Conflicted

Started the day with a walk with my sweetheart and captured the moon and Venus! And believe it or not, there were telephone poles to the left and the right of the shot, so I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

 Breadfruit in the morning light.

Two seals snoozing. If you click on the photo, you can read the sign...it says the seal is sleeping and to Let sleeping seals lie.

 This seal was all alone on the island, with waves. This was a small seal, so glad it was in a more isolated spot. (Fewer people possibly bothering its nap.)

The elusive white cheeked tang.....and some convict tangs.

 Pencil urchins..

 Octopus #1! Down in its den...

I have no clue, but sweetie says it was a worm tube...and if you click on it, you'll see what could be eggs at the end of the tube on the right.

Conflicted...do I swoop down and pick up that operculum at the left end of the photo? And chance upsetting the Octopus #2?! Luckily, the octopus did retreat a little bit into its den, but later came back out. It was the largest of the 3 octopuses I saw today, so it had adult sensibilities. HA.

 And the siphon and eye are featured...they are so cool.

Octopus #3 below. I thought it was interesting that it was in the same hole as two different urchins...they are the pokey spines. Octopus must be adept at slipping in around things.

More pencil urchins. Looks as if someone took a bite outa this one. Also find it interesting that there are pencils of various lengths. So apparently if one gets broken off, there are others to take over immediately. And I'm not sure if these have any poison.

The great Brighteye Chromis! Love these fish: quick and plentiful and you can see them peeking at ya. Small but mighty.

3 different wrasses.  Yellow Tail Coris on the bottom left. Don't know the other two. (And yes, I could look it up! But I took 511 pix and chose only 37 to put in the post, so I'm kinda busy right now. Weak excuse, I know..)

 Octopus hiding again. Isn't it cool how they are almost the same color as the bottom?

Again, the pair of Threadfin butterfly fish came up to greet me, hoping for food. Then lost interest. It amazes me that people will still feed fish...peas of all things! DUH! What would make someone think they wanted a land vegetable?! Or need one?

And speaking of looking like the bottom, without the orange and yellow and the fact that it moved, I would probably never have seen this Devil Scorpion Fish.

In both pix to the left and below, the Devil is showing the yellow and orange...head to the right in both shots. In the one below, its mouth was a bit opened..

A yellow Orange Shoulder Surgeon Fish and my one and only white cheeked tang.

These Saddle Wrasses are very plentiful on the reef here at Poipu.  They love it if I move anything on the bottom and scoot over to see if any food is revealed.

Trunk or Box fish. This is the male. I love the pattern of dots and colors.

Below is a wave flowing over me.  It leaves lots of bubbles in the photo, so sometimes I am almost blinded for a minute. The rocks in the bottom half of the shot are the barrier rocks between the beach and the island. Two waves, of conflicting direction, fight each other. So you can get bashed by one and then another one hits you. Once you expect it, it's not a deal buster. But the lifeguard did warn people about the rip.  And so I dutifully got out of that area, so as to not encourage others to join in the bashing. And I even swam down to the Kiddie Pond to get out. I was on my best behavior for once.

Cone shell. I'm ashamed to admit that I thought it might be a piece of a cone shell, so I picked it up by the fat end.  I am pretty sure somebody was still using that shell for protection.  Like the animal that creates the cone shell.

 I thought this one of the solitary seal was cute, because someone had piled rocks up on the island behind it. Don't know how people know to balance those rocks...

 This looked like an operculum stuck into a rock.  Can't be really sure, though, as it was not loose, so it didn't come home with me.

Below, the Rock Mover Wrasse, showing off its antlers and looking as if it is standing on its tail. I do enjoy the clown face. There were plenty of these guys on the reef today, but they were all moving fast.

 Snowflake Moray eel. Don't know how one would tell a male from a female. I've never seen any difference in color or patterns.

Look for the Cowry shell in the one below, hidden inside the hole.  They are so shiny, though, that it attracts my eye. 

Leaf Fish! I enjoyed this shot once I got the camera home, because of the green leafy plant just below it. Also, you can see at least one fin and some of the eye, just inside the shade. Just ebbing and flowing in the current...

This made me laugh out loud. Not easy to do in a dive mask. But see the purple rock? The crab inside the hole grabbed the purple rock to hide itself from my view. HA. And it worked too...I didn't want to pick up the rock to get a photo of the crab, so the protection worked. Too bad too, because the crab was a bright orange.

 Can you see the 4 Cornet Fish?Two of them are really tiny.  They too can be the same color as the bottom.

 And last but not least, my stars.  Every time I see an octopus, I mark it on the calendar with a star.  Today was 3! Thanks, God! You rock.