June 27, 2009 Dives - Mahi & Black Rock

On Saturday, June 27, 2009, I dove with Mike Trykar and Jo (divemaster) from Ocean Concepts. We did two dives, the Mahi, a 95 foot deep dive on a ship that was intentionally sunk as an artificial reef and Black Rock, an 80 foot deep dive on a coral reef with an overhang.

Mike and I were in Jo's group, so we were first in the water. There were 12 divers and three "guides", so they paired up all the divers and the three guides each took a group.

Visibility was not stellar today, but it was OK. Mike and I headed down to the wreck and pretty much did our own thing. He stuck fairly close by and pointed out things to see and photograph, which was nice. That way I could just concentrate on them rather than keeping track of a partner that wanted the guided tour from Jo.

The enormous Great Barracuda that hangs out at the Mahi was there on the deck when we descended. I tried to angle over by it and get a photo, but the two I was able to take are both very poor quality. He is huge, though. About 4-1/2 feet long.

I got a good photo of a Hawaiian Dascyllus and a Plump Sea Cucumber (new).

Hawaiian Dascyllus

Plump Sea Cucumber

This big old guy was just hanging out of a hole in the side of the wreck. There is an eel of some sort or another there most of the time.

Yellowmargin Moray Eel

This is a very good specimen of Red Phorbas Sponge.

Red Phorbas Sponge

Some of the other things I photographed:

School of Bluestripe Snapper

Chocolate Dip Chromis

Hawaiian Gregory

I also found this Redbarred Hawkfish hanging upside down under a ledge among the Orange Cup Coral.

Redbarred Hawkfish & Orange Cup Coral

I ended the dive as I usually do on the Mahi, by slowly ascending up the mast. I caught Old Glory waving in the current as I did so.

I did my safety stop under the boat and then swam up to the ladder and climbed out.

On the second dive, I had two spotters - Jo joined Mike in finding cool things to point out. As soon as we got to the bottom, Jo discovered five Whitetip Reef Sharks under the overhang. They cruised around for a while underneath where it is too dark to get a photo, but then bolted for the open.

Whitetip Reef Shark

These two Hawaiian Dascyllus were hanging out in a large Antler Coral. The red encrusting sponge looked black until the flash fired off on the camera!

Hawaiian Dascyllus

Two thirds of the way through the little site tour, Jo urgently motioned me over to a little hole. This Hawaiian Red Lionfish (new), also known as the Hawaiian Turkeyfish, was hanging out in the hole. It is endemic to Hawaii and is the little cousin of the Pacific Lionfish that has been introduced to the Caribbean and is decimating local fish populations there.

Hawaiian Red Lionfish

I saw this when I first descended, but I thought it was just a mesh doily that was stuck on the reef. When we got back from the little tour of the site, I saw it again and took the photo. I was shocked that it was so red! It turns out that it is a Spanish Dancer Nudibranch eggcase!

Spanish Dancer Nudibranch Eggcase

This little Decoy Scorpionfish was hiding under a small Cauliflower Coral. He is only about 3 inches long.

Decoy Scorpionfish

Mike found two nudibranchs and point them out to me.

Pustulose Phyllidia

Desirable Nudibranch

Here are a couple of divers hanging out at the hang-bar during their safety stop.

Divers at the Hang-bar

This was the first dive with my new computer. The old one worked fine except I have not been able to download data for the past 6 dives. It is nice to have it back and functioning well again.