I had the pleasure of running into a group of Eagle Rays on two separate occasions. They were slow-moving and graceful and elegant, but MAN could they move if they felt uncomfortable.
Six images total after the jump, just click the link below...
The ray below had recently been hooked by a fisherman and still had a hook embedded (with bait attached) in its mouth and a length of line trailing behind. Couldn't have been hooked more than 48 hours before we ran into it. I was surprised to find that it didn't feel threatened by us. Obviously it wouldn't associate being hooked with running into us, but I figured it would still be skittish and on edge...it spent quite a bit of time swimming right next to my mom.
You can add these awesome creatures to my list of favorite things in Hawai'i.
On our last morning of snorkeling we decided to revisit our favorite spot, Honolua Bay. We got their early to beat the crowds and arrived to find it gray and raining. Low visibility and a little bit chilly. A couple women were already leaving as we walked in, saying there was nothing going on. Fortunately they were really wrong...
More after the jump, click the link below! There's another video...
We noticed a huge pod of Spinner Dolphins out in the middle of the bay near open water, so I skipped the reef entirely and swam hard for 1/2 mile or so against the current out to the pod. As I swam out visibility improved, especially out in the deeper water. It stopped raining and the sun began to make an occasional appearance. Before I'd even caught my breath they were all around me, coming within 6 feet along side of me, swimming underneath me...they were everywhere. I've never experienced anything like this...one of the best moments of my life so far. I hope it's not the last time I get to enjoy being up close and personal with them.
Spinner Dolphins are fascinating to watch as they play and interact with one another. We could hear them echolocating, sending chirps and clicks through the water that I could hear from at least 60' away. Below you can see the larger Spinner whistling by blowing through its blowhole. The sound they each make doing this is unique to the individual and is used to identify one another.
They get their name from their acrobatic displays, leaping WAY out of the water, spinning and flipping. I saw it happen within 40' or so, it was jaw dropping. Hawai'i was really laying it on thick at that point, with a huge, full rainbow directly behind the dolphins jumping around. Just unbelievable. I was fortunate enough to share this with my best friend, who you can see briefly in the video below...all we could do was gawk and laugh and enjoy the moment.
Thanks, Hawai'i. I can't express enough gratitude for that morning...you opened my eyes.
More to come in a couple of days, lots of underwater stuff left to share =)
So here are the first of the underwater shots from the trip. I think I have five or six posts worth of images, which surprises me. All of these images (and the HD videos!) were shot with the Canon sd1400is inside the Ikelite underwater housing. All in all a pretty effective, sub $500 way to capture some nice memories on your vacations.
Sooooo turtles, everybody's favorites! Click the link below for a couple more images and my first HD video.
That lazy behemoth was the largest turtle any of us had ever seen and seemed totally uninterested in its surroundings. I guess when you hit 100+ you become hard to impress...I was down around 20' to capture this.
I wish I had more awesome turtle shots to share, but in all honesty we couldn't seem to run into them in any sort of decent water conditions. Lastly, here is my first video attempt. Consider it less of an artistic creation and more just sharing this awesome experience. It's fairly shaky because I was on the surface, but it's still fun and worth sharing. It was a great moment, he was definitely curious about me.
It's 1am, I don't have the patience to figure out how to center that video, sooooo...forgive me?
Next up to share? Dolphins? Rays? Trevally? Reef fish? I can't decide...
