halemanō;6002460:
I'd be interested in a topic hijack where you explain the first part of this statement ...
Hey, sorry for generalizations....
NOAA has done extensive studies on the amount of reefs in Hawaii -
NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - New NOAA Maps Show Big Island Has Most Live Coral of Main Hawaiian Islands
Perhaps I should have said most. I also go heavily off of what customers tell me, and what my employee Bob (who worked for Captain Bruce for 5 years, took several vacations to Maui and Kauai before visiting Kona) told me. In Bob's words... Kona actually has reef,he knew after his first visit he needed to move here.
The fish comment comes primarily from the fact that frankly - there are "plenty of fish". I didn't say "most", although that may be the case. 75-85 percent of all fish collection in the state comes from a 40 mile stretch of the west side of the Big Island, and that has been the case since at least the 70's. I asked a tropical fish wholesaler on Oahu about it in the early 80s and he said that Kona was where the fish were. Anyway, I'd think it would be tough to dive all of the main Hawaiian islands and not say Kona has plenty of fish.
On the viz thing, when it rains on rock, you get clear water running off it. When it rains on soil, you get muddy water running off it. There are a total of 0 streams and rivers on the west side of the Big Island. Rain does not affect the viz at most dive sites most of the time in Kona, in fact, I can only recall seeing any brown water at all twice in my 12 years here, both after so called 100 year storms. Kona doesn't even have much in the way of sand, when we get a big swell that is coming in, it can affect sandy areas that face that direction, however a boat can generally go around a point and find a protected spot that has good viz, and savvy shore divers can pretty much do the same thing by site choice. I come from diving off Newport Oregon, where a "good" viz day was over 10', I consider "bad" viz days in Kona to be anything under 60 feet... we rarely get that. The worst viz I've ever guided here was about 25-30 feet, a couple of time an algae bloom came through, and a couple of times the surf has come up during the second dive in a sandy spot, and a and that's only a few times ever for me. I'd consider 70-100 feet of viz to be pretty good in general, I'd consider it to be typical here, with many more days of over 100 feet in comparison to less than 60. Maui has Molokini, which being located where it is should have consistant good viz, but the nearshore spots are much more succeptible to mother nature I suspect.
I do not claim have extensive dive experience in all the islands, few here do. The only one I can think of that did was Wildcard, and he raved about the diving in Kona a couple of times in "comparison" threads before he passed away.
