Capturing the Moment

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...

 I found this juvenile frogfish while diving at Ukumehame looking for manta rays. The topography and coral aren't too amazing at this sight and since we didn't find any mantas this little frogfish really stole the show.  After spotting him camouflaging in with some yellow coral and snapping a few pics, Heidi put her hand in front of him and he plopped right onto it. But after a few moments the little frogfish started jetting forward by sucking in water and pushing it out of these little holes towards its backside. Heidi could feel the jets of water against her hand as the frogfish hovered just above it. The fins on a frogfish are much more rigid than other fish so it has devised an entirely different way to catapult itself around with this jet propulsion. It is very similar to how octopus and squid move.    Even thought they swim very slowly, frogfish boast one of the fastest movements of any animal. They are an ambush predator and can swallow prey up faster ...