Friday Sep 14, 2007

John and I met up for a late afternoon dive in the Pupukea Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD), to head out the far firehouse finger.  Might be the last time before surf season begins in earnest.

I tried again to get some close up images of Trimma Taylori - yellow cave goby, and dragged a tripod along for the purpose.  The tripod was quite corroded, and not very stable (kind of the point of a tripod), but I think I was able to get a few good clips.  New tripod is on the wishlist.

Once out to the end of the ridge, we were in about 75' of water.  Got some brief footage of the stingray Dasyatis lata.  I had not seen one in Hawaii before.  John knows a site outside Shark's Cove where we should be able to get some closer/better shots.  I shot some more footage (3rd dive with the same individual) of the female hawaiian endemic anthias Pseudanthias hawaiiensis.  I think I finally nailed her.  See the still image below.

There is a "magic" cave just at the end of the point in about 70 feet of water, with a resident Yellow-margin Moray (Gymnothorax flavimarginatus), reef lobster, bicolor anthias, cleaner shrimps, gobies, etc.  Always very photogenic.  I got some nice footage of a Lysmata amboinensis Scarlet Cleaner shrimp actively attending to the moray, and at one point running down the gullet to get a few choice morsels (leftovers or cleaning).

On the way back in, John found a nice nudibranch, Chromodoris sp. Red Spotted Nudibranch.  Again, the tripod was frustrating, but I got some short usable clips.  Inshore was still stirred up from teh recent swell, reducing visibility.  I did get some nice butterfly shots in the shallows as we were off-gassing from our long dive.  Nitrox 32% for about 100 minutes.

I was glad the Larin's cancelled the night dive, as shallow conditions were not great and I was chilly.  I took a couple clips at the surface of the sun setting over Shark's Cove.  Really a great place.

Trimma taylori

Chromodoris sp. Red Spotted Nudibranch

Pseudanthias hawaiiensis

Cleaner shrimp in the gullet

Sunset over Shark's Cove