After an early wake up of 6am, I enjoyed home cooked breakfast sandwiches from Mrs. Hansen which was a pleasant surprise from the cold bagels the day before. We then loaded up on the vans once again and went to the harbor to meet up with Captain Jack’s zodiac tours. We split into our two groups and loaded onto the sides of the zodiac. Immediately outside of the harbor a group of spinner dolphins but on a show for us. After that, we then went full throttle to reach what is known as blue water or scientifically, the pelagic zone. What this means is open ocean water which is over 6000 feet deep and go to depths surpassing 8000 feet. These waters are very nutrient rich because during the night plankton and other creatures migrate to the surface allowing animals to eat them such as manta rays, dolphins and other fascinating creatures. While over the pelagic zone we saw several pods of pilot whales which were surprisingly small even though they were whales. Their black shape and large dorsal fins made them easily distinguishable from the surface. These whales were naturally curious and checked out or boat with caution. I learned from the captain of the ship that this species has gender dimorphism which shows through the males having very large dorsal fins with a slight hook on the end of them and the females having much smaller dorsal fins. After continuing to search for marine life in the pelagic zone we visiting Cook’s beach where he first made contact with the Hawaiians who treated him as a god due to his fair skin and fair hair. On the way back from the fascinating historical site, our guide showed us several culturally and religiously significant sites to the Hawaiians. The most interesting of which was the face and figure of the Hawaiian goddess of lava Pele in the side of the mountain. The figure was of her laying her side with two naturally formed eye holes and red stones making up her body. In fact, the ancient priests used to start bonfires in her eyes to scare the local fisherman into giving sacrifices which the priests would then eat. This was very interesting to me that the Hawaiians took great value in this naturally occurring coincidence and made me realize that Western society was not so different from theirs at least in regards to religion. In the harbor coming back we saw a huge tiger shark under the water and Nelson even caught him on video! After coming back home and resting up for two hours, we got back on the dive boat to head out to Garden Eel Cove by the airport and Manta dive site. The most interesting part of that dive was our dive master pinning 5 Crown of Thorns starfish under rocks so that they would be eaten by their natural predators since these starfish eat the coral. When returning to the boat on the surface we were briefed about the Manta dive which I learned a lot from. First of all Manta Rays are cartilaginous fish just like sharks which means they have no skeleton but are incredibly flexible and maneuverable. These gentle giants also go through a 13 month pregnancy in which a 400 pound pup is born rolled up like a burrito due to their lack of a skeleton. I learned that when pregnant, Manta rays can weigh over a ton. The most interesting part of the presentation was learning how the got the name Devil Rays. Sailors would see their silhouettes in the water and their wings would look like a cloak, their feeding fins looked like horns and their tail looked like a staff. This gave the sailors the superstition that they were a bad omen and would take down ships like the Kraken. The dive was fantastic despite being cold and I would love to do it again hopefully with more than two Manta Rays showing up. I even got bumped in the head twice by the mangas which didn’t really hurt but definitely startled me. 
