Today, my dear friend Irene and I joined Maddy from Maui Dreams Dive Company for her Endemic Fish of Hawaii specialty certification class.
And it was AWESOME!!!!
We did two dives at Ulua Beach, which if you follow this blog you know I dive at a lot. Maddy found some critters I had not seen before, or seen rarely, and we explored a couple of nice spots on the reef that I had not really stopped to explore before; so though it was the same reef, Maddy threw some new light on it for me.
She also did a great job in her briefing about the endemic fish of Hawaii, what it means, how it happens, which ones to look out for on our dive, and she seemed open to the idea of killing all Humuhumunukunukuapua’a everywhere BUT Hawaii so that our state fish would also be endemic. 🙂
But seriously, I highly recommend the class, or even just diving with Maddy. Her enthusiasm is infectious and she has a great eye for spotting the cool, small critters and, of course, the endemic fish.
Unfortunately the only endemic fish I got a decent picture of was the Hawaiian Green Lionfish, but I was so glad to see that fish and now know where it likes to hang out on Ulua reef (actually a bit off the reef).
I am no longer going to post info about the camera/lenses/etc. I use. I am keeping track of that elsewhere now. 🙂