Diving

My initial North Shore diving plans were wiped out by high surf and iffy weather at the beginning of our stay on Kauai. It wasn't until Thursday that conditions had calmed and cleared enough to start blowing bubbles. I was also able to get in an incredible pair of twilight / night dives on the South Shore, which reminded me to ask myself why I had waited so long to do this again.

1 Gearing up at Tunnels for the morning's shore dives	2 Loaded for bear.... well, turtles...
3 Tunnels shore entry	4 Hawaiian whitespotted toby
5 This baby turtle was napping in the same ledge every day	6
7 The turtle takes off and one of the divers flips trying to get a good view	8 Heading for the surface
9 The turtle cleaning station on top of the Tunnels outer reef	10 Whitemouth moray
11 Leaf scorpionfish were everywhere, and in every color	12 Small school of young adult bluefin trevally
13 White tipped reef shark resting in the sand at Tunnels	14 Jeannette, the divemaster and owner of Fathom Five Divers, watches as the shark moves away
15 Lei triggerfish	16 Different day at Tunnels, but same baby turtle, same location on the reef
17 The turtle never ceases to stop divers in their tracks	18
19 This guy is a juvenile rockmover wrasse, sometimes called a dragon wrasse because they look so completely different than the adult. He was always found around the same outcropping and would scoot under as soon as we got anywhere close. This was the only photo I was able to capture.	20 This time a brown leaf scorpionfish
21 After two days of morning shore dives at Tunnels, I did an absolutely stupendous set of twilight + night boat dives off the south shore. Gregg and Lonnie of Fathom Five Divers were the divemasters. It was impossible to take in all the teeming nocturnal critters, first at Fast Lanes and then at Sheraton Caverns. Right upon first descent was this Triton's Trumpet which had to be 3ft long.	22 The spikes on this Light-Spotted Sea Cucumber are actually soft. The cucumber can inflate itself, which causes the spikes to flatten out and essentially disappear.
23 Mimic Filefish	24 Orangespine Unicornfish at Fast Lanes
25 This large octopus was tucked up under a ledge	26 Lots of these mottled linckia sea stars
27 Lotsa lobstahs everywhere you looked! We were told that it was the middle of the off season, giving the bugs opportunity to be fruitful and multiply.	28 Slipper Lobster
29 A quite large Eared Sea Hare, essentially a big slug, crawling across the rocks at Sheraton Caverns. This guy was at least 8" long.	30 Fried-egg nudibranch
31 Quite a few nasty crown-of-thorns were out and about at night. Look but don't touch, the spines are poisonous.	32 This Bullethead Parrotfish had just laid down to sleep for the night
33 The so-called Seven-Eleven Crab, or Alakuma in Hawaiian. It is named due to the seven conspicuous red spots (four near the eyes and three in the center), plus four less prominent red spots along the back edges of its carapace, making a total of eleven. This one was approximately 6" across.	34 My final day of diving at Tunnels was rewarded by finding a small Spanish Dancer nudibranch, approx 1" long
35 Bluespotted Cornetfish	36 More dives = more turtles
37 Leaf scorpionfish everywhere	38 Large lizardfish on the sandy bottom at Tunnels
39 The underwater topography at Tunnels	40 Yellowfin Goatfish
41 Bluestripe Snapper were introduced from the Marquesas in 1958 by fisheries managers. They are now extremely prevalent.	42 Yet another leaf scorpinfish, this time white
43 Large whitemouth moray looks out from his hole in the reef	44 Mmmm.... that guy with the camera and scuba gear looks interesting (actually morays have very poor eyesight, they operate by smell)
45 Nah, forget that diver with the camera, that Peacock Grouper looks even more interesting	46 Jeannette gets a helping tentacle...
47 ... from Mr. Octo

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