Fish are Friends Not Food...

This is one of my favorite star fish.... it is called a pin cushion star. Here we are diving at a site called aquarium because there is an outcropping that is surrounded by reefs on either side and the light that comes through illuminates the hundreds of fish and coral that call this part of the Pacific their home.

This is Dean our dive master/instructor humorously being eaten by the pin cushion starfish. Dean also dove with Austin on many of the dives we took last December... He's AWESOME!!!
A yellow tang darting behind some coral...
Different coral and fish are found at various depths and with that comes the disadvantage of color absorption from the light being filtered through the water. The first colors to seem to disappear are red and then oranges/yellows so some photos are more blue and not as vibrant as others due to the dispersion of light.
I don't have my Hawaiian fish guide book with me... oops... I meant to bring it. But I believe this is an Achilles tang. with a sea urchin sitting on the rocks.
I have no idea what kind of fish this was but it looked so interesting, I'll have to research it when I get home.
Dean found an eel hiding in a hole or "puka" you can see the red that is beautifully illuminated by his light shining into the crevice.
This is the beautiful deep blue sea with many fish surrounding a thread fin fish or trumpet fish of some kind. It is a beautiful silver color and extremely thin!
A coral wall teaming with life, there is a lava tube cave that we went into as well along this ridge of the island wall.
Dennis checking out the lava tube cave...


I'm not sure if you can spot this HUGE spotted moray eel hiding amongst the coral, it is camouflaged quite well.
The serene view of a real life aquarium... I LOVE to SCUBA DIVE!!!

Can you spot the RED starfish?
This coronet fish was not being cooperative. It kept turning from the camera right as I was trying to take it's picture. Apparently many fish are photo shy.
Here comes Dennis... Diving at Kaiwai Bay
Another shot of a reef wall that leads to rocky/cliff volcanic shoreline breaks they make beautiful drop-offs teaming with coral and tropical fish. I love to look up at the waves that break along the reefs too.
Another shy yellow tang
A little less shy coronet fish. I actually got the whole side of him!
A picture of lava that you could easily swim under but along the top water could break over this reef it was beautiful.

Our first dive was at Kaiwai Point and after our deep descent into the abyss of the drop off we then followed up the coral shelf to find many great specimen of fish! I hope you enjoyed the photos!