Ocean totally calm today, sparkling sunlight cast diamonds across the surface as we headed north with Aquatic Life Divers. Ohana boat today with only four divers and two staff. I was completely relaxed even before we left the dock.
No dolphins at the harbor mouth so didn't linger. Target for the first dive was Touch of Grey I was stoked to think of possible Whitley's, Wirecoral Gobie and shark sightings. However, that prospect was dashed as we headed past Garden Eel Cove only to see another boat moored at TOG.
We were right over Hoovers Tower so decided to just drop in there. I've seen day mantas at Hoovers on few occasions, and Whitley's too, but today's critter haul included neither. Instead we found a couple of big eels, the first Whitemouth and the second an Undulated, a bit further on I found a nice female Spotted Boxfish.
Marc found a baby Hogfish. So small and so darting around. Luck to get one fishbuttz.com appropriate shot. Then, deep in a hole was hiding a Banded Coral Shrimp. No eel companion however. Just outside were a bunch of orange Band Surgeons. Here's one of them. They tend to run away but I snagged the straggler.
Back on the boat, and how nice to be up in this neighborhood and not have to fight current. Did I say it was a nice day? We circled around out by the fish farms hoping for shark or Monk Seal sighting but nobody home except the fish in the cage.
Earlier on the way up a boat had taken Pipe Dreams, but now it was unoccupied so we jumped on it. I hadn't been here for a while since it's been winter. Previous trips here had revealed lots of frogfish and a very large Titan Scorpionfish. I hadn't seen the Titan for a couple of years, so wasn't really counting on it. We headed down to the pipe and the water was clear and vis seemed endless. I shot the same video i always shoot approaching the pipe, and it never gets old.
Immediately I saw divers kicking over toward the mouth of the pipe. There was an adorable baby Frogfish. Here are a couple of views of him.
Marc found something I don't think I've ever seen before. Some kind of zoanthid perhaps, though at first I thought it was a crab.
Wandering back toward the mooring there were plenty of attractions. The first was a very mobile Ewa Fang Blennie. I just keep shooting as long as I have strobe power and hope something is in focus. I kind of got him but it may be a better shot of the Goldring Surgeon and the yellow tang behind.
But just further on was the find of the day: the big Titan Scorpionfish that I guess is the same one that I've seen before here, though maybe not for a few years. He was on a ledge in a crevasse, and was for a time, very popular.
It must be male Bullethead Parrot season right now because I've seena bunch of these up and down the coast. I never pass on shooting them because the color and saturation is so wild. See the yellow spot on his flank? That means he's feeling amorous. Aloomost back at the mooring I found another patch of coral that I didn't know was here. A small patch of Protopalythoa, soft coral, that I've only seem reliably at Dotties. hard to see them because I didn't have a way to get closer. The only nudi of the day was this Strawbery nudi. Common here.
Instead of doing a safety stop I elected to go chase this Supermale Belted Wrasse. hadn't seen one of these in a while. Last shot? A nice Longnose Butterfly.
No comments:
Post a Comment