Thursday, February 22, 2018

Golden Arches and Aquarium 2/21/18

Today was my day for small creatures, notably nudibranches.  I found four nudis, one I hadn't seen before, and Katrina found a Bubbleshell.  Here they are.




I especially am happy with the White Margin nudi in the above shot.  I'm back to using the 60mm macro instead of the 105.  I get more depth of field, and have less trouble locating smaller animals in the finder.  Have to be closer and can't get some things hiding in cracks, but overall the 60 seems a better overall choice.

Here are the rest of the critters I found today.




Garden Eel cove and Kaloko 2/20/18

Garden Eel cove is best known as the northern Manta Dive spot in Kona, but the spot is really a great day dive site too, with a super healthy reef, that drops to a sand bottom at about 100 ft.  Lots of Eels, and very fishy, with robust hard corals.

Then up in the shallows there are boulders and gravelly bottom which is great for ambush predators like Devil Scorpions.  Here's what I found today.










Devils Doorway and Kaloko 2/9/18

Not often do I find both male and female Whitley's Boxfishes on the same dive.  Maybe happened once before, but then again today.  Seems this year I'm seeing lots more Witley's than in the past, so maybe there's been a Whitley's babyboom here in Kona recently.  Here are the two from today.

Here are the other cool denizens of the deep my camera caught today.