Diving the Kona Coast: cetacean

Showing posts with label cetacean. Show all posts

Monday, May 19, 2014

Dolphins in Honaunau Bay

Hawaiian spinner dolphins Stenella longirostris

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

This past weekend, Betty and I decided to play tourist and go on a whale-watching cruise out of Kawaihai. We've been seeing whales from shore all winter long (even while driving) but we wanted a more up-close experience.

We sailed with Ocean Sports on their big catamaran and had a super time. We saw a bunch of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) at close range including mothers with their calves.

We had a wonderful time and felt fortunate to see so many whales this late in the season. They will soon be migrating to their feeding grounds in Alaska.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

First Dive Day of 2013

January 5th was our first diving day of the new year and it was great! After a long drought, we had dolphins with us and some of them approached quite close!

Some snorkelers dropped leaves in the water for the dolphins to play with. This one snagged a one leaf on its pectoral fin and another on its dorsal fin.

It was a pretty fantastic day of diving and a good portent for the upcoming year!

Happy New Year to all you diving and ocean enthusiasts out there!

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.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Dolphins, again!

I went diving at Honaunau on October 7th and had a small pod of ~18 spinner dolphins on both dives. One very assertive male buzzed me repeatedly on the first dive, even though I was keeping some distance away from the group. It gave me some decent photo ops! Here are the pics.

Diving the Kona Coast