White Tip Reef Shark Mouth Cleaning!

[MauiScubaSteve]

Thats a shot sequence we only only dream of.

That's no lie! Here are a couple shots from Saturday, after my strobe went down. I swam away in disgust after 10 minutes, but still had over 2000 psi in a 100 cft. I was day-dreaming about Sunday for the rest of the dive!

I am usually able to make the best of murphy's camera law, but my other ambient Saturday images just strengthened my plan to go back Sunday with a functional strobe battery!

 

[blesi varney]

Wow!! Those photos are priceless. Great shots, Steve.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I think using the Thanks button for every complimentary post is pretty ridiculous; I'd rather just say thanks to everyone with this post.

Thanks Everyone!

This thread was really just about sharing cool images, and the fact that Hawaii diving has some really cool photo op's!

 

[crab lover]

freakin' awesome!!!

 

[goldenbear01]

wow, now that was wicked cool! was that like a "car wash" area for sharks? or was it just a single shark getting cleaned?

 

[TekDiveGirl]

Those pictures are amazing! Thank you so much for sharing them!

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

was that like a "car wash" area for sharks? or was it just a single shark getting cleaned?

For those of you who have never been to Makena Landing (South Maui) the dive site goes by many names; 5 Graves, 5 Caves, Turtle Town, Nahuna Point, I call it Makena Caverns.

There are as many as 10 or so different cavern/cave locations where white tip reef sharks hide/rest during the day. The cleaner wrasse may have chose their homes because there are sharks there often, or the sharks may have chose to rest in those spots because the wrasse were already there. Either way, there are usually sharks to be found there, except when there are more than one noisy diver in the area. During the popular diving times/conditions, the sharks tend to hide better.

I think the Saturday open mouth shark is a different one than the Sunday open mouth shark, but without the strobe it's hard to tell. There was more than one both days, but only one put up with me on Sunday.

 

[sea nmf]

Wow! Just WOW! That is some dental visit. I'm looking you up when I come to Maui. I'll sit there for the entire dive.

 

[Beachlover]

Yes I was solo, made it out to the 3-hole cavern in the south dike in-between the mouth sessions. The shark was more OK with it than the wrasse; they jumped with every flash and stayed back by the gills for at least 50 minutes out of the more than 60 minutes I was in position.

Every time the camera went to sleep I had to wake it back up and at the end the last couple shots had so long a shutter lag I thought it wasn't going to fire. I moved the camera just as it fired on the last one, which might have been the best one if I'd had a little more patience.

It does look like a scar in that corner, and that might be why the shark spends so much time with mouth cleaning; better healing.

Great pictures! Looks like you breathed your air WAY down,judging by your pressure gauge in the picture.

 

[drmndiver99]

Very very nice!!! Thank you much for sharing. Killer dive and killer photos.

please keep it up!!

Bill B