Kona, Hawaii Trip Report - Jan 19-Feb 2, 2006

[mer]

I think it's called a "Divided Flatworm" rather than a Separated Flatworm, but maybe there are multiple common names.

And the last picture is, I believe, a nudibranch egg case.

Thanks for the reports! I can't wait for May!

It is Divided... Separated just seemed right at 10pm after a long day of diving.
And the Egg Case is a Spanish Dancer eggs.

 

[mer]

Day 3 Highlights

Two words…. whale shark.

Okay, really four words… really skiddish whale shark, but a whale shark nonetheless. Didn’t get any pictures since by the time I got in the water, he was already slinking off into the deep.

But Captain Chuck delivered.
“Where do you want to go today?” says Captain Chuck each morning.
“Whale shark.” I reply.
“What do you want to DO today?”
“Whale shark.” I reply.
“Any requests.”
“Whale shark.” So the Dive Tek boys managed to shut me up for a day or two about the whale shark.

Our first site of the day was Kawai (sp) [Kah – ee- vay]. Dive Tek does a lot of it’s technical training there as you can get to 250-300 rather quickly. This morning’s rather brisk and shift current, plus deep water adjacent to the reef often equates to big critters. Kawai is also adjacent to a park, so fishing and reef collecting is prohibited (unless you are native Hawaiian), and the fish life here is amazing. And with only 9 divers and 4 DMs, tons of skilled eyes looking for cool things.

At fish rock, we were treated to a Raccoon Butterfly fish vs. Sergent Major feeding frenzy again, but not quite the fervor of battle as the one at Eel City. Also saw the well-camouflaged Devil Scorpion fish, Fire Dart fish by the half dozen, schooling Goat Fish, and the play of light & shadows, bubbles & halocline shimmer in the many arches and mini-caverns. The freshwater run-off from rain showers upslope find there way through lava tubes and other cracks in the rock and empty into the ocean via some of these mini caverns. Inside them, the water shimmers due to the mixing of fresh and salt water and the temperature can get into the mid 60s. Occasionally you’ll feel these cool currents hit you much lower on the reef. Oh… and the vis was absolutely amazing somewhere around 150’.

The entire dive we kept one eye on the deep blue, hoping for an encore by the whale shark. Alas it was not to be today, leading to speculation that it was just Dive Tek’s remotely operated fiberglass whale shark!

For dive two we slipped down the coast a few hundred yards, hoping for more whale shark and since the conditions in the area were divine. This mooring, named Disneyland, proved to be quite a feast for the eyes. Started the dive with a Harlequin Cutter Shrimp, a two-inch long shrimp that, when feeding, cuts all but one leg of Star Fish, leaving the poor quint-a-ped one leg from which to regenerate. More schooling Goat Fish, White-Mouthed Moray, some type of Cowfish, Trition’s Trumpet, and a rare and hard-to-photograph Butterfly Fish.

Swells coming back down, tomorrow should be amazing!

Today’s Pictures (got better compression for faster downloads)
Good Morning from Raccoon Butterflys
Devil Scorpion Fish Camouflage
Devil Scorpion Fish head on
Great Vis… these divers are over 100 feet away
Schooling Goat Fish
Arches!
Harlequin Cutter Shrimp
Ornate Butterflyfish
Triton Trumpet rockin in the current
The elusive Saddleback Butterflyfish

 

[Humuhumunukunukuapua'a]

Wow sounds great! Nice sightings! I'd love to see a whale shark there (duh).

The harlequin shrimp and saddleback are real treats too!

BTW, it's "Kaiwi Point" if I'm thinking of the right place. Great dive site. We saw stonefish, octopus, mantas and eagle rays there once. I love having the deep dropoff right there.

Keep up the reports! I'm loving it

 

[mer]

Day 4 Highlights

“What do you want to do today.” Captain Chuck greets us.
“We want to SWIM with a whale shark.”
Good thing Dive Tek Hawaii has a standing policy against keel hauling the customers!

Today was a quiet day on the boat. We were the only two customers, but guess what the rest of the staff does on their “day off”: they go diving. They made Colin “work,” Bob and Jonathan were along for some fun, and Tim was getting some training done in doubles. So 5 staff, 2 customers… not bad. My mother, a non-diver, even came along for the boat ride, and Chuck did his best to find a pod of slightly groggy, but playful, dolphins; and was even doing some radio scanning for reports of Pilot Whales.

