To be fair to myself, I did have some rehab going on with my bad back, not to mention I took a trip to the mainland, and all in all it has been "mo bettah for surf" on the island than for diving. But I digress.
At last I am back in the water with my oldest son Jaron, who is here visiting for a few weeks before he heads on his mission for the L.D.S. Church. But this is not about him necessarily, though I do so enjoy diving with all of my children, but he is the only one here with me at the moment, so we went diving down in Makena at a dive site that I particularly enjoy diving called 5 Caves 5 Graves.
There are actually more than 5 caves at this dive site, but there are 5 graves right along the trail that you have to hike down to get to this dive site. I like to tell divers that I take diving at this site that those are the remains of 5 divers that went into one of the caves below and they didn't make it back alive. Tourists will buy anything you are selling, but to all of my tourist friends that may be reading this blog, this doesn't apply to y'all. Ok maybe it did at one time, but I took all of your money to be my friend! Not that I need to pay people to be my friend, because, well hey, I mean come on, I believe I am somewhat likeable after all!
Getting to the title of the blog, Just Hanging Around....Jaron and I hit the mooring for the many snorkel boats that come to this spot to snorkel and decided to take a picture of him swinging on the rope. I thought it was just a fun picture to take.
On our first dive we ran in to a nice female white tip reef shark that happened to be pregnant. This is a very cool thing to see in the wild and I posted a picture of her here, though it is not the best composed picture, you can definitely see her bulging belly. These sharks are very unique amongst sharks as they do not have to constantly swim in order to breath. They can actually pump water over their gills, thus we are able to find them consistently to enjoy and photograph. Gestation period is 10-13 months and it appears this gal is getting up there and ready to have her pup or pups, up to six.
Below is another pic of a silhouette of her in the cave that I thought was kind of a cool shot to share.
These sharks are not aggressive towards humans, in general they are very docile and trying to sleep during the day, save for the divers that are always seeking them out to sneak a peek and a picture. Now I'm not saying that I am brave enough to back them into their caves trying to get pictures of them, but I have been pretty up close and personal with these sharks, and many of you have seen some of these shots on my Facebook page. I also didn't want to stress her out too much since she was pregnant so once she let me know that she didn't want me bugging her I moved along and let her be.
I was able to spend time with my son while he worked on getting his rescue diver certification with my good friend Uncle Mike Wakashige. For about a year now, these little creatures were hanging out in this particular spot, and I have not been able to go see them in the wild. Day in and day out I have watched new divers come and go that have had the privilege to see these shrimp and today was my turn! I got several pictures and this was a nice shot that I liked.
Last picture is of a rare Hawaiian Lion Fish. Again thanks to my Uncle Mike for showing this tiny and beautiful specimen. I have had these in captivity before, and they are actually becoming a very invasive species in the Caribbean. They are indigenous to this part of the world and have not over taken the reefs here, in fact quite the opposite. I have seen these fish in the wild twice since I have been here diving and have been lucky to do so.
So after a long hiatus from the ocean, I have once again re-wet my gills and am feeling good about it! Hopefully it won't be another two and a half months before I get to dive again!
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