Capturing the Moment

this devil scorpionfish was walking across the sand green lionfish on the satellite rock  After a successful boat dive to Molokini the Maui Diamond II took us to one of their favorite spots, Wailea Pt. It was a bit windy and choppy at the surface but once we descended the peace and tranquility that comes with scuba diving immersed us. Josh, our divemaster, wanted to show us this satellite rock located far off the reef so we headed off over the sand. There were a few tiny little rocks with baby eels and damselfish on the way and also a lot of halimeda grass beds where the very rare sea horse reportedly hides. I didn't see a sea horse but we did come across a very interesting site. One sea turtle was held fast on the back of another in a mating position as the other flapped its flippers slowly rolling over and over on their way up to the surface. I have seen this behavior just a couple of times here in Maui but the really interesting thing is that pretty much all the actual...

It was a beautiful day on the South shore of Maui and the visibility reports were coming in positive all day so Heidi and I came up with the plan for a night dive at Makena Landing. It turned out to be more than we could imagine, with photo opportunities around every turn.    Our first big find was my first adult Spanish dancer nudibranch. Our underwater lights lit up so many shades of red, orange, and pink along its sinuous body. I had seen juvenile spanish dancers in shallow tidepools at night before but never this giant. Spanish dancers can grow to a foot in length, making it the largest nudibranch in the world. Usually I have to strain my eyes to focus on tiny nudibranchs much smaller than a finger. Often we come across spanish dancer egg cases which look like velvet roses attached to the rock.    These nudibranchs have something in common with spanish shawl nudibranchs which I often found in the waters off California. They are able to swim and cover vast...