27 Jan 2021
Another full day of diving with Jack’s, this time back on their big boat, the Kea Nui:
I like this boat! Its set-up is about the same as the KHD’s Honu One, except the aft table is full of weights so you can’t really set gear there, but I still hang my wetsuit there to dry between dives. Oh, and it has 2 hot showers 🙂
Dive #16 – Lone Tree Arch
I had already dived this site earlier in the trip, but there were some cool critters (leaf scorpionfish!) that I was hoping to find again!
An octopus not hiding (yet):
Goatfish:
Banded coral shrimp (yes, he was hanging from the ceiling):
Orangespine unicornfish:
Threadfin butterflyfish:
A pair of Raccoon butterflyfish:
Moorish idol:
Agile chromis (I love their grumpy little faces!):
Arc-eye hawkfish:
(slightly out of focus) juvenile Yellowtail coris:
Yellow-margin eel (most times, I just see their face, but this guy was wound through the coral in such a way that you can see his yellow stripe!):
Gold-lace nudi:
A pair of Orangeband surgeonfish:
Another Banded coral shrimp, this time, peering over a ledge:
A bunch of White-margin nudibranchs:
These guys were on the ceiling of a swim-through, hence the bubbles:
We found the same coral from a few days ago, and it was still full of small critters like this Hawaiian red lionfish:
Leaf scorionfish:
Second leaf scorpionfish:
And bonus tiny crab:
Dive #17 – Turtle Pinnacle
As soon as you name a dive site after a critter, they stop showing up- we saw no turtles on this dive 🙂
But there was a giant school of Blue-stripe snappers:
I swam in the middle of them and they (skeptically) accepted me
farewell, friends!
The endemic Oval chromis:
Big-scale soldierfish:
Whitemouth eel:
Couldn’t get this Black surgeonfish to face me, but I hadn’t seen one before, so here he is swimming away:
This Undulated eel has some serious googly eyes going on:
Finally got a perfectly focused shot of a Hawaiian cleaner wrasse only to have it photobombed by a chromis:
better
Can you spot the devil scorpionfish?
this guy was very well camouflaged
A longspine porcupinefish:
and another one sleeping!
Gold lace nudi:
Dive #18 – Garden Eel Cove
The garden eels are back!
they duck down in their hole if you get too close, and I wasn’t feeling very patient this dive, so no great shots of them
This Whitepatch razor wrasse is an odd fish- when it gets scared, it dives down under the sand:
Flame angelfish:
Bigscale soldierfish:
Hawaiian dascyllus:
Spotfin squirrelfish:
A yellow trumpetfish:
Parrotfish chomping on coral:
Peacock grouper:
an even larger peacock grouper:
Potter’s angelfish:
Lei triggerfish:
Whitemouth eel:
This whitespotted toby was swimming around with a small friend:
Crown jelly:
I’ve never seen an intact one, they always seem a bit torn up
Saddle wrasse:
Fourspot butterflyfish:
Spotted boxfish (male):
Manybar goatfish:
A pair of Multiband butterflyfish:
Lei triggerfish:
Ornate wrasse:
Indo-pacific sergeant:
A really pretty saddle wrasse:
Hawaiian lizardfish:
look at those teeth!
Goldring surgeonfish:
Brown surgeonfish and yellow tang:
Bigeye emperor:
Perching peacock grouper, with teeth!
Sleek unicornfish (this one didn’t change colors):
Manybar goatfish and brown surgeonfish:
Dive #19 – Garden Eel Cove (with mantas!)
Last manta dive of the trip 🙁
I was once again really close to the action:
Manta face, coming right at me!
Leon:
Part of the front guy’s tail was severed 🙁
Trevally and an eel, hunting together:
Eels are terrible hunters, and miss the majority of the time they try to grab at something, so the trevally are hoping the eel will scare up an easy meal
Spotted boxfish:
Orangemouth lizardfish:
This is a sea cucumber, and it totally grosses me out:
They stretch out super long, and if you follow it around, eventually you’ll find an end with creepy tentacles.
Just an urchin perched on a rock:
