24 Jan 2024
Today, I was supposed to have a full day diving up in Kohala, but conditions up there are still pretty bad, so I booked another morning boat out of Kona.
Dive #8 – Old Airport
Just one mooring over from Shark Fin Rock, one of my dive sites on the first day. There are a bunch of moorings in this area, all really close together, so while you may start at one site, depending on the current, you’ll likely cross into other sites, but that’s ok because today there were a ton of fish!
Yellow fish!
These Yellow tangs are everywhere, and I feel like I sometimes ignore them because they’re literally at every site, but this pair of big and little yellow fish was cute 🙂
Arc-eye hawkfish:
Multiband butterflyfish:
Longnose butterflyfish:
Orangeband surgeonfish:
Agile chromis:
Ornate wrasse:
Ok, so this is not a good picture of a pile of Goldring surgeonfish, but it’s a good illustration of a problem I should have picked up on sooner…
Notice how those 2 bottom fish are in shadow? They shouldn’t be. I have two strobes now so fish should be lit from both sides… but since I wasn’t reviewing my pictures each day, I didn’t figure out the problem til the end of the trip (so you’ll have to wait to find out as well 🙂 ).
Hawaiian Whitespotted toby:
Bluestripe grunt:
Island goatfish:
Yes, he really was quite purple!
An older juvenile Yellowtail coris:
A grown up Yellowtail coris:
Male Spotted boxfish!
Female spotted boxfish!
(it’s not a stellar pictures, but she also has some faint blue and brownish markings on her face).
Gold lace nudibranch / Halgerda terramtuentis:
Female Psychedelic wrasse (in the front with the red tail):
Usually there’s a whole harem of these guys, but this fish was solo.
Can you find the Scorpionfish?
That flash of orange is the underside of his pectoral fin!
Orangeband surgeonfish:
Dive #9 – Wash Rock (Pawai Bay)
For this dive, we went back to Pawai Bay, the site of my first dive of the trip, because it’s another area that is slightly more protected from the surge.
Agile chromis:
Epaulette soldierfish:
I learned on my dive in Kohala that if you stroke a Crown-of-thorns starfish, those little red spikes retract:
Weird, and I don’t know the reason why, or what their purpose is.
Another soldierfish:
Bluestripe grunt:
I don’t think his eye is actually cloudy, I think that’s just a speck of debris in the water.
Ornate butterflyfish:
Flame angelfish!!!
I actually saw several of these guys, but this was the only shot that actually turned out.
Hawaiian bristletooth:
I’ve seen this guy a handful of times, but wasn’t able to get a picture until now!
Orangeband surgeonfish:
This guy’s head stripe was more purple than most- usually they’re a bit more blueish.
Chompy the parrotfish:
I think he’s actually a Bullethead parrotfish, in the initial stage or possibly starting to transition. There aren’t nearly as many parrotfish here as there are in Florida.
Pyramid butteflyfish!
Normally, these guys hang out rather deep, but there were several of them at about 20′
Reef landscape:
Eyestripe surgeonfish:
I don’t remember seeing this guy before!
White margin nudibranch / Glossodoris rufomarginata laying eggs!
Octopus:
Peacock grouper:
Manybar goatfish:
Lizardfish:
Potter’s angelfish:
One of these fish is not like the others…
A school of Blue goatfish plus a Bluefin trevally.
Orangeband surgeonfish:
Ornate wrasse:
Hawaiian Whitespotted toby:
I didn’t book an afternoon/evening trip this time- there are no blackwater dives on Wednesdays at either of my shops here in Kona and the idea of trying to sit still for a manta dive while the surge was trying to pull me back and forth just didn’t sound fun.
Instead, I took advantage of my proximity to Kona to drive into town to pick up some more tikka masala, only to find out the restaurant was closed due to a plumbing issue.
Lame.
So, I made the long trek back to my apartment, made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and called it an early night.