Aquarium and Crescent 1/30/18

Not gonna be bummed because the Locust nudi Corrine found was half out of focus.  Underwater photography is hard.  I am happy when it works out, which it did with the Spotted Boxfishes, both male and female.

 Here are the rest of the critters out today:

Taape

Cleaner Wrasse

Second Frogfish

First frogfish

Guard crab

Orange spine Unicorn

Whitemouth Eel

Hoovers and Wackys 1/25/18

Hoovers never fails to amaze with day mantas and so many others exotic critters.  Here is the video of our Manta, Kai-Zed. Kai-Zed with divers Sarah Bergeson and Tim Ugalde. 

We hung around the mooring with Kai-zed for a while, and actually ended up never leaving the immediate area because there are so many pinnacles, canyons, walls and critters to see.  Here are a few of the smaller ones we found, including a Trembling nudi and a Bubbleshell (good eyes, Sarah!)

Banded Coral Shrimp

Bubble shell

Goldlace nudi

Juvenile Yellowtail Coris

Lei Trigger

These octopuses were very romantically inclined, though I couldn't show both of them together because I was using the 105mm narrow field of view lens.  Did get a video of them. Octopus love

Female Psychedelic Wrasses

Close detail in rough spined urchin

Varicosa Nudi

Trembling nudi

Urchin emoticon

White spotted Toby

Red stripe pipefish

Wacky's and Wash Rock (by Sand Chutes) 1/19/18

Aquarium and Devil's Doorway, 1/16/18

The entire range from little: Pom Pom Crab, to big: Pilot Whales, showed up on the Tuesday morning dives.  Aquarium has long been a home for exotic creatures, many of which are very small and live on the rock faces or in the rubble.  Often we will overturn rocks on the bottom to let the Yellow Tail Corises find treats.  They love it and swarm around you when you hover just off the rubble.

Today Becca found this Pom Pom Crab under a rock.

Other locals were also easy to find, such as Whitemouth Eels, Commersons Frogfish, Dragon Wrasse and Octopus.

Then on to Pawai, where we dive a lot during the winter because it is a series of moorings sheltered from the NW swell.