharp a'a lava rocks. The spinners were way out in the middle of the bay in about 35ft of water. They are nocturnal hunters that spend their mornings in a resting state, zigzagging back and forth in bays such as this....

 I found this juvenile frogfish while diving at Ukumehame looking for manta rays. The topography and coral aren't too amazing at this sight and since we didn't find any mantas this little frogfish really stole the show.  After spotting him camouflaging in with some yellow coral and snapping a few pics, Heidi put her hand in front of him and he plopped right onto it. But after a few moments the little frogfish started jetting forward by sucking in water and pushing it out of these little holes towards its backside. Heidi could feel the jets of water against her hand as the frogfish hovered just above it. The fins on a frogfish are much more rigid than other fish so it has devised an entirely different way to catapult itself around with this jet propulsion. It is very similar to how octopus and squid move.    Even thought they swim very slowly, frogfish boast one of the fastest movements of any animal. They are an ambush predator and can swallow prey up faster ...

Molokini Crater is hands down one of the best dives out here in Hawaii. And it is big enough to several different dive sites since you can't explore the entire crater all in one dive. Its location has pros and cons. Being about four miles offshore it avoids runoff and suspended sediment that occasionally affects the shoreline of Maui and it is sometime subjected to pretty wild currents which seem to bring in the big fish like sharks. But being that far offshore you have to pay alot to go on a boat dive with one of the many scuba tour companies. mushroom coral Unless you feel up to the challenge! Heidi and I had this planned for days. We rented scuba tanks the night before, loaded the kayak on top of the car, and piled up all our snorkel and camera gear. The next morning we woke bright and early, drove to the kayak put in spot and started out on a beautiful calm day towards Molokini off in the distance. Octopus in old missile shell dwarf moray eel About an hour late...