Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Scuba Diving in Kona Hawaii... it's always fun.



We had a nice couple of couples on board the other day. It was a nice day of diving for all. Bob found a little frogfish at a site that I need to try to get to with a camera before it moves on... it's a type of frogfish we don't see all that much.

I get busy again for a while starting tomorrow night. We've got a group of divers coming over from one of the other islands for the manta dive. After that we'll be off Friday and then pretty much working every day of the month, with maybe a day off on Wednesday. Bob leaves for the Galapagos (man, is that gonna be some fun for him) on the 1st, so I'm trying to work out coverage for the first half of next month 'til he gets back.

Above is a photo of Spanish Dancer Nudibranch eggs, also called a "sea rose" by some. In real life, this egg mass is about 2.5 to 3 inches across. I saw a large Spanish Dancer (say 10 inches or so long) on the night dive last month, it was a full group so I didn't bother with the camera, I wish I'd had it. Anyway, when we come across these eggs, especially ones that look like they've been there for a while, we check them out closely to see if there are any Egg Eating Nudibranchs on them. It's a very small nudibranch that hitches a ride on the Spanish Dancers 'til they lay eggs, they drop off the Spanish Dancer and lay their own eggs on the egg mass, leaving a much smaller spiral on the egg mass. Hopefully one day I'll have a camera in hand when I find an example.

Steve

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