Capturing the Moment

Gloomy Nudi Holding Tight   As we donned all of our scuba gear in the parking area of our favorite muck dive spot here on Maui a big truck with dive flag stickers all over it rolls up and the man driving says, "Are you guys going from shore here? Never seen anyone dive here before." Word of our findings from this spot spread like wildfire but I'm glad that it is still a somewhat secret spot. This treasure trove of nudibranchs and other rarely seen creatures still shows us something new every time, even after 20 dives here. Kangaroo Nudi Portrait   Gloomy nudibranchs were everywhere we looked on this daytime muck dive. Some where in mid water, caught in some shallow surge from above, while others held fast to the substrate as they crawled over the rocks. Some crabs and fish hid out deep within branching corals waiting for night time to come out and scour the reef for food. We saw a half dozen different kinds of nudibranchs which usually would be considered...

I wonder what you should call a muck dive if the visibility and conditions are really bad. It almost seems inherent in the name 'muck dive' although we sometimes get great visibility on our muck dives. However this was not one of those times. A south swell plus strong winds provided us with very limited visibility and a lot of kicked up sand in the water column. But despite this Heidi and I found some incredible nudibranchs. An umbrella slug, about the size of my hand was almost completely camouflaged despite its bright orange exterior by covering itself with sand. Two bright orange rhinophores sticking out gave it away. A snow goddess nudibranch was found hanging out under a small ledge trying to find protection from the surge. The next nudibranch we spotted was my first ever Jolly Green Giant nudibranch out during the day. I had seen only seen two others up till now and both were at night. This guy had a damaged rhinophore and was about the size of Heidi's pinky ...