Diving in Maui

During our stay in Maui I decided to complete my PADI Advanced Open Water certification and I thought you might be interested in seeing some of the pictures from my dives. One of the qualification requirements is a night dive so we went out to the Black Rock, which is a site close to our condo where Judy and I went snorkeling. It's quite a different feeling at night with only a small flashlight to help guide you. You can hear, even more clearly after dark, the humpback whales calling to each other but you can see things you don't see in the daylight. The first creatures we saw were several translucent cuttlefish swimming by which have fluorescent colours and seem almost curious about human divers as they hover close by.
We saw several different types and colours of Spotted Moray Eels.Some of them didn't seem to be very happy about being disturbed as they waited to pounce from out of their hiding spots in cracks in the rocks.

We also ran across at four or five turtles sleeping under the rocks. They are an endangered species so you are not allowed to disturb them so I could only take a few quick photos and not get too close.

The next day we dove on a pier that was destroyed by a hurricane several years ago. It makes an ideal spot for a shore dive because the large chunks of concrete that formed the pier make a great habitat for the fish and yet it's still close to shore. After a few minutes the dive instructor stopped and stuck his arm under a rock. At first I couldn't tell what he was trying to grab until a large cloud of black water jetted out and then I saw an octopus stuck to his hand.
Later on he found another well camouflaged creature. Believe it or not the picture below is of a frogfish which looks so much like it's surroundings that it is very difficult to see unless it is moving. You should be able to make out the mouth and the two pectoral fins, the left one is resting on a white piece of coral.

The turtles here are quite tame and let us get very close. Two of them were resting on the bottom letting "cleaner" fish remove the parasites from their shells.

Right at the end of the pier we spotted a six foot white tipped reef shark sleeping close to the sandy bottom. As I moved in for a close up I woke it up and although it wasn't as grumpy as my kids when I wake them up on a Saturday morning, it started swimming around in a bit of a state.

I followed it around for a while trying to get a better picture but eventually it settled back into the same spot. Next time I run into a shark I'll try and remember to get a video, I was a little too preoccupied chasing this one around to remember to switch the camera over.

It was really amazing to see the variety of marine life so close to the shore and yet hidden from view above.