Diving the Kona Coast: January 2012

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Something You Don't See Every Day

Last weekend I chanced upon a small Whitetip Reef Shark while diving the north end of Honaunau Bay. That, in itself, is not unusual but what happened after it settled into a small cave was a new sight for me. Two Banded Coral Shrimp started to clean the shark's mouth and teeth with the shark opening wide to allow the cleaning process to proceed unfettered. I've seen these and other shrimp servicing predators like groupers and morays, but never a shark.

I only got one, blurry and poorly lit photo as all this was occurring far back in a very tight cave. But you can get the general idea of what's going on from the photo below.

It seems that no matter how often you dive, the sea always has something new to show you. Have a nice day!

Barry Fackler In the News

Recently, a couple of my photos were featured in the "Island Life" section of our local newspaper, West Hawai'i Today. For me, a small but pleasant thrill knowing that a photo editor out there likes an image I took with my dinky little point-and-shoot camera. For those of you who don't receive WHT, here are the photos.

Friday, January 13, 2012

New Year's Day Dive

Betty and I arrived at Honaunau Bay bright and early on New Year's Day to be the first SCUBA divers there in 2012. We were in the water by a few minutes past 7AM.

The water was a little cold with an average temperature of about 73 to 74F. At one point, both of our computers read 69F.

Because of a bad fiber-optic cable connection, my strobe wasn't firing so I had to rely on the camera's built-in flash which is pretty weak. But I managed to get some decent shots like this one of a Bandit Angelfish.

Bandit's aren't rare but they are uncommon. I considered this a good start to diving in 2012!

Several cleaning stations were quite busy for so early in the morning. I snapped this Ornate Butterflyfish at one such station. The cleaner wrasse is in the far side of this fish.

This Barred Filefish was also getting cleaned and held up his dorsal "trigger" so the wrasse could clean around it.

We were also lucky enough to catch this Day Octopus out in the open. This is the time of year that I've noticed a lot of mating activity among the octos.

At one point, the octopus blanched. I probably got too close for it to feel comfortable.

I took this picture of a male longfin anthias on the second dive when the cable was re-attached to the strobe.

Photo 2012 by Barry Fackler

This lurid Ringtail Wrasse was comfortable under a deep rock. There was also an Undulated Moray under there with it.

And that's the way it was on New Years Day for us. Hope your year is off to a good start also!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

SCUBA-Themed Christmas Ornaments

It's been a busy Holiday Season and I apologize for the lack of posts recently. One of the many distractions has been holiday decorating and I thought I'd share some images of the SCUBA and marine-themed ornaments Betty & I have collected since we started diving in 1993. Betty LOVES Christmas in a big way, and SCUBA ornaments have become popular in recent years so we have LOTS! Here are a few samples: