17 Feb 2022
Last day of diving 🙁
On our way out to the dive site, we came across a pod of Blainville’s beaked whales!
Initially, I just saw their short dorsal fins and assumed they were just dolphins, but this one broke off from the pod and swam at our boat!
Apparently, they’re pretty uncommon, so what a cool thing to see!!
Dive #17 – Pyramid Pinnacles
Leaf scorpionfish!
Apparently, there were also a pair of Harlequin shrimp in this coral as well, but I got distracted by this little guy 🙂
Yelloweye filefish- a new-to-me fish!
Juvenile Yellowtail coris- the first of close to a dozen I saw on this dive!
Freckled hawkfish:
Whitemouth eel, posing 🙂
A Zebra moray!!
Blackfin chromis:
Moray:
Blackside hawkfish (probably still a juvenile):
Yet another moray (this was a very eel-heavy dive as well):
Ornate wrasse, shortnose wrasses:
Gray triggerfish?
Look at the eyebrows on this little Spotted coral blenny!!!
Another leaf scorpionfish!
A pack of Orangeband surgeonfish grazing:
This is usually how I see Pinktail triggerfish- swimming away for cover!
The tail streamers on this Orangespine unicornfish seemed longer than most:
Shortnose wrasses:
Probably the smallest juvenile Yellowtail coris I’ve ever seen:
Juvenile Yellowtail coris, starting to transition into adulthood:
Male pencil wrasse:
Dive #18 – Old Airport
Hawaiian lionfish:
and another one:
They tend to hang out in odd positions
Yellowtail coris:
Juvenile Rockmover wrasse!!
FINALLY got a good shot of this guy!!
Bird wrasse:
(still trying to get a good shot of him)
Belted wrasse (male):
Belted wrasse (female):
ANOTHER AWESOME PICTURE OF THE JUVENILE ROCKMOVER WRASSE!!!
Bullethead parrotfish (initial phase):
I think this is also a Bullethead parrotfish of the super-male variety?
Potter’s angelfish:
Goldring surgeonfish:
Ornate wrasse:
Moorish idol:
Two Banded coral shrimp, hanging from the ceiling:
Male spotted boxfish!
Octopus, tucked up in his cave:
Stealthy scorpionfish:
Ringtail wrasse:
A pair of lizardfish!
Normally, they’re super-skittish and take off as soon as you think about snapping a picture
but this pair was quite photogenic and content to let me snap away!
Potter’s angelfish:
Belted wrasse (male):
Parrotfish (I’m much better at naming Florida’s parrotfish than I am at identifying Hawaii’s parrotfish):
Lined butterflyfish:
Convict tang!
Raccoon butterflyfish:
Brown surgeonfish:
We were drifting, so I’m not quite sure which site this structure belongs to:
Yet another Potter’s angelfish:
(I like these guys and will never not photograph them)
Yellowtail coris, Yellow tang:
Strawberry nudibranch / Phyllidiella pustulosa:
The body of a Zebra moray- not sure where the bitey end is…
Dive #19 – Blackwater
Last blackwater dive of the trip 🙁 but I saw a lot of cool things on this dive!
Salps reproduce asexually- I think this one just hit copy on itself!
I wonder if these salps are making copies too?
Siphonophore (net-caster):
Venus girdle!
Heteropod:
probably one of the better shots I’ve gotten of this guy- you can actually see the structures in his “eyebrows”:
I believe this critter hollowed out a salp and is using it as a home…
Eurphamphea vexilligera:
really have to come up with a common name for this comb jelly with a tail…
No idea what this is!!!
Paramecium! Beroe ovata:
A little drift fish in an Aequorea macrodactyla:
Pelagic seahorse!!!
I snuck up on this guy with my red light so hopefully he wasn’t as traumatized as the other sea horses I was trying to take pictures of.
Stardust galaxy:
(no idea what it actually is!)
Nausithoe sp. I think:
Pearlfish!
When this guy grows up, he goes off to the reef and lives in a sea cucumber’s butt. For real.
I mean, look at that face! Yikes! Definitely the face of a fish that lives in another critter’s butt!
I’m really bad at identifying larval fish, but I think this is a lizardfish:
A Cunina sp. I believe:
BABY PORCUPINEFISH!!!
This guy was seriously fast! I chased him up and down and set off every alarm on my dive computer, but I got his picture! Highlight of this dive for me!!!
Squid, trying to shoot away from me:
Some sort of Hydrozoan, probably:
I’m going to call this guy a larval lizardfish too:
Another seahorse!
Eurphamphea vexilligera with his tail out:
Cyclosalp:
Looking inside a comb jelly:
Comb jelly, side view:
Yet another larval fish:
And yet another sea horse, this one is diving for the depths as fast as his little fins can take him 🙂
Mauve stinger:
