Capturing the Moment

  Art in nature - the wrapped up arms and spines of a crown-of-thorns sea star. I love spending time underwater. Especially in a place like Maui, Hawaii. I have logged hundreds of scuba dives here, all around the island. This dive took me back to one of the places where I have dove before, a place called 5 Graves or 5 Caves. Snorkel boats come here often, looking for sea turtles. But the snorkeling miss a world of small and unusual creatures living in the cracks and crevices and caves down below. That is why I geared up for scuba diving and went out for a hour-long underwater search for charismatic micro-fauna. The entrance for this dive is down a gravelly path, past a small graveyard on an tradition coastal access trail. It would be very easy to drive right by if you didn't know what you were looking for. The entrance into the water is a small, rocky cove, that can be quite tricky, especially if you have heavy scuba gear and a large camera. The waves surge into the bay, sending th...

 My friend Moser got us the hookup with a Molokini Wild Side trip on my old boat, the Ocean Explorer. Aaron was the captain, Matt and Daniel were the naturalist. We caught some nice weather as the kona winds shifted to North, giving us a chance for a four snorkel day. We went to reefs end, backwall, Secrets at the southernmost tip of the island, and then to Coral Gardens. Not a bad day. Even learned a few new spots myself.     This is some of the GoPro footage I took set to some relaxing music. Enjoy!

  Incredible Snorkel at Mala Pier, Maui This may be one of the best kept secrets of Maui. Just outside the bustling port village of Lahaina, there is an old concrete pier, lying at the sandy bottom after hurricane Iniki wrecked it with massive waves back in 1992. Since then it has become a magnet for marine life. Corals cover the wreckage of the old pier, giving it a bit of a shipwreck feel as you hover at the surface. Fish have come to live in the coral, and sea turtles also call the area home. Today was one of those lucky days were the water was flat calm, the sky was sunny and blue, and the site was uncrowded. The reason this is such a great spot to know about is that you can actually get here without a boat. If you know where to swim out you can easily reach the snorkel site from the beach. I often grab my scuba tank and do shore dives here, although today was all about snorkeling with my guests. And what a snorkel it was! Check out the description below each picture for a litt...

Turtle Sunburst On a beautiful sunny morning with slight offshore winds Heidi and I decided to go on a critter hunt at one of our favorite reefs off the west side of Oahu. We used Electric beach as our entry point and hung a left once out in the clear water. We came across some big schools of surgeon fish and tangs which contrasted nicely with the stark white sand. Heidi searching for interesting animals Heidi and her turtle    It had been awhile since Heidi and I had been free diving so we both needed to re-hone our breath holding skills. My short breath holds were evident when we came across our first turtle. But the more I dove the longer I was able to stay down. One turtle surfaced right next to me but for the most part the turtles were chomping away along the bottom eating up the algae. Hawaiian Day Octopus   It is always great hanging with turtles but I get even more amped swimming with octopus, especially if they are too big to find easy hi...

My first Wonderpus!   One of my big missions for this trip to Indonesia was to find and photograph the elusive wonderpus octopus. The scientific name of this octopus, Wonderpus photogenicus , is a testament to just how beautiful this animal is. I was in luck. Over twenty dives in the Lembeh Strait we found five different wonderpus octopi. We also saw a mimic octopus, a couple of coconut octos, long arm octopus, and two shaggy octopi. Wonderpus photogenicus  Octopi are incredibly intelligent, probably the most intelligent invertebrates on the planet. They are highly evolved predators and boasts some amazing defensive strategies. They can change color in an instant, problem solve, and squeeze through a opening slightly larger than their beak. Mimic Octopus    Coconut Octopus and its home bottle   Even though it was the wonderpus I was hoping to find, the coconut octopus really stole the show. They are so cute, peering out from their...