14 Feb 2022
Today, my boat headed south, to one of the furthest sites they go to from the harbor. We saw some dolphins as we left:
Farewell guys:
Dive #10 – Paradise Pinnacle
First thing I saw when we dropped was this school of Pyramid butterflyfish:
Peacock grouper:
It wasn’t until after I took this picture of this Ornate wrasse that I noticed the Blue dragon nudibranch / Pteraeolidia semperi by his tail:
This little scorpionfish was hanging upside down on this coral formation:
One of the smaller Blue dragon nudibranch / Pteraeolidia semperi I’ve seen:
Gold lace nudibranch / Halgerda terramtuentis:
Black coral:
Longnose hawkfish, hiding in the black coral:
MY FIRST HAWAIIAN PIPEFISH!!!
Male Spotted boxfish:
Trembling nudibranch / Goniobranchus vibratus:
Flagtail tilefish:
When this guy gets scared, he dives head-first into the sand.
A pair of Eyestripe surgeonfish:
Gold lace nudibranch / Halgerda terramtuentis:
Blue dragon nudibranch / Pteraeolidia semperi:
Fried egg nudibranch / Phyllidia varicosa:
Strawberry nudibranch / Phyllidiella pustulosa:
This was a very good dive for nudibranchs 🙂
Dive #11 – ‘Au ‘Au Crater
This is one of my favorite sites- it’s a drift along a wall with so many little nooks and crannies to investigate, it’s hard to decide where to look. You can go as deep or as shallow as you want and sometimes big stuff cruises through.
Gold lace nudibranch / Halgerda terramtuentis:
Locust nudibranch / Hypselodoris peasei:
Usually, these guys come in large masses, but this one was solo.
Tiny eel:
Juvenile Rockmover wrasse!
He hid in this cave, thinking he was safe- only time I’ve ever seen one stay still!
Little spiny lobster:
A pair of Hawaiian lionfish:
I didn’t see the second one tucked back in there until I went to photograph the guy in front.
Bristled fireworm- this guy did not like my light and retreated into his hole as soon as I lit him up:
The longest Blue dragon nudibranch / Pteraeolidia semperi I’ve ever seen- he was at least 6″ long!
Another solo Locust nudibranch / Hypselodoris peasei:
Today, I was thankful to have only scheduled morning dives- it was a 2 hour drive last night back from the volcano and my body is still on Central time, so I’m running on not a lot of sleep. A good day to call it an early night.