Tako Tuesday

 Big swell came up early out of the north west, and already there was a south swell running.  The usual dive sites off Kona were therefore not diveable.  Where to Go?  We decided to go where the Octopuses are, at least where they are today. 

We headed north toward the airport looking for shelter, and we found it with virtually every other dive boat in Kona either already there or arriving with us. We jumped on a mooring and geared up. What we didn't know was that we would have a very special visitor at the end of the dive. 

First up across the very healthy reef Kendall found a family of Psychedelic Wrasses.  I zoomed in on the male, since I haven't seen one of those in a while. Immediately I turned and Dot was shooting someting in a hole. It was a Banded Coral Shrimp.  Along the way I ran into an Ornate Butterfly.  These are so common that I usually pass them by, but this one wanted to give me his good side, so I obliged.  Another common but hard to photograph fish is the Peacock Grouper.  They flit around the reef and are common, but they are hard to shoot because they shy from the camera, or maybe it's the divers.  Anyway I got this guy just as he was trying to make his getaway.

As we hit greater depths everyone spread out to look for rare goodies.  Laura went out on the deep sand, I stayed a bit back on the reef, and was rewarded with a wonderfully curious and gorgeous octopus.  I managed by staying very still to coax him out on a rock where I was able to get multiple shots.  Even though his cfolor change signalled that he wasn't fond of the flash he didn't run away until later.  That part is in the video.

But this dive was just getting started.  We headed back up the sloping reefscape toward shallower water, and were met with a nice, medium size Whitemouth Eel and huge school of yellowtail Goatfish.

As the school of goatfish parted for a moment I saw Dennis pointing at somethiing, then he wrote on his slate, "Seal."  Wow, I looked up toward the mooring, which we'd come back to, and there was Waimanu in all her glory resting on the mooring line.  I moved in a little closer, carefully observing the proximity limits for divers approaching Monk Seals. She got tired of the mooring lines and moved in under the boat, seeming to hug the hull and look down at us.

Just when I thought we'd seen all the things Kendall motioned at me to follow him back down the reef slop.  There was a Clumpy Nudibranch there ona rock and moving quickly for a nudi.

Right next door was a Gold Lace nudi and two more octopuses!  The first one was digging himself a deeper hole in the sane under a ledge, so there was some sediment in the water, but the second one was just sitting there looking out from his hole.

So about then we were well over an hour and my breathing gas was low enough that I needed to get back in the viscinity of the boat.  On the way up the slope I found a Female Spotted Boxfish, not rare but still pretty, and a Flowery Flounder.  The flounder took off and I chased him with my video camera whirring.

The last and one of the coolest animals we found all day was a Locust Nudibranch.  Very Very tiny, not bigger than the width of your little finger nail.  I saw Laura boring in on a wall and thought, "She found something."  And well she did.

Here's the video link at YouTube.