Tuesday, June 27, 2006

The curious wormfish of Kona Hawaii


This isn't the best picture of one of these little fish, but it's the only one I have. They are interesting fish in that they have an almost eel-like flexibility that you generally do not see in freeswimming fish. Looking at the photo you can see the false eyespot on the tail - the real eye is on the right side in this picture. They do tend to dart into holes when you approach, we don't see them often. I took it today on a quick "captain's dive" (I captained the boat today, but one of my crew is also a captain, so I was able to sneak in the water during the surface interval) between dives one and two on today's charter.

It was a quick dive, but I managed to see an eagle ray, a tiger moray that was burying itself into the coral before I could get there, a school of Heller's barracuda, the Curious Wormfish (Gunnellichthys curiosus), bunches of anthias and about a 40-50 pound Jack and ohter goodies. I was in a hurry and didn't get close enough to anything to get a decent shot, so the wormfish is about it for today.

Later,

Steve

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve, are you looking for instructors? I'm sure there is a shortage of them down by you. :) This drysuit diving is getting old. :/

Steve said...

Working as a scuba instructor in Kona is a tough gig. On any given day we've got a shortage of instructors... On any given day we've got too many. The demand for diving and scuba instruction services isn't consistant on a daily basis. One may have to try to hook up with several operators, and even that won't necessarily guarantee consistant work.

My guess is not every instructor that comes over here manages to find work, an even smaller portion find meaningful work they can survive off of for a half to full year.

That said, good instructors with good personalities who are willing to scramble to find work and not expecting a real good income do make it here, but I suspect that wouldn't be the majority of instructors who make the move.