We started our day on the Zodiac boat. They’re like really fast pontoon boats, and they’re used by the Navy Seals. We sailed a few miles off shore and there we saw some Short-Finned Pilot Whales. They were all in groups of females with one male, that was larger than the females. There was even a neonatal pup, probably no more than a few days old. It’s cartilage hadn’t hardenned yet, so it’s dorsal fin was slightly flopped over. These whales are the deepest diving animals on the planet. They use sonar to hunt, and they can stay at depth for almost two hours. To recover from their long dives, they exhibit a behavior called logging, where they lay on the surface and breath to re-oxygenate their blood, having the appearance of a log. Lately, they have been under a lot of stress, because of the war games being practice by the military nearby. They use sonar, which the Pilot whales are very sensitive to.
After that, we went snorkelling at Cook’s Point. In the bay, there was a Monument to Captain Cook, who was the first Westerner to set foot on the Hawaiian Islands. The reef was actually used as a model or the movie Finding Nemo.
After Cook’s point, we started heading back to the harbor, but first, we saw some Hawaiian Spinner dolphins. We threw on our snorkel gear and headed into the water. They were heading out to sea, but we were in about 70 feet of water. They swam away from us pretty quickly, but we were able to see them pretty clearly below us for a little bit. Once the dolphins left, an akule bait ball appeared. This is when large group of Akule fish band together in a giant ball when under attack from a predator. The larger fish, herding them into their bait ball were just barely visible.
A few hours after the Zodiac Boat, we went out to out two tank Manta Ray dive. Our first dive was in daylight, exploring the reef. During our dive, I noticed our guide collecting these large starfish.
I later found out that these are called Crown of Thorns Starfish. Their spines are filled with a neurotoxin. After enough repeated stings, they after the potential to kill a human. THese starfish eat coral and an overabundance of them can be very harmful to the reef. Our divemaster was collecting them in an effort to help preserve the reef.
