Partridge Tun! Two octopuses! Two Scorpion Fish! And an unbelieving lifeguard...poor t'ing!

Those who know me personally will tell you that I can be opinionated! And sure of myself, sometimes.

So when I walked up to the lifeguard shack, having just heard him tell people not to walk on the reef because of wana (urchins), I wanted to know if he had ever had anyone get in trouble with stepping on a scorpion fish.

He looked at me askance. I could see on his face that he didn't believe that there were any in these waters. He said "I've lived here all my life and have never seen one of those!" I said "Well, that's because they are good at camouflage." Hmpf!!! I wished I had my phone so I could show him my pix. Barring that, I told him to find my blog to see the pix. Ah, these young whippersnappers!!!

He probably doesn't see Partridge Tuns either:

I heard myself say OH MY GOD! really loudly in my snorkel tube when I saw it.  I have only ever seen one other Partridge Tun shell with the animal in it.

 And when I got the pix home to review, I noted the mouth, but also one of the antenna, next to it.

I think the shell is really beautiful, as is the animal inside.

 I discovered that they eat only sea cucumbers. I should say I read that they only eat sea cucumbers. This one wasn't eating a thing.

And they are primarily nocturnal, so that explains why I rarely see them.

 Diving alone at night, not so smart.

Well, diving alone at any time is not so smart, but at least during the day, there's a lifeguard.

 Even if they do disagree about what's out there!

This one was probably as big as my husband's clenched fist.

 Not that I ever see that. Thank God.

I love the effect of light on their shells and skin.

 Needless to say, I left this little beauty scooting about on the reef.

The funny thing was that I took so many pix, I had to pop up and rest. And by the time I ducked down into the water again, the current had moved me, so I could no longer see the little darling!

But I was able to find it again a few minutes later.

 It moved a little bit against the ocean floor.

Here's the mouth.

 Truly one of God's amazing creatures!!!

As are octopus!

 This is #2 he'e....the first one was a good hider and the water was sandy.

You can see one eye and the siphon.

 One eye again and the siphon is the white tube. (And why is that tube white? Can the octopus not change the color of its tube?!)

It started to recede into its den.

 Really no reason to be afraid of me. I would never hurt an octopus.

 This is more or less what I first saw when I chanced upon this adult.

 You can see the eye and siphon and a bit of sand in the water.

 And below is what I first saw. This was in the Keiki Pond.

Moving on to Scorpion Fish, I only spotted this Spotfin Scorpion Fish because it moved. 

 And this one followed close behind. Perhaps amorous?!

From above.

 #1 again.

I can understand why the lifeguard hadn't ever seen any...they do blend in rather well.

Two Saddleback Butterflies and a lined wrasse. The latter is very quick, so I have yet to get a great photo.

This is the second set of fishing line I took out of the water. Grrrrr. Have you ever seen a fisher-person go in the water to retrieve a lost line? Me neither.

 I think there are 16 Kihikihi (Moorish Idol) fish in this group. Did you know there's no S in Hawaiian alphabet?

 The line and the lead.

 Cute hawkfish on top of coral head.

Christmas Wrasse. These fish are prevalent, but move very quickly, so it's tough to catch a great shot. Well, tough for me at least!

 Cleaning station with a rare sighting in the waiting line: a Pinktail Durgon. This was a young one, I think, as its skin hadn't turned black yet.

 More at the cleaning station.

And a shot of the first fishing line I took out. I actually got out of the water, because this much line really messes up the zipper on my dive bag.

 An eel fleeing from a Bluefin Trevally.

Honu was snoozing on the beach when I arrived.

 Tiny Humu, diving for its hole. Really, I'm big compared to this little fish, but I swear, not scary!

 Humu with light on its skin.

 And more light! (This Humu was bigger, too.)

 A male trunk or box fish running away. I can hear Alex saying: "That's what you do! If you're a trunk fish anyway.

Needlefish

 A pair of Ornate Butterfly fish. It's one of those fish that when you see one, you immediately look for its partner.

There were at least 3 Peacock Grouper, throwing their weight around in the deeper side.

 Pencil Urchins

 The red dissipates when they are broken off and lying on the bottom; they become a sandy color.

Pinktail

 I was meeting a friend for lunch and had extra time, so I visited my old snorkeling haunt, PK.

 Seal on the island. (Sorry, we're back in Poipu.) Turtle, too.

 I read somewhere that these cool circles of sand are also eggs...maybe of a nudibranch?

 This little Hawkfish was overlooking its territory from top of some pink coral.

And I was rewarded with the song of a White Rumped Shama! They must be part octopus, as they are pretty good hiders, too.

The waves behaved and I was able to get out further in the deeper side, as the surfers and waves were further down. Very thankful am I.