Diving the Kona Coast: June 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Convex Crabs in Love

Recently, I was swimming through a lava tube when I saw a Convex Crab (Carpillus convexus) hiding under a small ledge. It was partially obscured by a rock, but the crab remained still which is uncharacteristic of the type. After taking a few photos, I decided to move the rock since the animal was being so agreeable. It was then I saw that it was perched upon another Convex Crab that was flipped on its back.

For all my years of diving, I had never given much thought to how crabs go about making little baby crabs so I wasn't certain of what I was looking at. Other than mating, I thought it could be a territorial dispute or maybe even slow-motion cannibalism. After getting back to my computer, I confirmed my original opinion that this was, indeed, sweet crustacean love-making.

The process looks pretty clumsy for two participants who are fairly graceless to begin with, but it obviously works out well as crabs are not in short supply!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Hairy Yellow Hermit Crab

Last week I was lucky enough to happen upon a true giant and kind of an uncommon find (for me at least!). This is a Hairy Yellow Hermit Crab (Aniculus maximus) which grows as large as a man's hand and is easily the largest hermit crab in Hawai'i. I found this one on the north side of Honaunau Bay not far from where I found that Triton's Trumpet earlier in the week. As you can see, this crab is big enough and strong enough to utilize a Triton's Trumpet shell as its mobile home.

This close-up gives you an idea of how hairy these crabs really are! Nothing I've read indicates if this extreme fuzziness serves any practical purpose.

This shot shows how beautiful the shell of this animal was. It looked like it could have come off the shelf of a seaside curio shop. I wonder what became of the shell's original occupant as the shell was totally undamaged and showed no obvious outward signs of violent predation.

One last photo showing the bristly behemoth surveying his domain. Hope you enjoyed these snaps of an unusual reef resident. Aloha!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Triton's Trumpet

Aloha, everyone! I've decided to change the general format of my blogging as the "dive report" model was a little limiting and had to be posted somewhat quickly to be relevant. For now, I'm just going to pick a subject and show some photos of it with a little commentary.

Last week I was off work and did several dives. I managed to find the same Triton's Trumpet on two consecutive days and got lots of photo ops. The shot above is maybe one of my favorite underwater photos I've ever taken. I was just following the snail as it travelled over the bottom. When it crested this little coral "hill", I didn't expect it to stretch so far out of its shell. It resulted in a pretty unique perspective!

This was a medium-sized Triton's Trumpet and not one of the giants which are getting more and more scarce. It glided along the substrate smoothly and at a fairly good clip. Shortly after the above photo was taken, the snail tumbled off the coral and fell to the sand. It quickly righted itself and continued on its way.

The shell was beautiful and the newer portion was very clean and glossy. The large, muscular foot was mottled with brownish-red markings. The black and yellow striped projections are called tentacles and serve as sensory organs. At the base of each tentacle, on the lateral aspect, is a tiny black dot which is one of the creatures eyes.

The wonderful thing about a relatively slow-moving creature that is also aesthetically pleasing is that you can take tons of shots from all the angles you care to choose.

On the last day of my mini-vacation I found another Triton's Trumpet, this one in the process of devouring a Crown-of -Thorns sea star. The snail pins down the sea star and then drills into its skin and starts to dissolve the inner tissue so it can be ingested. There was some organic "fallout" from this process and the Saddle Wrasse in the background was enjoying a free meal.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Dive Report for Saturday 05/29/10

Saturday was a great day for diving with a flat sea and crystal clear water. It was not, however a great day for photography as both SeaLife strobes decided to act up! About 60% of the time NEITHER strobe fired, resulting in a lot of missed shots. Fortunately, the sheer volume of shots I took resulted in some decent photos. It is supremely frustrating to get in perfect firing position with a skittish subject abiding in a hostile environment only to be foiled repeatedly by technical failure. I was doubly fortunate in that we had plenty of Spinner Dolphins on both dives which gave me plenty of ambient light photo ops.

When Betty and I first arrived at Honaunau Bay (a little after 7 AM) the dolphins were rising and spouting in unison. This was something we don't see very often and it was neat to observe.

The wonderful thing about SCUBA is the chance to have dolphins above, below and beside you for extended lengths of time.

Notice the little nicks on the trailing edge of the dolphin's dorsal fin in the photo above. I wonder how they got there? It doesn't look to be the work of Cookie-Cutter Sharks.

These three males travelled together and swam close to us repeatedly. You got the impression that they were protectors of the pod and would take action if we made any threatening moves.

The dolphins stayed the entire morning and drew quite the appreciative crowd of snorkelers, kayakers and shore observers.

As much as I love dolphins, I can't spend a whole dive watching them. I was anxious to see if my little yellow frogfish was still where I left him last week. Sure enough, I was able to locate him (or her) in less than a minute after arriving in the area.

I hope this fish stays in the same area for a long time so I get a chance to see it change over time. As it matures, its appearance will change as its color and texture will mimic its surroundings.

Over the course of two dives, I saw four different octopi. Two were in close proximity to one another and may have been thinking about making a few hundred baby octopi. I could have gotten a few hundred good photos if the strobes had been co-operating!

When the octopus decides the encounter is over, the encounter is over ! And when this blogger is out of photos, this post is over as well.

Aloha!