Howdy,

I haven't postsed in several days... No charters this week as of yet and I'm still letting my head clear from whatever bug it was I had, along with a mild case of food poisoning, so I've been out of the water.

Charters should be starting up again at the end of the week, which is a good thing because I'll be able to give my new hire some days. Early May is looking to be pretty busy, and late may is booking up for Memorial Day and such.

This is a collector urchin, or "pebble collector urchin" which is one of the most common urchins we see during the day. They tend to collect garbage, broken bits of coral and such on them. I've aways thought it might be as camouflage because they do not have sharp nasty spines as other urchins do- don't quote me on that but it makes some sense. You can pick these guys up. If you do, take a look at the "smooth" part between the rows of spines... it's loads of urchin feet and they're cool to watch as they move. After 20 or 30 seconds, the urchin is likely to stick to you. I generally only pick these guys up to feed to helmet snails (look though the archives, I've got a nice picture of a helmet snail "pouncing" on a collector urchin in there somewhere) if I find a snail on a dive.

later,

Steve

It's a sunny morning in Kona

I've got a couple of days off, the ears are feeling better, hopefully I'm completely over the crud by the time I'm back to diving. Today's a run-around day to get errands done and then start cleaning our vacation rental for the next group.

I've got my full timer hired. I'm excited. He's got a decade of full time guiding and teaching experience in Hawaii so he'll be a nice addition, I'll talk more about him when his two weeks notice is up.

We did the manta dive the other night again, 19 mantas at the site this time. It was cool, even for me on the boat. We were tied off to another boat and as their divers were getting in I could hear them hollering. I could see 6 or 7 mantas swirling next to my boat in the shadows, in addition to the mantas under the divers and those over my group which was already down at the site.

The photo above was taken at the "end of the road" up north of Kawaihae and Hawi. There are a series of valleys on the north end of the island which streches from Pololu Valley to Waipio Valley. I really like Pololu Valley. At the end of the road there is a steep, but relatively short (15-20 minute) hike down into the valley. It's a nice way to get some great sightseeing and a bit of a hike in without traveling all the way to the other side of the island, or trying to walk the Captain Cook Monument trail which is a little more serious hike - I do need to try that monument hike again just to see if it kills me as much as when I was 30 pounds heavier a few years back. I'll post a pic or two of Pololu Valley at a later date.

Aloha,

Steve

Going out on another Kona manta ray night dive tonight.

I've been having manta ray charters quite a bit the last couple of weeks. We went out on Friday night and had mobs of mantas for the evening. Between the 3 videographers that report, they've identified as many as 27 mantas at the site that evening.

Yesterday we went out and finished the Open Water certification dives for a student. My ears are killing me right now... one of the hazards of the profession is trying to do multiple ups and downs when you are coming off a cold. This stuff I've had for coming up on a month now has my ears a bit sensitive. I made it down a couple of times and then had my other Instructor/Captain finish things up. In a couple of days I should be OK again. I'm doing another night charter on Tuesday, I'll stay up top both tonight and then.

The picture above is the best one I've taken thus far of a cleaner shrimp. These are neat little critters that generally pick a spot to live and then fish will come to visit them and have parasites cleaned off of them. They are often associated with eels and will climb all over them, even in their mouths, to clean. If you find these, you can present your fingers and they will climb up on them and start tweaking at your cuticles... just watch out that there isn't an eel in the same hole - you don't want to be making the Hawaiian "shaka" sign permanently.

later,

Steve

Current Kona Hawaii water temperature is 75 or so.

Last night they had a record count at the manta ray night dive. 23 mantas!!!! I wasn't there but I'm heading out there for tonight's dive with 4 divers and a ride along.

The last couple of days I've had some students taking their open water course. They were lucky enough to see dolphins underwater on their very first dive, as well as a sleeping whitetip reef shark and several turtles.

Yesterday we had a certified diver on as well so he had his own private guide. Apparently they saw 2 pregnant whitetip reef sharks on the first dive off Lone Tree Arch and then at Garden Eel Cove saw a manta ray on the second dive. The students finished their course and are joining us for tonight's night dive.

