Diving the Kona Coast: Dive Report for Saturday 03/13/10

The morning sun shone warmly on Hale O Keawe and the glistening waters of Keone'ele Cove .Still can't believe the luck we've been having this winter (I know, It's now "officially" spring). Anyway, the surf was way down on Saturday and diving conditions were epic once again.

This was an unusually cooperative Stocky Hawkfish. Usually, they dart for cover as soon as your eyes turn in their direction. More than one diver I know calls them "army fish" because of their effective camouflage pattern and colors. this one was fairly mellow, letting me crank off four shots before he headed for cover.

In the shallows I saw a mixed school of Raccoon, Threadfin, and Lined Butterflyfish. Initially they were hanging in the water column but soon settled on the reef to feed. In the photo above, a Lined Butterflyfish grazes among the coral. These are the largest butterflyfish in Hawai'i and are not common.

Here, some of the Threadfins linger in the water column. Some of the Threadfins in Keone'ele Cove must have been fed by divers or snorkelers because they occasionally approach quite eagerly.

I caught another Spotted Puffer napping on the coral this AM. These fish vary greatly in color and pattern. They can be dark or light and have a few large spots or many small spots. All of them have bristly skin which gives them the nickname "velcro puffer".

Puffers weren't the only creatures caught napping. This old honu was resting beneath an overhang of coral. Before long, he stretched his flippers and started to swim about the reef.

I snapped this photo just as the honu raised his head for a breath of air. I'm not wild about the composition of the photo but I love the colors. This was at the end of my first dive.

This Spotted Eagle Ray may have been following me for awhile on my second dive. I caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of my left eye. When I turned to look in his direction, he started to pull away into the blue. There was no point in following as he seemed a little skittish and unlikely to give much in the way of photo ops.

Despite the surge, I stuck my head in the swim-through to check on the little Ambon Toby I saw last week. It's still in there and looking pretty good.

I did see another octopus on this dive. This one was a bit shier than most so, I let it be. Over the past few weeks I've amassed quite a few octo photos, anyway.

This sand-dweller is a Clearfin Lizardfish. Except for the tail, all its fins are transparent. When it is not partially buried in the sand, it looks very much like a stubby snake.

I saw a few supermale Belted Wrasse like this one on my second dive. This is a really pretty fish with a bright orange "belt" bisecting multiple hues of green. Unfortunately, like most wrasse, they are very fast and flit about erratically so I have very few decent photos of them.

My last dive photo for this post is of the common Hawaiian Sergeant. Sergeants are a type of damselfish and are common at tropical and semi-tropical dive locations around the world. They have a common shape and most have black bars on the sides. They form loose schools and are often overlooked as "background fish".

This is a photo of one of my most beloved pieces of dive gear, my '98 Jeep Cherokee Sport. For 10 years it has transported Betty and I, as well as numerous guests to adventures all along the coast. The decade has been rough on the machine and it is now rusted and showing signs of mechanical wear and tear that would be impractical to repair. I have to decide in the next month if I'm going to invest the money in it to make it able to pass the upcoming safety check. It needs 4 new tires and some electrical work at the very least. It also tends to overheat if I drive it to town and back. The latch that shuts the rear has corroded away and I have to close the hatch with bungee cords. Classy, huh? Just a little reminder that this diving lifestyle isn't all glamor!

Til' Next Time, Aloha

Diving the Kona Coast

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Dive Report for Saturday 03/13/10

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