Rabbi Reef and Kaloko Canyons 11/2/17

New experiences are good. Especially good when they come in the form of first visits to dive sites.  This week has been good:  Monday it was Black Hole, a fairly deep dive with a tight lava tube swimthrough.

Today's new-to-me site was Rabbi Reef. Just north of Dotties in north pine trees area.  Nudibranchs were out today, pustlose and varicosa.
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Rabbi's also has a lot of interesting structure, arches, and topography.  Walls are everywhere here, and wire coral.  No gobies today but did chase a wire coral shrimp around the cylinder, he was shy so I only got a rear shot of him. I blame surge, which is my usual excuse.

On to Kaloko Canyons, one of my favorite spots because it's like a maze of collapsed lava tubes.  I tried to keep up with the headings as we zigged around the canyons. Still amazed that the DMs can get us back at the boats after wandering this labyrinth.  Here's what we found:

Arceye Hawkfish in a crack

Bloody hermit crab

Nice, big Reticulated Cowry

Hawaiian swimming crab

Juvenile Male spotted boxfish

Mature male spotted boxfish

Linckia Star

Peacock Grouper head

Sailfin Tang

I think the Spotted Boxfish needs a prettier, more exotic name, to reflect it's dramatic coloration.  More common than Whitley's but still need a more exotic name.

Pyramid Pinnacle and Turtle Haven 11/1/17

Its always great when you see something for the first time underwater.  For me today it was the Decoy Scorpionfish Brooke found at 80 FSW under a ledge.  I saw her motion to me, and when I looked under the ledge I thought it was a Hairy Yellow Crab - cool, but not earthshaking.  Only later on the line (current) coming up she wrote on her slate what it was.  I responded with a sincere prayer that the shot would come out, even if I didn't know what I was looking at.

Decoy Scorpionfish

Female Whitleys Boxfish

Gilded Trigger

Multiband Butterflies and healthy Cauliflower coral

Ornate Butterfly

couple of Varicosa nudis

Wirecoral gobie

Yellow margin eel

Day Octopus with chromatophores

Puffer

Speckled Butterfly

Varicosa and coral

Tiger shark at Turtle Haven Kona

Black Hole and Lonetree 10/30/17

 I'm on a roll with Whitley's Boxfishes these days.  Found two females at Black Hole just now, a male at Hoovers last week, and another female at Wacky's just two moorings down from Hoovers.  Maybe they'll find each other and make more Whitleys.

Black hole has been on my list of spots to get to for a while now, but recently the mooring has been missing, until last week when Malama Kai replaced it.  Now everyone wants on it.  We had to wait while KDC was on it for their early 3 tank charter, then Jack's was angling for it when KDC left, but we (Kona Honu) were ahead of them in line.

Deep mooring like Touch of Grey, and a fairly deep dive overall.  The lava tube is just west of the mooring: a hole in the lava bottom that goes straight down for about 5 or 6 meters, then bends southwest for a short run after which you pop out into a little grotto, probably a collapsed part of the tube, and can move back up the wall to the top of the reef.

So many dead cauliflower corals - didn't see one live one - but the antler corals were mostly healthy and full of dascyllus and tangs, and also Whitley's boxfishes meandering around the bottoms.

Pipe Dreams and Golden Arches 10/22

Dascyllus (albisella)

Flagtail Tilefish (brevirostris)

Painted Frogfish (pictus)

Lei Trigger (bursa)

Female Crosshatch Trigger (mento)

Rice Coral

Ringtail Wrasse (unifasciatus)

Stocky Hawkfish (pinnulatus)

White Margin nudibranch (rufomarginata)

White mouth Eel (meleagris)

Yellow Margin Eel (flavimarginatus)

Pyramid Pinnacle and Devils Doorway 10/20