Mala Pier, Day 2

I went back out to Mala Pier again on Saturday and dove 2 tanks. It's a great bargain. I can spend $120 on a two tank boat dive or $20 on two tanks at the pier. It's as good as going out on the boat, but its definitely a lot more than one-sixth as good. I like not having to follow a guide and moving at my own pace. The dives were up to 1:20 long. Its also an easy place to solo dive. A funny thing - when I was out there the first time, so was the Extended Horizons boat that I had gone out on the day before. The weather had prevented the boat from going to Lanai, so it did its second dive on the pier. I would have been a little unhappy if I had paid that kind of money to dive next to the boat ramp.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the turtles were amazing. In the next two photos, you can see three turtles lined up (the ones from the video). I guess turtle #4 had moved on.



I hadn't thought to put my orange magic filter on the Canon camera, so I've corrected the colors using the Photoshop Underwater.atn action, which works amazing well, particularly on pictures from shallow dives. I'm taking the filter out when I dive tomorrow.

There were dozens of Imperial Nudibranchs, as in the past. The little Canon camera has done a pretty good job with the macro photos. All Canon photos have been using only the internal flash or natural light.


And here's one more nudi.

Mala Pier Turtle Video

I haven't finished processing my photos from my last shore dive at the pier (didn't find any frogfish, again, but I did see a big white tip reef shark), but this turtle video was so cool that I wanted to go ahead and share it. I was following the first turtle with my little camera making a video and I didn't even know about his friends until they came into view in the movie. This is the most turtles in one place that I have ever seen. There was even a fifth one in the sand ten feet away.

Linda, this ones for you!

Maui, Day 2

Another day without diving - but at least there's snorkeling! Today's turtle count was at least four, maybe five. All in one hour of snorkeling. I saw a couple of new creatures that I hadn't seen before - a scrawled filefish and a couple of nudibranches. My camera battery ran out so I didn't get any pictures of the nudis. Here's a short movie of one of the turtles.

The big moray from Day 1 was still in the same spot. The smaller moray under the coral head was gone, but there was a different species of moray in his hole. Interesting. I wonder who will be there tomorrow.

Here's a daily turtle shot:

The larger eel was right where I left him yesterday.



David

Maui, Day 1

We got to Maui on Friday afternoon, after a slightly delayed flight. It was delayed enough that I couldn't get into the water until Saturday. The first stop, as always, was snorkeling at Black Rock. We are staying in Kaanapali and Black Rock is a volcanic spit at the end of the beach. It's easy snorkeling and easier diving. You can sea how many people fill the water. Luckily, most of them are weak swimmers and don't go around the point or get close to the rocks where the more interesting life is located.



There are green sea turtles out there almost every time that I visit. In past years, the turtles have been infected with a virus that causes white tumors all over their body. The virus doesn't kill them outright, but it can impair their ability to see, catch food, or eat, which can ultimately kill them. I am happy to say that all four turtles that I spotted appeared completely health.

Some of the turtles sit on the sandy bottom, in about 30 feet of water.





Others wedge themselves under the rocky ledges to sleep. Most snorkelers never even notice these turtles. Everybody's favorites are the ones that are swimming around, usually coming up to get some air. I think the turtles are used to the snorkers because they seem to pretty much ignore them.



Did you know that unicorns really exist? I found an aquatic variety. This is the unicorn fish.



There were even a couple of eels. I'll have to add specific species IDs later.





Last, I saw the cutest little fish of all, Devyn. She is the daughter of a friend of mine. She's quite a good swimmer and likes to show off for the camera.



All of these pictures were shot with a Canon SD700 pocket camera using the Canon underwater housing and the "underwater" scene setting. Not bad for a simple camera.