Capturing the Moment

Caloria indica (Indian Nudibranch) Unidentified Flatworm    Sea slugs, lobsters, crabs, shrimp, flatworms, and weird creatures galore can be found just off the beach here in Maui. And you don't even have to go to a beautiful coral reef to find them. In fact I think you will see even more if you go to a muck diving site like this one where all of these and more can be found on one dive. We never really know what to expect when we go muck diving here. There are almost always surprises. On this night the surge from the south swells had finally died down which meant we only had to deal with the clouds of plankton that would swarm your light if you stayed in one place for too long. This does make taking pictures very difficult as you have to get a good picture on the first or second try or else the plankton move in and ruin the shot. Guard Crab Baby slipper lobster, about 3inches Looking inside coral for creatures like this little guard crab can lead to great find...

 Some of the smallest, most overlooked creatures on the reef can be some of the most beautiful. Today's exploratory dive didn't produce a ton of finds but the ones it did turned out to be very photogenic. I am not sure the name of the sight, but somewhere in North Kihei Heidi and I donned our scuba gear and kicked out over coral and silty bottom. Out a bit deeper we descended and quickly found a pretty rare nudibranch (the orange and blue tipped one), and a Hawaiian Green Lionfish. Then heading out a little deeper something swimming through the water caught my eye. It turned out to be this beautiful flatworm that I later learned is called a fine lined flatworm. It undulated as it swam through the water much like a spanish dancer nudibranch. A couple of moray eels and a conger eel, which is rarely spotted during the daytime, rounded out a fun dive. We probably don't have to go back to this spot but now we know the underwater coast a little better.

Jolly Green Giant, the holy grail Jolly Green Giant (Ceratosoma sinuatum)   Searching for nudibranchs and other rarely seen creatures has become a passion for Heidi and myself out here in Maui. But up until now we have only been searching 'Nudi Flats', our secret dive sive, during the day. Once we finally decided to explore the place at night it was like a different reef. The major find on the dive and one that we have been searching for since we found out about its existence was the Jolly Green Giant nudibranch ( Ceratosoma sinuatum ). This little guy is considered the holy grail for nudibranch hunters out here in Hawaii, and we finally found one! Up until now we havn't seen these beautiful greens and light blues on any of our nudibranch finds. Heidi joked that now we can stop diving. Three snow goddess nudibranchs Other nudibranchs and flatworm quickly followed. Snow goddess nudibranchs and kangaroos seemed to be perched out on rocky outcroppings, a giant...

 Last night Heidi and I decided to try out some new scuba equipment by tackling a night dive at Makena Landing. Things started out a little hairy as a purge valve on Heidi's BC popped off and started leaking air plummeting her to the bottom (about 3ft down.) But it turned out to be an easy fix...even in the dark, so the dive continued.   The water was so filled with plankton that it was looked like warp speed on Star Trek. All kinds of small drifting organisms sped past us in the current. I managed to snap a shot of this wild looking jelly as it drifted by that couldn't have been bigger than my thumbnail! Finding this Hawaiian Starry Octopus was a huge payoff early on in the dive. I always love finding octos and this is one that is quite rare, endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, and nocturnal. You can see the mass of plankton above it in the picture on the right.   We checked out a few caves on our dive and not surprisingly they were filled with resting turtle...