Diving The Forbidden Island Caldera, Whales, Seals, Sharks & More

[ricki]

This is a special request from tautologies to put up some shots from a recent diving trip to Lihau, a submerged volcano cone or caldera near Niihau, west of Kauai in Hawaii. I am planning on doing a more extensive article with a lot more land and UW photos but for now here are a few.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album190/Niihau_and_Pilot_Whale.sized.jpg
Cloud shrouded Niihau in the distance with a pilot whale in the foreground. A pod of several dozen whales showed up as we left the area of the island.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album190/Hole_in_the_Wall.sized.jpg
The viz. was excellent this far offshore with minimal runoff. The volcanic bottom forms were bizarre to see for a Florida diver.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album190/Monk_Seal_s.sized.jpg
Ilio-holo-i-ka-uaua, the Hawaiian monk seal. Literally it means, "the dog that runs in the rough." Doesn't look like a golfer to me. I was fortunate to catch this guy from a distance in an UW telephoto shot. It would surface near us for a breather and orbit around while we were SCUBA diving. He would just lie on the bottom, growl and slowly spiral up for air about every 10 minutes.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album190/Shark_and_the_Guys.sized.jpg
We even had some sharks show up, a couple of white tips and several baby gray reef sharks that may have popped out of mom within the last week I would think.

It is an interesting dive and usually with a very rough return up wind to Kauai. Of course the normally strong trades were turned off by nearby tropical storms for much of this trip (ouch!), good for diving through. More to come, stay tuned.


More about the "Forbidden Island" here (http://www.janeresture.com/hawaii_niihau/) .

[mocean]

where do you find the time for all of this extra hobbys mate?
aj

[ricki]

Hey AJ,

No kids at this point, helps! I started diving and photography a very long time ago. Used to do UW surveys/work and photog. for a meager income or sometimes for free for over ten years in my teens and 20's. So, those activities were around decades before windsports for me. Used to hate wind with a passion, messed up UW viz, today different story. Diving does present some additional options when we're becalmed for weeks in the summer.

[mocean]

as you know I'm in sanish wells and my good friend here Jock morgen, used to do a bit of treasure hunting before they closed it down (due to people messing up the reefs)
anyways there are a few tresure hunting boats getting refitted here and it looks like it's about to open up again.
yea kids are fun but boy does it mess with your spare time(i don't have any at all)
your photos look great rick.

did you see my clip on spanish wells yet
aj

[ricki]

as you know I'm in sanish wells and my good friend here Jock morgen, used to do a bit of treasure hunting before they closed it down (due to people messing up the reefs)
anyways there are a few tresure hunting boats getting refitted here and it looks like it's about to open up again.
yea kids are fun but boy does it mess with your spare time(i don't have any at all) your photos look great rick.

did you see my clip on spanish wells yet
aj

Yes, a typical wreck exploration or salvage operation can really do a number on a reef if it is entombed in it or even nearby. Years back guys used explosives, all sorts of dredges and generally caused a bit havoc out there. For the longest time with some exceptions, the very best pro salvours might break even in terms of profits and expenses. I used to shoot video and stills on some UW arch. sites in Florida and the Caribbean. No, I didn't know that you had put it up. I'll go check it out, thanks!

Here are some more UW shots ...

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album190/Niihau_3.sized.jpg
The spot is similar in some ways to Molokini off Maui.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album190/White_tip.sized.jpg
A few white tips showed up at one point. Where's that strobe?!

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album190/5_G.sized.jpg
This was along a pinnacle or sea mount like feature. It reminded me of some of the walls or dropoffs in the Caribbean.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album190/Seal_2.sized.jpg
Time to head back to the bottom. Another fuzzy telephoto shot.

We were talking about this last night. I concluded that the most commonly sighted shark off South Florida must be the Coconut shark. That is coconuts floating along looking shark-like? My wife's cousin thought she saw a seal off here the other day. That really would be unique, nope, just another Coconut shark, they're everywhere. Don't eat nearly as much but they have been known to attack cars.