In an Octopus's Garden: Kona, Hawaii

When we first started scuba diving in Kona I found particular interest in the octopus. They are very shy creatures and very difficult to find unless you know where to look for them. Our first few trips to various dive sites we would hope to see one with the help of our very talented dive masters who knew what to look for. When they spied one they then would signal to all the divers with a hand sign and for us to approach cautiously so as not to intimidate the creature deeper into the rocks and crevices in which they found shelter. After forty or so dives along the Kona coastline I, too, have developed a sense of where to find these eight tentacled blobs that squirt water and ink at you from time to time. However, while they are such interesting and sometimes comedic animals to observe, we sometimes interact with them very gently so as not to entice them to use their ink as it is their main defense to their predators. I again made use of my iMovie program to put together this video for my friends the octopus.

I had so many wonderful photos of them I included them within the video as opposed to listing them in the blog here because there were so many great pictures with wonderful color and quality. The video unfortunately is not as colorful and is, in actuality, more close to what is actually seen while diving as red, the octopus's color, is absent below depths of thirty or so feet. I tried to use my new Intova light to illuminate with my left hand as I steadied my video camera in my right and it worked somewhat. Enjoy my fascination with these amazing and curious beings!