13 Nov 2019
Day one of diving for me! Originally, Matt was going to come along as a “snorkeler” (that’s how I signed him up, but he wasn’t planning on getting in the water), but he woke up not feeling well and opted to stay at the condo.
This was my first dive with my brand-new backplate, made by a guy named Eric out in California. When I got on the boat, there was another guy, Jeff, who also had one of Eric’s plates! First time I saw one out in the wild!! So Jeff snapped a picture of me with my plate and sent it to Eric. Scuba is a small world!
Unfortunately, I noticed a crack in the battery cap of my strobe (underwater flash) and I didn’t want to risk flooding it, so I tried to make do with just my flood light. Maybe not the best move- my light isn’t powerful enough to properly illuminate subjects at a distance, so most of these pictures are mediocre.
Dive #1 – Washrock
There were tons of these needlefish at the surface, but it was hard to get a good picture of them.
Pinktail triggerfish (and a Hawaiian cleaner wrasse)
Scythe triggerfish
Dive #2 – Fishbowl
Aptly named, look at all those schools!
BANDIT BUTTERFLYFISH!! Haven’t seen one of these guys before- this guy was down around 100′
Freckled Hawkfish (and yes, his eye is kinda creepy)
Raccoon butterflyfish
Four-spot butterflyfish
Large fried egg nudibranch! (he was almost 3″ long!)
Orangeband surgeonfish
Dive #3 – Blackwater
I had done this dive once before, the last time I was in Kona, and absolutely loved it. The boat goes out a couple miles, where the water is several thousand feet deep and weighted lines are dropped off the side for the divers to clip onto. Then you just hover and see what comes up!
These are salps- they chain together and can be several feet long (this guy was only about 18″)
Venus girdle
they take many shapes
Siphonophore, or net-caster, with its net out:
net in
Another type of net-caster
And another
and one more:
Comb Jelly:
Crystal jelly (aequoreidae sp), with a hitchhiker:
