Sharks? Eagle rays anyone? Video clips from this morning

[Shaka Doug]

I got treated to a belated birthday dive today out on Dive & Sea's new custom dive boat, the Sundance III. It was a nice comfy ride and I got to meet the new mascot, Ula, the brown lab/mix puppy. John and Emiko were there running things and we had a light load of divers. We had really flat water and I got a chance to get deep for once. It made for some great critter watching. Here's a couple short video clips I was able to get of some grey reef sharks and a nice big eagle ray. The sharks kept their distance from us but you could tell they weren't just little white tips. Check them out if you'd like. Both sightings put a big smile on my face so I thought I'd share the joy! It's been a really great week for Maui diving. Seeing some interesting animals so far...three more dives to go...then it's the start of a new week! More Bubbles = Less Troubles!

 

[justleesa]

Belated Happy birthday! and glad you had such a great week

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Cool videos you got close to the sharks on the 2nd clip. How deep were you?
The Eagle Ray had no tail.. Most I have seen have had long tails... Do you know if that's due to their sex, or?

Sean

 

[Shaka Doug]

Cool videos you got close to the sharks on the 2nd clip. How deep were you?
The Eagle Ray had no tail.. Most I have seen have had long tails... Do you know if that's due to their sex, or?

Sean

Thanks Sean,

This one looked as though he had lost his tail. I say he but I don't know what sex this one was. It was a large one, but I've seen much bigger Eagle Rays before. They're supposed to have really long tails. This one might have lost his trying to escape a predator. Who knows? It was cool to observe. It came in from deeper water and went right to the rubble to forage around. The mouth is very strange. They have a funky lip thing that turns or rolls outward. I've seen them use the tip of their tongue to crack open long spined black sea urchins. That was really cool to watch. Reminded me of when my old dog came home from a porcupine encounter once when I was a kid. The black spines sticking out of the white skin was really painful to look at!

 

[drmndiver99]

Very nice brudda Shaka d. I can't wait to get back out there. What week. This experince and the dolphins/mantas.octos....I could (and will) go on.

Be posting more later..

Aloha

BillyB (Drmndiver99)