a night dive

[justleesa]

Well I went on a night dive last night....I haven't been on one in a long time and was really looking forward to it. The conditions were perfect - 0 current, 0 surge, vis about 100'. We found an octopus at the Sea Tiger, trigger fish, eels...even saw a pinkish colored parrot fish that we couldn't find in my Hoover book.

The 2nd site was Kewalo Pipe. It was busy as usual. Everywhere you looked you saw an arm (or two, or three) of a brittle starfish sticking out of a coral head. shrimp and crabs, iridescent Cardinal fish flashing in our light. At one point I turned and came face to face with a Scrawled Filefish (loulu in Hawaiian). I don't know who was more suprised, the fish or me . We also saw a couple of jeweled anemone crabs and marbled shrimp. It was fun seeing some new stuff!

BUT....(you knew there was going to be a but, right?) As I was guiding a tour I didn't take my big camera with me, now I wish I had. Lots of fun creatures and photo opportunities - but my stylus and I couldn't really get it right. First off I had my light in my right hand forcing me to use the camera in my left...upside down (maybe that was part of the problem?), not easy to work the buttons with the wrong hand. Then the lens cover thought it had to be in EVERY picture...kept floating in front of the lens (won't happen again as that piece is now history). As always (more and more) I am having trouble seeing the screen and couldn't really see if the little buggahs were in the screen or not, so most of the pictures were guesstimation. Finally the camera didn't want to focus on what I wanted it to focus. Very frustraiting to say the least! Maybe this should be in Whine and Cheese?

I wish the picture quality were a bit better, but this is all I got...

 

[Humuhumunukunukuapua'a]

The closeup of the Scrawled Filefish looks a lot like a similar picture my brother took on a night dive we did in Kona. Same kind of thing...we turned around and he was in our faces. He kept swimming so close up to us that my bro could really only shoot macro. I think it was actually brushing against him.

We figured it was trying to get us out of its territory or something so after a few minutes we moved on to leave it alone. Well, a few minutes later, we turn around and there he is again. He stayed with us really close for the whole rest of the dive...about 30 more minutes. He kept really close to us the whole time and didn't seem afraid of us in the least. Just kind of wanted to hang out and see what we were up to.

That filefish probably had the most personality of any fish I've ever dove with.

Your night dive sounds like it was fun (other than the camera stuff )

 

[H2Andy]

nice pics, lisa, particularly the middle one!

is the middle one of a scrawled filefish (that's what we call them in the Caribbean)
like H says?

i would imagine they may be a different species out there

 

[Cacia]

thanks, Leesa. Nice shots and interesting reading!

 

[justleesa]

Yup Andy, that's what they're called here too. We saw one at the wreck but he/she wasn't that interested in us as the one at the pipe. We kept swimming around it and it around us, it was like we were doing a square dance! lol...definately a very friendly Filefish.

 

[dlndavid]

Hi Lisa, nice pics. I've only done one night dive and I was swarmed with little minnows, it was weird. Hope you had a nice Christmas, and do have a Happy New Year.
David

 

[justleesa]

Thanks David, same for you and your lovely wife

 

[okamiotoko2004]

Awesome pics. Been forever and a year since I have done a night dive. I got to get one in now. I've ran into the same type of fish in the same areas and they always do the same thing. All have a Happy New Year.

 

[justleesa]

As of right now there are 6 seats still available on tonights night dive....Friday nights include Waikiki fireworks

 

[okamiotoko2004]

Wish I could go out and dive unfortunately I have duty today which means 24 hours on the ship. Thank you so much for the offer though. Happy New Year!