Crescent and High Rock 5/25/21

 South swell came up overnight so our choices were limited today for a suitable dive site on Kona coast.

The easy choice, which we took, is to drop to a mooring right outside the harbor at Crescent or Nai'a, and go out to see Garden Eels, Bicolor Anthias (I missed them) and big Tigers (they didn't show).  The reef is healthy and drops considerably from the mooring, where the goatfish school shimmers like a moving curtain, and ends in the flat sand at 80-100 ft depending on tides.

Right under the mooring there was a nice Clumpy Nudibranch.  Cool! 

On the way down the gradient I found a couple of big White Mouth Eels.

 

 

Once on the sandt here were some Garden Eels, but you can't get close enough to them to get pics because they sink into their little holes as you approach.  Predictably, when I got to the little rock patch where the Bicolor Anthias live I was too late.  they'd already hid away.  Later Janine said she'd hang out with me while I wait for them to come back out.  Thanks J9, I'll take you up on that offer.

Out by the Green Can anchor chain I heard some heavy boat traffic churning by 80 feet above.  I was reminded of the time out there years ago that a diver near me had an out-of-air emergency..  Oops, can't go up, can't go down...maybe go south to the shallows.  (She was cool and everything worked out.)

Now some cool things:  A bunch of juvenile Dascillus were flitting around in a coral head.  Then in a sand patch we found what looks like a crab of some sort.  And another mystery critter.  Here's a flatworm or nudi that I couldn't ID.  Help?

 

 

More nudis:  Strawverry Nudi and a nice Bi-Color Nudibranch that Janine found.  There was another smaller one with it but if I'd take a shot with both you wouldn't be able to see them.

 

 Lots of Lizard fish today, but most of them were too fast for me to get them.  This one was a tick slower.

Back at Naia, one of the stars of the day was this Female Whitleys Boxfish.  She was not in a mood to be photographed and only gave me this one fishbutts.com contender. And back up in the shallow boulder field there were plenty of attarctions, including the Goat Fish school, some nice Plate Coral, and a Srawled Filefish that was really trying to get away.

 

 

This was a big Honu, hiding in a hole.  We roused him with our strobes and he wasn't that pleased.  But, see the barnacles on his nose?  I'd hate that.

 

 

Aquarium outer mooring and Eel Cove 5/4/21

 Weather forecast for today was rain.  And sure enough, at 4 am it was raining hard.  I rolled over and thought, "I'll be wet anyway, but maybe take the boatcoat."  Then I went back to sleep for an hour.

Amazing that at 6am the sky was clearing and there were fluffy clouds ,white with refllected light from the rising sun.  Looks like a great day on the ocean, which was calm and glassy, the south swell from the last two days subsiding.  Boarded Honu One and the Kona Honu Divers crew got us ready to go.

Once underwater it seemed clear that the fish were out.  So many surgeons, tangs, and corises; a variety of wrasses, and butterflies.   Below are Orangeband Surgeon, Bluespine Unicorn and pair of Raccoon Butterflies.

We headed first into Skull Cave looking for nudis but they must have been cloaked because everyone was 0-fer.

Back we go out toward the dropoff.  Here's a gaggle of Blue Goatfish, and near the mouth of Suck'em up, a nice Flowery Flounder.  The Yellowtail Corises were all over the undersides of rocks turned over by Rockmover Wrasses.
 

Blue Goatfish

Flowery Flounder

Yellowtail Coris

 

Rockmover Wrasse

After about an hour we were back near the mooring, just a bit north and there appeared about three or four beautiful Saddleback Butterflies.  They were a bit shy and ran away from my loud open-circuit breathing system.  I turned out my lights and chased.  Finally found 'em behind a big boulder.  Also, there under the boulder was a Straewberry Nudi.
 

Stoked on SI to hear we're headed for Eel Cove, or Fish Bowl.

Slight disappointment that our group with Rob wiffed on finding Gooseberry.  Apparently he was at about 90 feet  today.  I remember seeing a bunch of the Janine's group circled around a spot in the deep rubble.  I headed down there thinking they had found him, and they had, except that when I got there they, and he, had departed.  OK, let's head back up to the shallow pinnacle and find Vinnie (or Vickie) the Viper.  Hmmm, strike two.  He or she's not there either.  OK, now just cruise and see what we can find.  Oh, look, a Barred Filefish...  Oh look, it's Laura... Oh look, a Ringtail Wrasse.
 

Barred Filefish

Laura

Ringtail Wrasse

Juvie Blackside hawkfish

Suddenly I see Laura going after a nice Dragon Wrasse...but, wait!.. There's a bunch of them, and some are juveniles and one was an adult.  Three different developmental stages of the same animal.  Cool.

Adult Rockmover

Juvenile Rockmover

Baby Rockmover aka Dragon Wrasse

Just as I noticed that I hadn't seen an eel, as we headed for safety stop I ran across a small Whitemouth Eel.

Nudi Tuesday at Golden Arches and Shark Alley 4/27/21

 I have a list of sea creatures that I haven't yet seen, even after 13 years of diving up and down the Kona coast.  On that list is an actual blue Blue Dragon Nudi.  Ive seen a bunch of brown ones, but was today years old when I saw an actual blue one.  Laura found it.  Thanks Laura.  Here are a coupke of shots, first the little guy's head...cute, huh?  Then his articulated body. 

Also, since it was Nudi Tuesday, under the south arch we found plenty of locals out celebrating.  Whtie Margin family and a couple of Gold Lace.  Heading out from the arch there, right where she should be, was a fat Dragon Wrasse wafting around over the sand.

Off we go toward the dropoff.  Lots of Antler Coral and fish, Here are a few Yellow Orange Band Surgeons with Dascillus.

Here are my swim-bys with Guilded Trigger, Shy Octopus, and an adult Orange Band Surgeon.

Crossed paths with a pair of Moorish Idols, and Rob found the big upside down Viper, while a smaller white mouth eel was chilling nearby.  Under an arch a school of Bluestripe Snappers were moving back and forth in formation.

Out by the dropoff we found a little pinnacle with a tunnel through it.  Lots of fish in there, including a Long Jaw Squirrel with a Brick Squirrel and a longnose butterfly photobombing.  Way down in a coral head I found a Spotted Coral Blennie.

Near the end of the dive at Shark Alley Laura found some little dart-like fish that I couldn't ID.  Laura sez they are Juvie Oval Chromis.  

A nice White Tip Reef shark was resting at the end of the alley in the shallow cave.

 

Other fish I did recognize heading back out toward the mooring were the twin Teardrop Butterflies and a big Yellow margin eel in a hole.