Diving the Kona Coast: dolphin

Showing posts with label dolphin. Show all posts

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!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Last Weekend's Dolphin Encounter at Honaunau

Thought I'd post a few pics of the spinner dolphin activity at Honaunau last Saturday. Probably 50 cetaceans with at least 5 juveniles. One mom had two small calves with her. Maybe she was tending one for another mom or maybe a rare instance of twins.

I took this photo just before descent. The heiau, the palms, the blue sky and puffy white clouds all looked so perfect. Of course, there is the prerequisite water drop on the housing lens!

Down at depth, a lot of dolphin activity with elements of the pod coming moderately close but not super close. Lots of clicks and squeals with the pod still wide awake and energized.

This subgroup came right by me as they surfaced for air.

This was my one close encounter of the dive. Even though the dolphins stayed too far away, I remained uncharacteristically optimistic and used my strobe unit. This female seemed intrigued by the flash and came nearer to check it out. I got this wonderful "blowhole shot" without the benefit of flash as,of course, it was still recycling.

Nevertheless, a better day of diving than a lot of folks get and another little adventure to treasure.

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.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Thursday 8/26/10

First Dive of the Day...

...Second Dive of the Day!

Life (and diving) is good in Hawai'i!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Super Sunday - Dive Report for 02/07/10

We were blessed with another day of great shore diving conditions at Honaunau on this fine Super Bowl Sunday morning. Clear skies and clear calm water once again. We have been having a wonderful winter diving season.

The Green Sea Turtles, also known as honu, have returned to the bay after a brief hiatus. I spent the first dive trying to get some shots of them at cleaning stations on the south side of the bay.

The trick to photographing this activity is to not scare off the fish doing the cleaning, in this case, a small group of Yellow Tangs.

I did alright by my somewhat low standards. The early morning sunlight filtering through the water lent a nice background scene.

I love photographing honus. They're big, docile, colorful (compared to other big marine subjects) and somewhat expressive. They seem to convey a sense of wisdom and dignity.

During the course of photographing the honu, this small Finescale Triggerfish gave me a photo op. These fish were only seen occasionally in Hawai'i until a few years ago. Until that time it was thought that they were swept in on currents from other parts of the Pacific. Now, experts believe they are established in Hawaiian waters and breeding locally.

During my surface interval, I watched 2 or 3 Humpbacks spouting and diving outside the bay. A pod of Spinner Dolphins also showed up, much to the delight of the assembled crowd. After an hour, I geared up and went below again.

The dolphins were spending a good amount of time in shallow water and remained pretty frisky throughout my dive. They are always a remarkable sight. I spent a little time looking around the reef but mostly I just hung out with the dolphins.

The two photos above are not ones I think are all that great, but they do illustrate how close the dolphins approach swimmers in Honaunau Bay. In the top photo, a pair of snorkelers hovers above a phalanx of dolphins. The lower photo shows dolphins gliding over a group of student divers.

As you can see, people could get a good look at the dolphins today without even getting in the water.

After my second dive, I hung out and got to see two whale breeches. I'm amazed at how many whale sightings there are this year. After going home and cleaning my gear, I took a nap and ended up missing the entire Super Bowl. I heard it was pretty good but I had a super day of my own!