Capturing the Moment

Yellow-headed Moray Eel   I've never had much fear sticking my camera in the face of moray eels, although lately there have been a couple of things that have given me pause to reconsider this. We saw a massive 7ft green moray in the Atlantic that was so wide and girthy that I didn't know what I was looking at at first. Then there are the stories. a rare Dragon Moray Eel   So in all my time underwater I've never been bitten, attacked, or even feinted at by a moray eel. But our friends over at Kona Diving Co. gave us a few stories of friends getting bitten, usually after pointing at the eel or something nearby with an extended finger. I don't take too much stock in stories about friends friends though so it took a little more, and a little more I got. Portrait of a White Mouth Moray Eel A Tiny Dwarf Moray Eel   One of the divers at the shop pointed to two small scars on her neck that looked like a vampire bit. Then she turned and showed us other sc...

Trembling Nudibranch Tom Smith's Nudibranch  Some dives here in Maui we get lucky enough to see animals like frogfish, nudibranchs, sharks, octopus, and eels. Today at Makena Landing we saw all of these and more in one dive! Nudibranchs and flatworms started off the dive before we came across the most beautiful pink juvenile frogfish. It had its lure out trying to catch the interest of a passing fish. If you have never seen a frogfish eat then check out some videos on youtube. They move so fast that if you blink you might miss it. A rare sighting of a longfin anthias came next. This beautiful yellow fish has purple flecks around the eyes and is usually spotted at depths over 70ft deep. We have seen this one here in about 15ft several times over the last few months. She must be feeling pretty lonely. Head on view of a whitetip reef shark Juvenile Dragon Wrasses (Rockmover Wrasse) Hawaiian Day Octopus  I was busy trying to photograph these fast moving dra...

Soldier fish, unicorn fish, pyramid butterfly fish, and a snapper all together    Maui has wonderful shore diving opportunities but for wide angle photography it's best to find the clearest water, and that is offshore. Luckily we have Molokini Crater, a volcanic vent which shoots up from the submerged slope of Haleakala Volcano from 300ft deep to a height of 162ft above the surface. The beauty of this for underwater photography is the fact that this rocky crater is about four miles offshore set right in the middle of very clear water. Descending into the sun lit blue Yellow margin eel on the hunt  I have kayaked out here before with scuba gear, and I drive out here for work all the time, but there is nothing as great as taking a dive boat on a day off for ease and comfort. I hitched a ride out with my friends on Maui Diamond II on a beautiful sunny day to find some great wide angle photography conditions. Blue fin trevally at the dinner buffet T...

Dive 1: Ukumehame Michael with a Titan's Trumpet Snail  With the hope of finding manta rays and the thought that it may be the only time I get to dive with Michael we geared up and swam out from Ukumehame beach park despite some unruly looking water conditions and murky water. Sunset is supposed to be the time to see the mantas so add low light to the list and you've got yourself a very challenging dive. Zero visibility greeted us and stayed with us all the way out to the drop down spot, about half a mile offshore. The viz became 30' or so out here so we did get a chance to see some fun fish amongst the finger coral and a couple of moray eels as well. The mantas seemed shy this time and we didn't have a spotting until the last second, when a big beautiful manta silently swooped into my view. I furiously banged my tank banger and got Heidi and Hunter's attention so they could see it. Unfortunately Michael was already out of air so forced to stay at the surfa...

Razor sharp teeth line the mouth of this white mouth moray eel. Many divers are threatened by this open mouth behavior of eels but if you do a little research you will know that eels open and close their mouth all the time to pump water over their gills. Often mistaken for sea snakes, eels like this one are actually a kind of fish. Their dorsal fin extends all the way down their back and they use gills to breath oxygen in water. Every once in a while a free diver has their hand sliced open by a lightning fast moray eel bite. After seeing these close ups I am extra glad that it hasn't happened to me!

   The old wreckage of the Mala Pier is the home to many of Maui's famous larger marine life. I often come here to look for white tip reef sharks, green sea turtles, and spotted eagle rays. On this one dive I found all of the big three, plus eels, nudibranchs, and more fish than I could fit in even with a wide angle lens. It is almost like diving a shipwreck with straight lines seldom seen in nature. The wreckage fell in on top of itself in a way that created a lot of hiding spots for creatures that prefer to stay out of sight of hunters. A new hunter was on the reef this day, a human spear fisherman. It is funny how much more nervous some random guy with a spear makes me than a shark while I am underwater. There is already an eerie, almost mysterious feeling with any wreck site, especially under the part of the pier still standing. The light and shadows cast an otherworldly sight.   Some of the animals here acted a bit out of the norm. The spotted eagle ray...