10 Feb 2022
Good morning, Hualālai! A rare view of the volcano before the clouds roll in:
Dive #4 – Touch of Gray
The wind has been steadily increasing since I arrived so today my boat headed north to try to find a relatively protected site where the surge wasn’t too crazy.
Freckled hawkfish:
This poor porcupinefish lost an eye 🙁
A manta cruised through!
This is LouLou. She was actually the second manta to grace this dive- Kailey swam through moments after we dropped, but she was just a bit too far for me to get a picture. LouLou, however, swam right over me as I was next to her cleaning station! So cool!
Yellowmargin eel:
Normally, they’re tucked up in a hole so you can’t actually see their yellow stripe, but this guy’s tail was visible!
Longnose butterflyfish:
and another!
Hairy yellow crab (in a Triton’s trumpet shell):
Eyestripe surgeonfish:
Wire coral goby:
Trumpetfish:
Hawaiian dascyllus (and bonus yellow tang):
Multiband butterflyfish:
Paletail unicornfish:
hadn’t seen this guy before, but he was not interested in being photographed 🙁
Blacklip butterflyfish:
Yellow tangs and Golding surgeonfish:
both super-common, but I still like them!
Moorish idol:
Hawaiian whitespotted toby:
Pencil wrasse (female):
Hualālai still hadn’t clouded up when we came up from our first dive- strange!
As we were driving to our next dive site, a whale breached right behind our boat! I grabbed my camera as he breached again:
one final flop:
Best surface interval EVER!
Dive #5 – Black Hole
Hello there, giant fried egg nudi / Phyllidia varicosa:
Eyestripe surgeonfish, swimming away (but look at his beautiful tail markings!):
These two orangeband surgeonfish have wildly different colorations:
Pyramid butterflyfish:
Raccoon butterflyfish:
Pennant butterflyfish!!! Not to be confused with a Morish idol (which, of course, I didn’t see on this dive, but if you scroll up, there’s one there):
Arc-eye hawkfish:
Ugh, and the bane of my existence, the Coral croucher:
These stupid, twitchy fish live deep inside finger corals and as soon as your light hits them, they move- so hard to photograph!!!
Dive #6 – Blackwater Class #2
I was hoping the second part of my blackwater class would go more in depth into the creatures we commonly see on this dive- I’d love to be better at identifying these critters, but it was just a quick review and a test. Lame. Seriously not worth the money.
But, I saw so many cool things on this dive, including my first pelagic seahorse!!!
yeah, it’s a terrible picture- the top speed of a seahorse isn’t that fast, but they hate bright lights and this guy was no exception. Fortunately, we saw a good half dozen of them so I had a few more chances to get a better picture:
and another guy:
Acorn worm:
Tiny Venus girdle:
I want this nest to be something, but I honestly have no idea what it is:
Comb jelly (Bolinopsis vitrea):
Comb jelly with a tail (Eurhamphea vexilligera):
Salp (with a ton of hitchhikers):
I was so excited when I spotted these two salps joined- I assumed they were mating, but apparently salps reproduce asexually. This is how Cyclosalps join together to form their circular colonies:
like this:
(if you look at it from the top down it looks like spokes on a wheel, but my picture didn’t turn out well)
I’ve nicknamed this guy the Paramecium, because he swims around like a little amoeba, but he’s actually a Beroe ovata:
I’m pretty sure this little guy is a larval blenny- as soon as I snapped this picture, he attacked my camera, then swam off into the abyss:
Not the clearest picture, but this a sea butterfly (Cavolinia sp.) laying eggs!
