Diving the Kona Coast: green sea turtles

Showing posts with label green sea turtles. Show all posts

Friday, March 26, 2010

Prince Kuhio Day - Dive Report for Friday March 26, 2010

Today is Prince Jonah Kuhio Day, a state holiday in Hawai'i and yours truly had the day off which was spent wisely at the beach.

On the first dive I found this Common Bigeye sheltered under a ledge. Note the silvery sheen on its dorsal surface. These fish always stay tucked away during the daylight hours.

I always have a difficult time getting close enough to Bluespine Unicornfish to get good photos. They tend to swim off when you begin to draw close. These are very aptly named fish with a prominent horn projecting forward from between the eyes. They are a beautiful light blue color.

The photos above are of an Orangespine Unicornfish. Despite the name, these fish don't have a horn on their heads. Go figure! What they do have is an ornately decorated face that reminds me of a tribal mask. Like other unicornfish, it's hard for me to get close enough for a good shot.

Undulated Morays, like this one, are sometimes aggressive. This one was pretty shy, keeping tucked in its coral haven and foiling any attempt to get a clear shot.

I'm still seeing a lot of octopus and a respected divemaster has told me that this is their mating season (the octopi's, not the divemasters'). Anyway, I've tried to cut back on octophotos but this one was just to cooperative. I was particularly pleased with the one where it blanched mostly white.

A try at an artistic shot with a sunny background. The fish is a Threadfin Butterflyfish.

The turtles are all doing well today. The one in the top photo is getting a good cleaning by a gaggle of tangs.

Saddleback Butterflyfish are beautifully colored and are one of my wife's favorites. They usually travel in pairs but this one was going solo.

Ornate Butterflyfish cue up at a cleaning station awaiting their appointments with a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse.

On the second dive I saw yet another Day Octopus. I limited myself to this one photo. It was a nice day of diving. My only complaint is that the water is getting colder instead of warmer. Hopefully that will change soon.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Post-Tsunami Dive Report for 02/28/10

The sun came up over a calm and sparkling Honaunau Bay this morning and I was there to greet it. Everybody and everything is still intact. The forecasters and government agencies all across the island chain did a great job responding to the tsunami threat. It was hard to believe that Honolulu/Waikiki could be cleared out that effectively!

Here on the Big Island today is just a day like any other day. Diving conditions were excellent although I noticed a couple things that seemed a little unusual. First, there was a lot of cold, fresh water percolating up through the water column. At one point my computer was indicating 73 deg. F. That's a little chilly! Also, I wouldn't exactly call it a current but there was a slight southward pull inside the bay today. Nothing major but perceptible, nevertheless.

I started my first dive as the sun was rising. A lot of fish were just coming out onto the reef after a night's rest. I saw this Day Octopus gliding along the reef top with a large Peacock Grouper escorting it. Like the goatfish in last week's post, the grouper follows the octopus, hoping to gobble up any little creatures the octopus may scare off the reef as it travels. This is the closest I've ever gotten to a grouper exhibiting this behavior. Usually they separate from the octopus until I move on.

Groupers can lunge at their prey very rapidly and engulf it by quickly opening their large mouths, creating a strong suction force. It would seem that the octopus is living dangerously here, however the interaction seems casual and non-threatening.

I got lots of good photos of the octopus as it let me follow it around the reef for some time. I saw two other octos on this dive.

This Green Linckia starfish has had a rough go of it! Two of its five arms are in the process of regenerating after some type of trauma. This is the type of sea star I see most often at Honaunau.

I photographed the Bullethead Parrotfish shown above just after it had finished what appeared to be a confrontation with another fish of the same species. They were aggressively swirling around each other and appeared to be snapping their jaws. Then this one swam in front of me with its fins flared while the other one swam away.

This Crocodile Needlefish is often mistaken for a Barracuda by snorkelers unfamiliar with the local marine life. There are similarities - both are good-sized silvery fish with intimidating teeth. These fish often jump clear of the water in their pursuit of small prey. Incredibly, there are documented cases of fatalities where fishermen were stabbed by the sharp beak of a leaping Needlefish.

As I returned to the Two-Step, I swam over this handsome Green Sea Turtle resting in a cozy sand patch. The shell on this one is almost completely clean. Often they can have a mossy coating of algae.

On my second dive, I headed north and happened upon this large school of Yellowfin Goatfish cascading down the face of the reef.

This Crown-of-Thorns sea star was stretched between the tops of two coral heads like a hammock between two palm trees. It would have been neat to see how this ended but it would have taken too long.

Threadfin Butterflyfish are not only nice-looking fish but they're also fairly curious about divers and, therefore, easy to photograph. As delicate as that dorsal thread appears, I've never seen a Threadfin that was missing it.

This trio of Blue Goatfish was prowling the reef in apparent search of a meal. These are young individuals which will get a bit beefier looking as they mature.

This little guy is an Ambon Toby that I found all tucked up under a ledge. Tobies like this are actually tiny pufferfishes measuring around 5" maximum. They are often seen in pairs but this one appeared to be all alone.

Slate Pencil Sea Urchins can be found on almost all Hawaiian reefs. They are fairly big but, during the daytime, they are quite capable of tucking themselves tightly into nooks and crannies on the reef. At night they come out and wander about the reef.

Thus ended my post-tsunami dive excursion. I don't work for the Chamber of Commerce but I do want people to know that the reefs are in good shape here and the tsunami was of no consequence. If you're planning a trip to Hawai'i, there's no reason to change your mind.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Sea of Love - Belated Dive Report for Valentine's Day, Sunday 02/14/10

Sorry for the delay but Valentine's activities consumed the rest of the day and then the work week began and before I knew it we were at mid-week.

So-so conditions at Honaunau Bay on Sunday. Moderate swells and a fair amount of particulate matter in the water with visibility around eighty feet. The water was a touch colder at about 76 degrees.

My first dive was just a little after sunrise and I caught this Spotted Pufferfish still napping on the plate coral. Sometimes they also rest in sand patches. There is a mixed school of several species of puffers that hangs in the water column just beyond the drop-off during daylight hours.

This little Hawaiian Dascyllus has attitude far out of proportion to its small size. It boldly approached me, trying to persuade me to leave its territory by making quick darting movements at me. This is common behavior for this species and sometimes they even make faint clicking noises when trying to chase off interlopers.

Early morning finds a number of Peacock Grouper visiting cleaning stations around the reef. These robust fish were introduced to Hawaiian waters in the late 1950's for reasons that aren't clear to me. They are inedible as their diet of small reef fish fills them with ciguatera toxin. They can often be seen following eels or octopi, hoping to snatch any small creatures that may be flushed out.

The second dive provided lots of photo ops of Green Sea Turtles. I've been putting a lot of honu pics in recent posts so I'll limit myself to this one shot of a turtle hanging on the surface.

Saddleback Butterflyfish are my wife's favorite fish. They have beautiful coloration accented by the dark black "saddle" on the upper rear quarter. They usually occur in pairs, but this one was definitely all alone on Valentine's Day.

A fairly nice day of diving but no surprises or hidden treasures. There were, again, Humpback Whales outside the bay but no breeching that I saw.

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!