Here's another photo of a fried egg nudibranch I took ages ago with the older camera. I had a tough time getting a good pic of these nudibranchs with that camera for some reason. The camera had an onboard flash but I was always either under-exposing or over-exposing the shots on these nudibranchs. I could never figure out why. This one turned out OK with a little photoshop help.

later,

Steve

Wow! 18 manta rays at the Kona manta ray dive tonight!

Today was a long day for me. Class in the morning, pool session in the afternoon and then a two tanker late afternoon/night dive. I'm back at it first thing in the morning tomorrow. The manta dive is just hopping right now. We had 18 tonight and apparently there were 16 or 17 last night. That's 5 huge nights in a row. I have another manta trip being put together for Friday evening and likely again this weekend.

Here's a picture of Regal Slipper lobsters. These guys are one of a few types of slipper lobsters we have here, they are the most colorful. I think I took this picture down at Casa Caves last year, but we do see them on our night dive on a fairly frequent basis.

Good night,

Steve

17 mantas at the Kona manta ray night dive last night.

After a few weeks of nothing, then a couple weeks of mixed results, it looks like things are heating up at the manta dive off the airport. We did it last night and there were 17 mantas. I played Captain, there were flashes going off all over underater on the site so I knew there were a bunch to be seen before the divers even came up. Check out this earlier post for a brief video on a night there were six. We've had 15, 15 and 17 mantas the last three nights. So much for the "they don't show up around a full moon" theory many visitors keep telling me - there's no actual correlation. I'm hoping it stays big for the spring.

This picture is of a true chameleon. I think it's a female Jackson's Chameleon (Chamaeleo jacksonii - males have three horns and were used in early dinosaur films), but they've also found a couple other species in the islands which are similar. They are native to Kenya and Tanzania.

These chameleons were apparently introduced accidently in the early 70's when an Oahu reptile breeder's cage (large aviary size) was torn up by a storm. Now they can be found on all the major islands here. We have several other introduced species of lizzards, and there are stiff penalties if caught transporting them between islands. Non-native species can compete for food with native critters (birds for example) and cause problems.

Aloha,

Steve

That's a Moray - Hawaiian style.

I was looking through some old pics this evening and I saw this guy. I like the green head and odd shaped jaw. Not all of them have quite this much character. This is an Undulate Moray (Gymnothorax undulatus).

We don't see them all that often during the day, but they are one of the predominant eels we see on the reef on the night dives. They actively feed at night and we do often see them at the manta sites. It's part of the briefing to tell you to expect to see them and don't freak if they go across your leg or park on your arm looking for fish attracted to your flashlight, as far as they are concerned you are "eel furniture".

Watching these guys hunt is often a highlight of the dive. The mostly hunt by scent and will poke around trying to find a sleeping fish, usually tangs. When they get right next to a fish they will strike, usually missing 4 out of 5 times or so. When they do catch a fish it's often what you'd consider to be in the wrong direction. They usually catch the fish vertically between their jaws. Generally the fish is too large to swallow and they have a magnificient way of dealing with that... they will tie their body in a knot and back their head through the knot rapidly. Usually in about 3-5 quick pulls through the knot, the fish will basically explode and fold in half and it can swallow it down. Sounds gross, but even people who claim to be "afraid" of eels are facinated by it when they see it.

We got the boat back in running shape today. Hopefully it's good to go for a year or two without much downtime. Pat and I are going to spend a few hours tomorrow cleaning (ok, taking it out to play) and then I've got charters lined up starting tomorrow night (just got the call minutes ago).

Aloha,

Steve

Nice day in Kona today.

The weather was quite nice. I've been spending the last couple days chasing around looking ofr a part for the boat and making sure what I thought was wrong, was wrong. I found the part and got the old one out (it squeaks and it shouldn't, probably a good indication of why it doesn't work) so tomorrow we'll get it back together and take it out for a run. Hopefully I'm back in the water working in a day or two.

Here's some Raccoon Butterflyfish (Chaetodon lunula). We usually see these butterflys singly or in small numbers, however we have a number of sites where they do cluster up. At a few sites which have boulders, there often are Sergeant Major Damsels guarding eggs and the Raccons have figured out that the damsels are afraid of humans. On occasion the Raccon Butterflys will swim up to you as a group and shadow you within inches waiting for the damslefish to leave and then swoop in on the eggs for a free meal.

Later,

Steve