Diving the Kona Coast: Great Barracuda

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Dive Report for Saturday 01/16/10

Today, Betty came with me to do a one-tanker at Honaunau. Once again , it's a case of hitting the narrow window of opportunity between winter swells. Conditions in the early AM were excellent with good visibility despite constant northwest swells throughout the week. Betty was breaking in a new wetsuit so we decided to go deep today to help crush some of the air bubbles out of that new neoprene.

We descended to 98' where Betty revived an old custom of ours, Seeking out a familiar coral head, she reacquainted herself with a pair of Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp who are only too happy to give her a submarine manicure. These crustaceans rid sea creatures of parasites and dead skin and will also clean the cuticles of patient divers using their small claws. While the service doesn't actually hurt you can feel the shrimp being vigorous in their work.

In the past, I've been able to lure the shrimp into my mouth where they proceeded to clean in between my teeth. It's quite an experience. I'll dig up a photo of it sometime soon and post it.

Aside from the pleasure of her company, I like diving with Betty for her wonderful ability to find tiny or hidden sea life. This is a welcome by-product of her passion for finding sea shells. Today she spotted this Panther Flounder hiding out in the open on the sandy ocean floor.

Flounder can change their color and pattern to blend with the surrounding surface, rendering them very difficult to see. They are extremely flat, lying flush to the sea floor with only their eyes bulging upward.

Flounder start life as regular fish with eyes on either side of their heads. As they mature, one eye starts to slowly migrate first to the top of the head and then over to other side. As this process goes on, the fish starts to lean further and further onto its side until it lies flat on the bottom, resting on the eyeless side.

After staying deep for around 12 minutes we slowly made our way up the reef where we saw this Big Longnose Butterflyfish transitioning from light phase to dark phase.

Betty models her new wetsuit

We happened upon the Great Barracuda that I saw last week. It was still hanging around the same area. I was glad Betty got to see it.

As I mentioned, Betty is great at finding little critters. This is a tiny Stout Moray eel she discovered sticking its head out from the coral.

To give a sense of proportion, here's the same eel with Betty's index finger for reference.

As we prepared to exit, we saw this Green Sea Turtle cruising along the shoreline with the early morning sun on its shell.

We had a really great dive together. After we take our gear off, we go to a tide pool to get out of our wetsuits. This serves the dual purposes of making the suit come off easier as well as rinsing it of sand and debris. Today, however, we had a little company with us.

This small Green Sea Turtle had swum into the tidepool to feed on seaweed. We waited a few minutes for him to return to sea before we used the tidepool.

And that's the scoop on todays diving at Honaunau. Hope you enjoyed it!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Dive Report for Sunday 12/20/2009

By no means was this a "Chamber of Commerce" type of day in Kona. When I got up there was a little bit of sun and blue sky over the mountains but very gray and cloudy over the ocean. During the first dive I had a little sunlight but it got progressively darker as time went by. The scene above was taken between dives. As I geared up for my second dive it began to drizzle very lightly. But I was already wet and planning on getting wetter so I went ahead. The second dive was good, but topside it was raining buckets. To the south there was thunder and lightning and north in Kailua-Kona funnel clouds were spotted over the ocean. Pretty wild!

The weather made underwater visibility a bit like night diving. I saw this juvenile Blackside Hawkfish early in the dive. These fish undergo a dramatic change in coloration as they mature. Later in the dive I found an adult specimen. You can see from the photo below how this fish changes as it grows.

A variety of Wrasses were on the reef on the first dive. The beautifully colored fish above is a Yellowtail Coris. All wrasses swim by beating their pectoral fins, holding the tail stiff and using it only for steering. They flit around somewhat erratically and are difficult to photograph.

Above are three female Bird Wrasse darting about the reef. They have a characteristic curved beak that resembles the beak of a Hawaiian bird called a Honeycreeper. The males are similarly shaped but are bigger and colored dark green and blue.

The Saddle Wrasse is one of the more common fish on Hawaiian reefs and is easily identified by its orange "saddle" just behind the head. It has beautiful magenta markings at the base of the anal, dorsal and caudal fins.

Near the end of the first dive I came upon a cloud of stirred up sand. At first I thought it might have been the result of a couple of Square Spot Goatfish feeding in the area. But then I saw a Spotted Eagle Ray glide through the area. These graceful swimmers are becoming more commonly seen around Honaunau.

After an hour's surface interval, I returned for a second dive. This Manybar Goatfish is displaying the chin barbels that give it the family name as they somewhat resemble a goat's beard. This individual tipped me off to the presence of a Day Octopus as the two creatures sometimes hunt cooperatively.

Here are the two hunting partners together.

This particular octopus was a little shy so I only took a couple photos of it, then moved on.

Death is an integral part of nature's plan on the reef as elsewhere. This Pelagic Jellyfish has drifted to its demise in the bay. It's once flowing tentacles have been eaten down to nubs and a big gash runs across it's bell. It was being nibbled on by a Ringtail Wrasse, which fled as I approached. It's bell pulsated weakly and ineffectively, unable to lift it off the sea floor.

My diving day ended with an uncommon sight. A medium-sized Great Barracuda hovered near the surface in shallow water. When we lived in the Florida Keys we saw 'cudas all the time and they were quite bold. Often they would follow you for most of the dive. Here in Hawai'i you don't see them very often and they tend to be shy around divers. The ones I see here are generally a lot smaller than their Western Atlantic and Carribean kin.

No more dives are planned until after Christmas but hopefully I'll get one more day of diving in before the end of the year.