Capturing the Moment

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 ...

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...

Dana, Ben, Heidi, Sadie, and I all gathered together for a fun scuba diver at Wailea point. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we all felt quite warm in our 5mm wetsuits as we walked from the parking lot down to the beach. I love it when you hit that cold, refreshing water on a really hot day. This turned out to be the perfect temperature and one of the few dives where I haven't felt cold towards the end. The water was clear and blue making it a great place for a dive. Part of the dive was a refresher for Dana and Sadie. Once we saw that they were doing great Heidi and I started concentrating on finding those elusive nudibranchs. Usually Wailea Point is a great place to find sea slugs. Today did not disappoint. On the roof of a cave I found this snow goddess pictured on the right. We did our best not to disturb it because it was in the process of laying eggs. The orange/yellow ribbon under the snow goddess nudibranch are its eggs, being attached to the rock. Then Heidi noti...