Went scuba diving for fun today.

I went down to the Place of Refuge to play with the camera a bit. It does great for true macro, and is a bit off for lighting when the fish are just out of range.

I popped down deep initially to see what was out in the sand. When you go out in sand patches in Kona, you'll generally find rocks, coral heads, or garbage like tires or cement blocks which become a little oasis of life.

The shrimp above are cleaner shrimp, often called scarlet lady cleaner shrimp locally. In the tropical fish days I knew them as eel cleaner shrimp, as they are often associated with eels. These guys did have an eel waiting for them under the other side of the rock.

Here's a picture of a little coral growth that is loaded with christmas tree worms. Lots of corals will have critters growing in, on and around them, so it's fun to take a close look every now and then.

Water temp was 79 today. We still have a pretty big south swell, but the bay at the park was still quite protected.

Aloha,

Steve