Eureka! One!

Yay, I saw one octopus today! Normally, that's not cause for super-excitement, but since I saw none this past weekend, I'll take one in a hot minute.

Snorkeling is just better with octopuses.

 The brown part is the octopus peeking. This will help you in seeing it below. It was a young one, so, not big. And very well camouflaged.

 Not easy, is it? If you see the spiky yellow-ish urchin in the hole just below and to the right of the middle, look left, up and over a bit. You'll see the octo-eye. It is the same color as the rocks, so that's why the camouflage is so amazing.

Was God having a good day when He created octopuses or what? (Also, think of how superior they are: they didn't need an ark. Just sayin'.)

The visibility was really odd today: there would be pockets of clear water and then cloudy right next to it. Very strange. So after I found the octopus, I went out past the cable to the deeper side.

This is the cable as I was coming back in. Do you see the big cone shell? I didn't until I got this photo home. (Triangular, just below the clump at the end of the cable on the right.) It's covered with sand and other stuff, so you can't tell what type of cone it is. 

 The Bigeye Emperor was hanging out in the deeper side.

 As were the Durgon cousins: the black and the pinktail. So similar, yet so different.

 A Yellow tang took at look at the pinktail.

 This Cornet fish looked like plaid.

And there was a unicorn fish without the horn. Don't faint, but I looked it up: A Sleek Unicorn fish!

The deeper water was also a bit plagued with less than clear water. So today's photos were only 168! Can you believe?

OK, so back inside, in the less deep water:

 Barred filefish showing its bars and teeth. Oh and the sock money eye. haha

And a Christmas Wrasse. I do wish I knew why there is such a difference in the water here vs. Kauai in terms of which fish are most prevalent. I see these all the time on Kauai and not so often here. And we won't even bring up the Rock Mover Wrasse lack.

 But there was a Cigar Wrasse.

 This wrasse swept rather slowly through the scene, so I was able to catch several shots. And it caught something, darting toward the rocks to snag it. Of course, not caught on video, as I was in photo mode at the time. You just can't predict these things.

You can predict the Picasso Humu, though. So pretty.

 And Needlefish for Alex.

I'm not trying to get sideways, but they stay up just below the surface, so you have to twist to get them in the shot. 

I did have fun, though. Any day with an octopus....

And now for the clouds, planets, sun and moon: Oh yeah, and palm trees.

 Nice clouds and palm trees. Sometimes the gradation of colors is so nice.

As I walked toward the area where I had stashed my gear until the sun came up, I noted a haze around the moon. Pretty and kind of eerie.

To the left, the moon from near the car. You just can't get a bad view here.

 Sun almost up.

 Sun shining in a path on the water. My pal, Perry, always loved seeing that type of photo. Here's to you, Perry!

Venus above the palm tree. 

After the swim, I was able to have lunch with a friend and also visit the Sanrio/Hello Kitty store at Kahala Mall. Winner! I was also able to check in with a dear friend at OneLove Ministries in Honolulu, who gave me the skinny on a better way to get home. So it was a very helpful and fruitful day.

octopuses, devils and shells, oh my

Happy to report there were two octopuses today. Number 2 was quite a surprise: I saw a hole in the bottom. I thought, hey that might be an ideal place for an octopus. But I then thought, nah, there are no rocks outside. But I was wrong. It isn't a great photo, but here you are:

Yeah, really sitting back in its den. You can see the small siphon and just above, the eye. But of course, there was sand in the water (this was in the Kiddie Pond), so it isn't a great photo. Just glad to see the little guy!

This is He'e #1, above and to the right of the Hawkfish. I don't know if the fish even knew the octopus was there.  It was recessed in a hole in the coral, so, hard to tell.

And then there was a brittle star: Ophiactis savignyi
Yeah, I can't believe I'm using a scientific name either, but it's all I have. Other than to learn that it is unusual, if plentiful, because it has 6 "rays." The norm is 5 apparently. It may be plentiful, but I've never seen this one before!

Of course, when I first saw it squirming around, I thought (hoped) that it was an octopus. But I'm quite happy to have found a new type of brittle star anyway. 

Like some of the other animals I see, it was quite similar to the color of the bottom.

And an ambush predator:

And is my custom with scorpion fish, I rarely see them unless they move. And it helped that this one moved quite a bit and showed its colors....even the colors in its open mouth. The wrasse seemed unconcerned. Or perhaps just unaware of this fish.

You can't really see its eyes, but they are little bumps above the mouth in the photo.

 Male Trunk fish.

 Pinktail Durgon in the deeper water. look for its cousin in a minute..

Rock Mover Wrasse, curving around the rock (with red on it) that it just picked up and threw aside, in the hopes of finding prey.

 Three little shells.

Stripey.

 Trevally.

 And if you know what this plastic thing is, let me know. I do know I found it at 8:30 a.m.

A very pretty fish and I don't even wear yellow. Yellow tail coris.

I was very surprised to see a BLACK Durgon. I usually see only the pinktails...The black ones sometimes get the sun on them just right and their entire body turns a lovely blue color. Normally, one sees the black and the two lines heading toward the tail. It did appear rather lonely...on Oahu, I used to see them in large groups.

There were some very pretty and unusual clouds today. Snapped from the water.

Mr. Seal, snoozing. Note how many scars this poor guy has! And also the sets of waves. The ones furthest out are where the surfers catch their rides.

I am not sure if this green stuff is coral, but it caught my eye as it grew underneath the rock.

Very enjoyable swim today. I stood for perhaps 10 minutes trying to decide if the deep side was too rock and roll for me! It did move me around, but not unmanageably. Thank God!