2018

Being my first time diving outside of training, I really look forward to experiencing to my first time interacting with the fish. I also am looking forward to our hike up the mountains.

Today was my second day exploring the Big Island of Hawaii. My group, the Siphonophores, were exploring the depths of Pololu Valley. At the begging of the hike, I was walking right next to my buddy Braxton, and of course I slipped and almost fell of the cliff entirely! Luckily I got the edge and Braxton actually pulled...

Three points for today: Where to begin? I guess I should start by releasing my inner 5 year old and saw "WE SAW A SHARK!!". That was absolutely amazing, while diving our first dive, we went into a small little cubbyhole in the rocks and sitting there was a white tip reef shark, a member of the cartilaginous species. Secondly,...

Today was a late start after the late night manta ray dive the night before. It began with a visit to kampache farms followed by a visit to an abalone farm. Lastly I went on the black water dive which lasted into the late hours of night. My visit to kampache farms was very interesting as I learned from their...

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...

On the third way of adventuring through the depths of Hawaii, we took a full team trip to the harbor to take our first dive of the trip. We arrived on the boat to the location of the first of the two dives we did in the day. Split into four different groups, I was in the third with...

Yesterday we helped out with a conservation project and went to the top of Mauna Kea. We helped conserve an Anchialine pool, which is a small pool by the ocean, by building sandcastles. Anchialine pools are essentially coastal ponds with underground connections to the ocean. However, an accumulation of sand has rendered many pools uninhabitable for...

Today we started off the day by going to NELHA and learning about conservation and research efforts unique to Kona. One such example was the OTEC, use of cold deep water and surface water from the pelagic zone close to Kona's shore to create energy using the re-boiling of ammonia through a closed system. By boiling the ammonia using...

We began the day with a 2 tank dive. I decided to snorkel instead of diving. As I explored the water, The coral, while not exploding color, appeared to be healthy. In fact, it seemed to be in a healthier state then the coral I saw in the British Virgin Islands. This helped me realize how effective the Hawaiian...