Kerry's Travels: November 13, 2009 Night Dives

On Friday night, November 13, 2009, I dove with Carlos Santana (divemaster) from Ocean Concepts. We did two dives, the Deep LCU, a 106 foot deep dive on a Landing Craft Utility that was intentionally sunk as an artificial reef and Turtle Reef, a 35 foot deep dive on a shallow coral reef.

I was doing the first dive for Underwater Naturalist certification - I was supposed to observe plants and animals underwater and how they interact. Carlos' group was the second in the water. There were 13 divers and three "guides", so they paired up all the divers and the three guides each took a group.

Visibility was pretty good - about 40 feet, but since it was night, it didn't matter much. We headed on down to the wreck and immediately found a frogfish. I took a photo of it and thought I got a pretty good one, but it didn't turn out. There was a lot of surge and in the dark, you can see it is a frogfish, but that's about it. I did manage to get a couple of other photos.

Commerson's Frogfish

We went through a little swim-through and there on the bottom just outside the wreck was a rare endemic sea cucumber - a Hawaiian Yellow-Tip Sea Cucumber.

Hawaiian Yellow-Tip Sea Cucumber

Hanging out on the front of the LCU wheelhouse was a Cushion Star with a Leaf Scorpionfish perched on top.

Leaf Scorpionfish

This Regal Slipper Lobster was out in the open on the landing door with no place to hide.

Regal Slipper Lobster

At the other end of the LCU, there were two more frogfish hanging out on the railing. They were right on top of each other. I tried to get some photos, but the current and surge were so strong that I could not get one in focus except for this one from the side where you can see both the greenish one tucked in behind the brownish one.

Commerson's Frogfish

When I swam back to the stern, I was able to get a couple more photos of the frogfish that we discovered at the beginning of the dive.

Commerson's Frogfish

And another one that I discovered close by.

Commerson's Frogfish

A couple of rare endemic Hawaiian Ruby Cardinalfish. They are completely see-through. You can clearly see the spine and internal organs of the nearest one.

Hawaiian Ruby Cardinalfish

I saw this big coral shrimp as I was getting ready to ascend.

Flameback Coral Shrimp

We all slowly ascended and did a safety stop hanging onto the mooring line due to the strong current. I was back on board with 500 psi.

On the second Underwater Naturalist dive, I was supposed to find instances of commensalism. I didn't realize it at the time I was on the dive, but afterwards, while post-processing the photos, I discovered that I had succeeded spectacularly.

Right after getting to the bottom, I discovered a Day Octopus asleep in its lair.

Day Octopus

Then, just a little further on, I came across a big Spanish Dancer Nudibranch and coaxed it into dancing so all the others could see it. It only danced for a brief time and about the time I managed to get the camera on it to take a video, it stopped and just settled down to the bottom.

Spanish Dancer Nudibranch

In this video, as the nudibranch is slowly settling back down to the bottom, it briefly leaves the field of view. Just as it comes back into view, a tiny red shrimp can be seen scurrying around on the nudibranch.

This tiny commensal Imperial Shrimp is rarely found in Hawaii, mostly on Spanish Dancer Nudibranchs. Occasionally, it is also found on some sea cucumbers, where it can take on the coloration of its host. Most of the time, it retains the red and white coloration of the Spanish Dancer.