Moved to Oahu on December 1. Quite a difference! Traffic, confusing roads, etc., but we are dealing with it. (I could have done without visiting Waipahu yesterday, by accident, though!)
The swim was great in Hanauma Bay: 9 octopuses! All of them were adults. I will present them in this post haphazardly, as many of the pix were marred by water less than clear and perfect:
Hiding to the left of the rocks, in its den.
You can see the siphon and eye. Water is marred by sand blowing through it.
This octopus below was the one I saw the most of. It didn't seem very afraid, although it did have that white-ish color. It was moving rocks around, in front of its den.
Playing a bit of peek-a boo!
#3 was in its den. Now you know how I remember which octopus it was...and how often, on Kauai, I would pick stuff up. Note the wear in the pointer finger of my glove.
This one was really well hidden. I only saw it because I'm nosy! It had none of the rocks outside where it was hiding, so you had to be right on top of the den to see inside.
It was early in the morning, so full light was not out yet, but the water quality was also rather poor.
Deep in its den. People ask whether it was a male or female: don't know! One has to see the leg of the male to know. It has more to its leg, for reproductive purposes, but I normally don't see much of the leg, unless it is out of the den.
I liked this photo below. Not because of its quality, but you can see the siphon and below that to the left, the eye. Also, the sand in the water!
I think we are back to the big adult I saw earlier. It was really moving those rocks around. There was another octopus not far away, so they could have been in mating readiness.
It was a great welcome back to see so many octopuses on my first dive back on Oahu!
This was a small empty Drupe shell found on Kauai. It's leaning on my phone back. Just so you don't think we have pink sand.
Sunrise colors over the bay.
And of course, nice palm trees. I like to wait for more light, so I sat on the Betty Heins bench for a while. She was a ranger who died of lung cancer a few years ago, and friends and family donated the bench in her memory.
Nice colors!
The Humu. Hanauma Bay tends to have more Picasso trigger fish.
But we do have needlefish!
And my operculum collection arrived safely......over 15 thousand of them! Hey, don't judge!
And I saw Palani. These are more blue and have yellower fins than those on Kauai.
This is the view one has to put up with while awaiting the sunrise. Awwww. It's a tough life in Hawaii.
This is the Picasso trigger. Very pretty! I didn't see a single Pinktail though, so perhaps they are out in the deeper water, where I didn't venture.
Porcupine Puffer.
Gosh, it's hard to be in a bad mood...
I had been swimming around amazed that I didn't see as many eels as on Kauai. In fact, until the one below, I hadn't seen any. Until this Peppered Moray.
This big eel could be the same one that used to scare me when I swam in this bay before. I discovered that they can live 10 to 30 years, so it could easily have been the same one.
Glad I got the chance to be reacquainted with the bay, octopuses, and my old pal, Larry, who works the info booth when he's not swimming. I thanked him for alerting the octopuses to my return!
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