Swell was coming down so we headed North to do a little drift diving. First dive was at Pipeline (AKA Pipe Dream) at an old and currently unused intake pipe. They use ocean water and pump it upslope to fish farms where they grow Maine lobster and sea horses, among other things. The pipe was a neat site, and a great drift. Some even spotted a manta off in the blue water. Saw a very interesting blue-and-orange-colored male Spotted Boxfish, the largest Fried Egg Slug nudibranch I’ve ever seen, around 3inches long, plus large schools of Pyramid Butterflyfish and Pennant Butterflyfish.

Dive two was at Rabbi, named by Jerry Garcia, who supposedly supplied much of the funding for the original sunken mooring system that keeps Kona reefs in such nice shape. Another nice, relaxing dive, swimming through arches and interesting bottom topography with pinnacles, mini-walls and lots or coral coverage. Managed to snap a pic of the Leaf Fish and Colin found us a Spanish Dancer nudibranch.

Finished the day off with a detour to look for Pilot Whales before heading back to the harbor.

Today’s Pictures
The old intake pipe at Pipeline
Pipeline in the early AM
Bill Silhouetted
Diving with the Devil: Colin, one of the DMs
Whitemouth Moray Eel
Male Spotted Boxfish
Fried Egg Slug Nudibranch
Schooling Pennant Butterflyfish
Schooling Pyramid Butterflyfish
Leaf Fish
Spanish Dancer nudibranch
Moorish Idol

 

[ch0ppersrule]

Your leaf fish picture(post #14) is actually a juvenile rockmover. great pictures and glad you are having some great days of diving.

 

[XJae]

hey mer... how's it going? well, sounds like it's going great. thanks for the reports.
any plans for molikini or a manta night dive? those are my favorites.

 

[Ann Marie]

Thanks for the great reports. We are headed there in April... whoo-hoo!

 

[mer]

hey mer... how's it going? well, sounds like it's going great. thanks for the reports.
any plans for molikini or a manta night dive? those are my favorites.

Molokini is off Maui, not the Big Island. We decided to stay in Kona our entire time this year since the service at Dive Tek can't be even approached by Maui boats.

We did a manta dive last year, and are gonna leave it at that.

 

[mer]

Day 5
Took the day off. Got some work done. Ate here. It was amazing. Don’t miss the soufflé.

Day 6
Another great day on Dive Tek’s Kahanuola. Flat seas, almost no swell.

Headed north to Golden Arches South, which is noted for an arch often home to schools of Blue Stripped Snapper. Nice relaxing dive with lots of nooks and crannies to look in. Found a Horned Helmet, large Fried-Egg Nudibranch, Crown of Thorns (which eat coral), dozens and dozens of Redfin Soldierfish hiding in crevices, and even a fly by of a trigger fish called Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, the Hawaiian state fish. It should be noted that the state fish does not have the Aloha Spirit and did not hang around for a very good photo op. But at least the vis was great.

On Sunday, Dive Master Tim was telling us long tales of these Jeweled Anemone Crabs that have such an attachment to their ride-along invertebrate friends that the crab will move them when it upgrades to a bigger shell. Of courses, we didn’t find on one Sunday and were ragging on Tim for whatever his tells tales about will be exactly what you WON’T see on the dive. Ironically, Bob’s group found, and got some great pictures, of a Jeweled Anemone Crab today. Tim was ragged on for much of the surface interval.

We slide on up to Koloko Arches for the second dive and were treated to some very big Moray Eels and a very little juvenile Frog Fish going for a very brisk stroll. I also discovered that Brittle Stars move very fast when motivated. This site has some great topography with arches and mini canyons everywhere. Got to see a very hungry Triton’s Trumpet come out of its shell to feed (of course this happened 30 second after my camera had a digital seizure and quit for the day).

On the way back, popped a few 360s in the mouth of the harbor playing with a resident pod of dolphins before heading back home for a mid-afternoon showing of 4-5 whales right off our condo in Keauhou.

Looks like it will be calm again tomorrow and we are hoping to head South.

Day 6s Pics
Schooling Blue Stripped Snapper under Golden Arch
Horned Helmet
Coral-eating Crown-of-Thorns Sea Star
Another Big Fried-Egg Nudibranch – great detail
Light-shy Redfin Soldierfish – those big red eyes, dozens of them
Diver Silhouette – great vis
Cameo by Humuhumunukunukuapua’a (AKA Reef or Picasso Triggerfish
Contrasting Urchins: Slate Pencil and Spiny
Juvenile Commerson’s Frog Fish
Brittle Star
I have no idea, but cool fish
6-7 foot Yellowmargined(?) Moray Eel
This Threadfin Butterflyfish followed us most of the dive

 

[ch0ppersrule]

The I have no idea, but cool fish is a Manybar Goatfish. Nice shot. I can never get one since they seem to be camera shy around me.