Today was our first open water dive of the week. It was very exciting to see the different lava formations in the water. Hawaii’s diving is super unique because of the lava rock in the coral reefs. We went to two locations each having its own type of lava formations. The first location was a large lava tube and we saw white tip reef shark hiding in it. Then the second location was filled with large lava walls creating valleys to dive in. Then after we visited a monk seal rehabilitation center. The monk seal is the most endangered aquatic animal in the U.S. Finally we learned about the upcoming black water dive. A black water diving photographer who has been doing it for 15 years taught us about the upcoming dive. The largest migration ever occurs every night when millions of creatures rise from great depths to the top of the ocean to feed. There are about one million aquatic species we as humans have identified and there are about 30 million species estimated to exist. This shows how little we know about the oceans. One intriguing species we learned about is the blanket octopus. The female is about a foot long and instead of spraying ink in a dangerous situation she releases a blanket that stretches 8 feet to look larger. The male however is only 2 inches big. The difference of size is comparable to a sparrow and a 747 airplane. The male defends itself by using tools. It can pick off jellyfish tentacles and use them as stingers to defend itself. I’m looking forward most to this upcoming black water dive.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/blackwater-diving-hawaii/index.html
