Sand Chutes and Eel Cove (Fish Bowl) Kona, 2/23/21

 Calm seas after a week of big surf opened up the west coast of the Big Island for diving over the past few days.  Taking advantage of the conditions, we headed north to Sand Chutes, one of my favorite sites in the Garden Eel Cove area.  There is a super health reef sloping down to over 100 feet sand flats, with a big sand chute bisecting the reef vertically, thus the name.

 Very fishy dive with all the usual suspects including the Lei Trigger, the Reef Lizards, Ornate Butterfly, some nice plate coral, and my favorite critter of the dive: Pom Pom Crab.  Sandy found it and held it for pics until was time to put it back on the reef.

Here is a Rough Spine Urchin and a White Mouth Eel.

On to eel Cove, which as been rarely diveable this winter.  We were all excited in hopes that the resident critters there would be home.  The Cowfish, Gooseberry was right where she usually is, at arouond 50 ft flitting around in the rubble.  From there we went immediately to the shallows east of the mooring to the spire the Viper Eel lives in to see if he was home.  Usually, we hit this attraction at the end of the dive, after cruising the deeper boulders where the Sergent Majors battle the Butterflys who want to eat therir eggs.  The Viper was home, but he was curled up way inside the pillar...not hanging out the front of it.  So the photo ops to get him were tricky and not the usual dramatic shot he often gives us.  Bonus appearance was from a large Frogfish.

Additional appearances were from a very horny male Bullethead Parrotfish, a juvenile Bullethead contributing to the sand cover, Moorish Idol, Orange Band Surgeonfish, and a Raccoon Butte4rfly.