Kona-Hawaii Trip report 8-15 thru 8-23-10

[DiveMaven]

I think the person who said that fish life varies day to day, site to site, and week to week hit the nail on the head. We went to Roatan this spring and were totally disappointed in the lack of marine life and said so. Other people who went to Roatan either earlier or later this year (or even years previous) have remarked about how much marine life they saw (or see regularly).

We've done a lot of diving all over the Caribbean, so I haven't a clue if we were there at a bad time, if our expectations were too high, or what, but I know our experience seems to be different than many others have been before and since. It doesn't mean we were wrong, it just means that we had a different experience.

Although I have to say that IN MY EXPERIENCE after diving Maui at least annually since 2004, the amount and diversity of marine life last Christmas was FAR superior to years previous. We also saw many things we haven't normally seen (a Humpback Whale underwater, 2 Viper Eels, a Snowflake Eel, 4 Stripeys, a Fire Dart Fish, and some different types of nudis among other things). We also did a dive in Molokini we don't normally do and the health and abundance of coral was spectacular...much improved over 2004 which was the last time we did that dive (it's normally a snorkeling area).

However, I don't think that just because my experience in Hawaii was different (plus it was a different island) than Travelnsj it doesn't mean that either of us is wrong. To me it means that Travelnsj had a lousy experience diving Hawaii and for whatever reason, wasn't fortunate enough to see the amount and diversity of life that I was treated to earlier this year.

Personally, I can't wait to return to Maui later this year for 2 glorious weeks of diving, but honestly if I had the opportunity to dive the places that Travelnsj does regularly and had a similar experience somewhere, I likely wouldn't return to that spot to dive either.

 

[Travelnsj]

Hey Travelnsj,
First off thanks for coming to Hawaii and diving with the fine companies that operate here in Kona.
I have dove with several different operators and consider several of the DM's friends. My wife and I are shore diving more and more, both North and South of Kona. We love the area.
I am bummed to hear that you were not happy with the "fish counts". What would make you happy, a frog fish coming up to you and looking eye to eye? How many fish did you see? How many would have been enough?
Come on man, it's nature. I would hate to read a post from you hadyou got skunked on the Manta's.
I hope you come back to see the fine people of Kona. if not, find pleasure looking at the beauty and wonder of nature on any dive, in any dive spot in the world. I hope you have a great time in Micronesia or in NC. Please look for the good things in life and your dive sport. Going thru life looking for the negative gets you no place.
Enjoy and may you find a million fish.
Just my ,02

Scangadah….Where else have you dove in the world? How long have you been diving in the Kona area? Did you spend 5K going to the Kona area to dive?

My trip report was not negative it was a realistic appraisal of the current diving from what I have experienced year to year! The waters have been wiped out of marine life that is not Nature…it is Man. I realized the pelagic population was wiped out years ago but now even the tropicals? I think it is a shame that Hawaii has let this happen. If many of these DM’s are your friends ask them what is going on? They dive it all the time….either they were making up stories and telling them to me or they were being honest. In diving the moonscape there I have a feeling they were being honest. Sure should I just enjoy the nature of diving barren hard corals…I guess I could ….But when I spend 5K, I like the diving to be decent with healthy marine life…. it was not! All because of the lack of laws and enforcement of existing laws for the marine life in Hawaii! I think it is a shame! I went to my dive club meeting this last week and they were in Cozumel at the same time as I was in Kona and their slide show had more marine life than I saw.

Perhaps Hawaii is the only place you have dove in the world. But I find it hard to believe that you say the diving is better than it was 2, 5 or 10 years ago. My suggestion is all of you in Kona that realize the diving is not the same. Get involved, pass laws to prevent the Aquarium gathers from wiping out the local fish population. And I have been skunked on Mantas dives in the past…that is why I always book two Manta dives. and for me to expect a frogfish to swim up to me...are you joking?....If you know anything about my dive profile (or my numerous trip reports posted on this forum) and the Muck-critter diving I do...I have never had a hairy frogfish, ambron scorpinfish, Rhinopias paddleflap etc etc....ever swim up to me (wish they would...LOL)!...Hawaii should be the jewel of USA diving. It is not!

Will I be back to Hawaii?….sure but not to dive.

 

[reidlowe]

Can someone roll up best practices in Kona as we're headed there in November. I just got back from two weeks in Cozumel, so my experiences are high and the pics back it up (lionfish, stingrays, sharks, plenty of great coral growths and schools upon schools of angelfish). Have certified Advanced as well. Regards, Reid

 

[joe8mofo]

Can someone roll up best practices in Kona as we're headed there in November. I just got back from two weeks in Cozumel, so my experiences are high and the pics back it up (lionfish, stingrays, sharks, plenty of great coral growths and schools upon schools of angelfish). Have certified Advanced as well. Regards, Reid

Best practices? Are you planning on shore-diving or boat-diving?

 

[reidlowe]

Best practices? Are you planning on shore-diving or boat-diving?

Sorry poor wording on my part, I meant best folks to utilize for and between dives. I'm an advanced diver, plenty of dives under my belt. So not asking for dive practice stuff, so much as great dive ops, dive activities and between dive activities. Will be using boat ops for the most part and think it'll be Kona Honu.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I suggest you start a thread of your own. Trying to get positive information by resurrecting one of the most negative threads in recent memory is kind of, silly.

 

[tarponchik]

Is it possible that colder water and the lack of fish are connected? That is, fish went into hyding till it warms up?

 

[spoolin01]

OP may well have had an unfortunate case of sampling bias, but remains tenacious in his speculation over the cause. Indeed, maybe the fish just moved to warmer locales, or had other reasons not to join his dives. At any rate, hope to supplement the dataset soon. Can never have too much data on fish observations around Kona.

 

[tarponchik]

I was also wondering about the overall effects of depth on fish abundancy around Big Island. We never did boat diving there, only shore diving and snorkeling, and got a strong impression that there is nothing in deeper water. Snorkeling near Cook's monument or in the bay by the Outrigger or in Lapakahi park, or at 69 Beach was like swimming in a fish soup, and diving near Puako or around Place of Refuge was also pretty good up to maybe 40 ft. But once we tried to go deeper, every sign of life just vanished. So do divers actually see anything there on boat dives (I assume, boat dives are deeper than shore dives) besides manta rays? ;-))

 

[friscuba]

Boat dives here are essentially the same as shore dives as far as depths go for the most part unless you end up with a DM that dives deep and fast to shorten dives. The reef is the reef, and the bulk of it is in 25-45 feet of water. At many sites there are formations to check out over the shoulder where you'll go deeper for a few minutes of the dive, but the bulk of diving at most sites will be relatively shallow with most companies. There are a few sites that have something specific to see down deep where you'll go below where most of the fish are. The shore diving's good here, boat diving will allow access to sites not readlily available from shore, in addition most of the DMs will know where to find critters a visitor is unlikely to find on their own.

You mentioned colder water in an earlier post, the last couple years have been running cool in comparison to the previous 9-10 I've been living here, but the fish spotting has improved as far as I'm concerned, a big improvement in the last 5 years or so.

I gotta chalk the OPs experience to luck of the draw. Some days you just don't find the fish.