Last week Marla and I took a couple of dives off Puako with Blue Wilderness. There were a handful of beginners on the boat this day, so we dove two shallow sites—about 40 feet. Neither site was all that exciting, but both were quite fishy, full of the usual suspects. Here are some of the prettier or more interesting ones:
I still sometimes have trouble distinguishing between the Big Longnose Butterflyfish* shown here and the similar (not big) Longnose Butteflyfish. This photo highlights two distinguishing features of the Big Longnose—an extremely long snout and a sprinkling of black flecks on the chest.
A handsome adult Orangebar Surgeonfish.
The pale fish near the center of this photo is a juvenile Orangebar Surgeon, together with some Goldring Surgeonfish, Brown Surgeonfish, and Yellow Tangs. Like I said, a pretty fish-rich site.
A young Yellowtail Coris with a couple of juvenile parrotfish (two different species it looks like).
A juvenile Banded Urchin (right) and a Rock Boring Urchin (left). I’d never seen a juvenile Banded Urchin before. The flattened spines (which disappear on adults) are unique and rather eye-catching. That Rock Boring Urchin has actually excavated the hole into which it is nestled.
A tiny Trembling Nudibranch, only about a half inch long. I’d have never spotted it without the help of our dive guide. Regular readers (ha, if there are any) may recall that we saw one of these on a piling at Kawaihae last year.
An enormous Stripebelly Puffer. This thing must have been a foot and a half long. Hoover says it’s Hawaii’s largest puffer. We frequently run into smaller specimens snorkeling at Mahukona and other sites.
*I’m using Hoover’s nomenclature here. Reef.org and many others call the Longnose Butterflyfish the Forcepsfish and refer to the Big Longnose Butterfly as Longnose Butterfly. Some use Common Longnose Butterflyfish for the Forcepsfish. Sheesh.
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