Diving the Kona Coast: December 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Spanish Dancer

For all my years of diving in Kona, I've never seen a Spanish Dancer nudibranch. I don't night dive very often and that's when they're most active. My luck changed, however, on an early morning dive earlier this month when I happened across a juvenile specimen in a small cave at Honaunau.

This was a small individual, only a couple inches in length, but very active. It was making its way to the back of the cave to escape the increasing sunlight.

This little creature allowed me plenty of time to take its photograph and I was happy with the images I got. In the past, this small cave has been the scene for encounters with sea turtles, ulua, a Whitetip Reef Shark and an assortment of interesting mollusks and crustaceans. It's a good place to check out.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Whitetip Sighting

Just wanted to share a couple images of a Whitetip Reef Shark I saw while diving on Nov. 20. She has a large, barbed hook imbedded in her mouth on the left side and not visible in these two photos. As a result she was restless and kind of "pacing" back and forth in a little enclosed area of the reef. I Took several shots but most were obscured by backscatter caused by sand she was stirring up. After a few minutes, she left and swam away along the reef.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Scarlip O'Hara and Me

Just before Thanksgiving, I had the most wonderful experience while diving with the Spinner Dolphins in Honaunau Bay. I had taken up a position in the north end of the bay, hovering at about 40 feet over the sand bottom which was at around 120 feet. There was an unusually large group of dolphins in the bay, easily more than fifty. Every now and then a dolphin would come nearby so, on a whim, I switched the camera setting so my strobes would fire. Usually I don't do this as the subject has to be six feet away or closer for the flash to illuminate it. Wild dolphins rarely come that close to a SCUBA diver but I thought I'd try something differeny.

After a few wasted frames I was approached by the dolphin shown above. She was carrying a leaf on her pectoral fin as she swam near. This is a common behavior among Hawaiian spinners. One will find a leaf and swim with it, deftly passing it from rostrum (nose) to pec or dorsal fin to tail fluke. Often, several individuals will pass a leaf amongst themselves in an activity locally refered to as the "leaf game".

As you can see, she definitely came close enough to be lit up by the flash and I was delighted! I noticed a little abnormality in the coloration around her mouth and presumed it to be the result of a scar. As I was hanging there, I thought of her having a scar on her lip which I extrapolated to "scar-lip" and then somehow came up with "Scarlip O'Hara".

As lucky as I felt to be getting close-up photos of a beautiful wild dolphin, I was soon to get even luckier. Scarlip stopped to drop her leaf directly in front of me. I knew she was playing with me and I wasn't going to disappoint her. Awkward human that I am, I started to swim toward the leaf only to have her cruise by and snatch it just as it came within my reach. She was clearly pleased and so was I.

Scarlip swung around and deposited the leaf even closer to me, providing me with my favorite shot of the dive. Again she snatched the prize from me at the last moment, not with a burst of speed but with serene grace and dexterity. This scenario repeated itself a couple more times. Finally, she went up for air leaving me to possess at last the object of our mutual desire.

When she returned from the surface, she appeared to be genuinely amused to see me holding the leaf aloft and waving it at her. She was probably thinking how foolish I seemed celebrating my false victory. I released the leaf and let it drop. allowing the game to resume.

All good things must come to an end, and in diving that comes when the air supply gets low. When I turned to shore, Scarlip didn't follow and most certainly rejoined her group. The few minutes of inter-species play that we shared is a memory I will treasure always. The possibility of us meeting up again is extremely unlikely. Spinner Dolphins are not as behaviorally structured as other dolphin species with individuals traveling among groups and groups seldom frequenting the same area with any regularity A small part of my heart hopes she'll always remember our encounter.