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The Kuakini chamber is excellent - I've been there twice and have zero complaints. Those guys know their stuff when it comes to treating DCS. Dan insurance is a no-brainer, but even out of pocket it's less expensive than you'd think. An average treatment is $3000 or so; not cheap but still...

Aaron's is great for Nitrox. Not only are their prices better than everyone else, their turnaround time is really fast. Often they'll fill your tanks while you wait, something that most shops are unable to do.

See in Sea in Kakaako does PP mixing now, and is very good. They're also good for 100% O2 fills and will do custom deco mixes if you want. Oahu Dive Center in Kailua does partial pressure nitrox, but I haven't had the best luck with them. Last time, they closed the isolator and filled the...

In many cases, that sentiment is an inferiority complex. It's also a sentiment I've heard from transplanted mainlanders whose only time on Oahu was spent at the airport and in Waikiki. Either way, they need to get over it and appreciate what they have instead of trying to prove they're...

There are fishing regulations, but they're pretty minimal. Although Hawaii definitely does need better regulation in some areas, the state's resources are very limited in that area. Also, since so many different types of people depend on the ocean for recreation and/or earning a living, there...

They may have been trying to spear uhu. That's the most common motive for night snorkeling around here.

http://www.kgmb.com/kgmb/display.cfm?storyID=12215 Kaaawa's just north of Chinaman's hat. The whole east side has a shallow fringing reef, which makes for bad rip currents wherever there's a channel. According to the news, three guys went out at night with only two flashlights.

The fish with "horns" is Sebastapistes galactacma. As with most small cryptic fish, it doesn't really have a common name, but Dr. Randall calls it the "milky scorpionfish" if you need a label for your pictures. The rest of the fish in the coral head were probably a mix of that species and...

Maui is suffering from too much development and too little infrastructure. It's no surprise that some of its reefs are shot! When I was a student at UH, I worked for the project that tried to look at algae blooms vs injection well sites. I don't recall them coming to any definite conclusions...

An older version of the Hawaii fishing regs used the wording "all persons swimming underwater".

How shallow is "fairly shallow"? Although that area isn't often frequented by scuba divers, it's a popular freediving spot. If real WWII wreckage was present in less than 70', everyone would know about it. I think the guy must have been confused.

Doesn't this really mean "so we don't have to pay for your health insurance"?

I'm sure the family of Mr. Chapman would love to hear that. People are quick to criticize things they don't understand. Very few people dive for tropical fish because of the money - it pays well but it's backbreaking work with long hours and no employment benefits. We do it because we love...

If he was found underwater, it would have been a heart attack or drowning rather than DCS. That said, though, most local trop collectors and net/trap fishermen have little use for dive tables or surface intervals. Many divers I know will burn 6 or 7 air tanks in as many hours, which is not...

$12 is on the high side for a vip+fill on Oahu. The cheapest IIRC is Breeze on Kapahulu at $7 each; usually it's between that and $10. But if you only have two tanks, is an extra $10 per year worth worrying about?

There are many areas on the island with more and bigger fish than Pupukea. However, you dive Shark's Cove instead because you can't access them. It's the same for the fishermen - aside from Pupukea there are very few places where schools of akule come close enough to be caught from shore...

Because it's accessible - the same reason why divers like it. Conversely, there are miles of coastline that receive very little fishing pressure because they are hard to access. Not really. MLCDs are sold to fishermen as a way to increase overall fish populations inside and outside the...

Hmm. Limited fishing vs. commercial exploitation? Akule fishing at Pupukea was a local family tradition for decades before the MLCD was set up. Now, the fishermen are shut out but area is overrun by dive shops who clog up the parking lot with their vans and send their customers out to feed...

I agree with Shaka Doug. Spiny lobsters have mostly disappeared from Oahu, except in deep water and some inaccessible areas. Catching lobsters on shore dives will likely be a thing of the past on Maui if current pressure keeps up. IMO lobsters in Hawaii are more endangered than turtles and...

These eels are quite common in very shallow water - you'll see them often if you go night snorkeling. I've usually seen them in 4' or less. We have a lot of eel species that aren't listed in either of the popular fish reference books.