Capturing the Moment

Dive into Oahu's Beautiful North Shore Heidi exploring an underwater cavern It is September here in Hawaii which means those big winter swells are just around the corner. Heidi and I wanted to get at least one more North Shore scuba dive in before the waves arrive so yesterday we drove across the island and rented tanks from Surf and Sea and headed to the left of shark cove for a shore dive.   The conditions were still very nice for diving. The water was pretty clear but did have quite a bit of suspended sediment. The clouds above cleared and let the sun shine through. And the water temperature was hovering around 80 degrees.     We found some amazing underwater rock formations. Lots of swim throughs, a huge cavern with multiples exits, and encrusting sponges and coral covering it all.    On the hunt for unusual sea creatures and good photo opportunities we came across this young green sea turtle. I noticed it swimming toward the surfa...

This beautiful red-margin spanish dancer nudibranch ( Hexabranchus pulchellus) put on a show in this shallow tide pool. Named after a flamenco dancer's skirt, these 'nudies' whirl and undulate as they swim through the water. This spanish dancer swam near the surface sometimes touching its own reflection.    Even though this nudibranch looks like it might be very toxic with its bright coloration it only has slight toxin in its tissues. They are able to absorb some of the toxin from sponges that it eats. It certainly does not rely on camouflage to remain hidden from site. Instead spanish dancer nudibranchs are nocturnal, coming out at night when visibility is low. The egg masses of a spanish dancer look like velvet roses attached to rocks around the reef. The egg mass is protected from predation since the adult passes on the toxins to the mass.   While most nudibranchs are very small, this one can someday grow to an amazing 15 inches! Our tidepool find happened t...

 There are many amazing sights in nature that people walk by every day. And while people do tend to take an extra minute to notice sunsets, coral reefs, and breaching whales here in Maui there is still a hidden world just beneath their feet. Many people walk right over tide pools without ever stopping to glance down into one. The amount of life that a four inch deep tidepool can contain is astounding.  When the low tide and the sun setting coincide Heidi and I go with flashlights to our favorite tide pool locations. I look at it as a snorkel without getting wet. Last night we found hunting moray eels, camouflaged octopus, and vibrantly colored nudibranchs. All three of these creatures were juveniles. Tidepools can act as a protected nursery for reef creatures. Protected until you stray too close to the moray eel! I was just about to take a picture of the eel last night when a fish swam in my way. As I hesitated for him to keep swimming all the sudden the eel snapped the fis...

 There are several secret places to find some pretty amazing nudibranchs here on Maui. One nudibranch resource that often gets overlooked is the tide pool. If you go out at night and find a good series of tide pools you can find all kinds of creatures to wonder at. This brightly colored juvenile Spanish Dancer Nudibranch showed off its beautiful colors and patterns as it swam gracefully through the water of one of the deeper tide pools. This nudibranch was about the size of Heidi's finger as you can see in the picture. Hopefully it will grow into a nudibranch as large as her arm!  This almost translucent slug which hasn't forgone a shell like true nudibranchs is called a swollen bubble shell, or Hydatina amplustre. This wild looking nudibranch pictured on the right is Catriona sp. #1, a rarely seen nudibranch first described from Hawaii in 2008.  Heidi found three of these very close to each other in one of the bigger tide pools. ...

 The beauty of the underwater world is enough to make me want to go under again and again. These pictures are from an early morning dive at Wailea Point, Maui when the sun rays are coming in at just the right angle for photos. The reef here has alot of relief topography which added alot to the sunburst shots. These big pillars are also the best place to look for nudibranchs and other treasures of the reef. While searching for these sea slugs I happened upon some nudibranch eggs. They looked like a red velvety rose and when I peeked through the 'petals' I found a tiny egg eating nudibranch having a feast. He is too small for me to get a good picture of but you can see the spec right in front of my thumb in the picture. The many overhangs and caverns here also provide hiding places for many of the rarer finds. This swimming crab on the right was courting another crab which I didn't see until the last second. And Heidi found this beautiful gold-lace nudibranch whi...

Red margin spanish dancer nudibranch swimming Spanish Dancer and reflection Sometimes you just get lucky, but it helps to know what you are looking for. Even though this nudibranch is bright red and yellow it can still be easy to pass right by. Heidi and I have come to look for these after the sun has set. And if we are lucky enough we might even get to see one dance its way through the water like we did this night. With a very fast shutter speed and a bit more luck we got some shots of this Spanish Dancer nudibranch mid-action. When it would swim up close to the surface of the tide pool I could capture its reflection as well. fits right in the palm of your hand  While this spanish dancer could easily fit into the palm of your hand it will someday grow into the largest nudibranch in the world. Adults lay eggs attached to rocky reefs in the shape of a rose...which are bigger than this juvenile. Of course thousands of babies even smaller than this will...

Scuba diving in Hawaii will allow you a chance to see some pretty amazing underwater creatures. Scuba diving at night in Hawaii brings out such creatures that you would never have imagined. Long snake-like fish with razor sharp teeth haunt the cracks and crevices (moray eels), armored arthropods climb the reef carrying brightly colored sponges on their back (sponge crabs), voracious many-armed creatures emerge from the sand to walk about on tiny tube feet (sea stars), masters of camouflage ninja vanish in a dark cloud (octopus), and huge sea slugs fly above the reef undulating like a flowing shawl in a Spanish dance. Fish of the reef hunker down in hiding places for the night while the night denizens have their time. On this night dive at White Rock, Maui we saw all of this and more happening. We finally had to turn back as we got low on air but it still amazes me how the reef and the sand comes alive at night. We saw octopus jetting away from moray eels on the hunt. A new kin...

Red Margin Nudibranch unfurling It always amazes me what can be found in the little pools in the rocks that form when the tide goes out. These tidepools can be treasure troves of all sorts of rare and unusual sea creatures. I have seen juvenile octopus, moray eels, and cleaner shrimp at night in tidepools. But the real reason I am always checking for low tides shortly after sunset is to find nudibranchs! Heidi and I have seen nudibranchs in tidepools that we have never seen snorkeling or scuba diving. And to think, people walk right by these pools all the time, not realizing what might be lurking nearby. Dendrodoris carunculosa  This nights foray into some of our favorite tidepools was incredible. My nudibranch hunting partner Heidi and I didn't have really high hopes since the tide was not a very low tide, but all that changed when she shouted she found something. We first thought it was a tuberculos nudibranch ( Dendrodoris tuberculosa ) but when we identified it later...

It was a beautiful day on the South shore of Maui and the visibility reports were coming in positive all day so Heidi and I came up with the plan for a night dive at Makena Landing. It turned out to be more than we could imagine, with photo opportunities around every turn.    Our first big find was my first adult Spanish dancer nudibranch. Our underwater lights lit up so many shades of red, orange, and pink along its sinuous body. I had seen juvenile spanish dancers in shallow tidepools at night before but never this giant. Spanish dancers can grow to a foot in length, making it the largest nudibranch in the world. Usually I have to strain my eyes to focus on tiny nudibranchs much smaller than a finger. Often we come across spanish dancer egg cases which look like velvet roses attached to the rock.    These nudibranchs have something in common with spanish shawl nudibranchs which I often found in the waters off California. They are able to swim and cover vast...