Diving – Page 20 – A Darker View

Puakō Night Dive

Watching sunset is one way to end the day, in this case it heralded the start of our activity. We were waiting for the Sun to go away, for the skies to grow dark. We were preparing for a night dive.

Once again into the black water, looking to meet the the reef’s night shift. It would be our usual crew… Pete, Sky, Mark and myself for the dive. Dennis joined for dinner, but did not stay for the dive.

We would meet at Pete’s place, an ʻohana he is currently renting in the middle of Puakō. From this base of operations we would have dinner, and head into the water for a night dive along the reef. Dinner itself was an event, it featured kebabs made with mouflon sheep. Sky and Pete’s latest hunt on the mountain had been successful. The mutton was pretty good, a credit to the cook, who prepared it properly.

While I had never used this particular entry, we were all familiar with the Puakō reef, having dove the area many times over the years. The layout is pretty straightforward. A shallow reef slopes away from shore for about 50-100yards, reaching about 10ft deep. There you will find ancient sea cliffs, a sheer rock wall that drops to 25′ or 35′ depth. Below this wall the reef slopes away, sometimes gently, sometimes steeply. At 70-100ft you reach sand that slopes further into the abyss. Our goal would be the old cliffs. These are pockmarked with small caves and overhangs, excellent terrain to explore on a night dive, there should be plenty of small invertebrates about.

The plan was simple, taking advantage to the nature of the Puakō reef and the multiple entries available along the shoreline. We would enter at one point, do a one way dive along the submerged seacliffs at 20-30ft, then exit at another entry about a quarter mile further south. Exit would be aided by a strobe left at the designated exit point, a bright light in flash mode easily visible to lead us back to the correct landfall.

Overhead a full Moon rose, lighting the sky and aiding our visibility. Once under water the moonlight would ad another dimension to the dive. The glow of moonlight coming through the water was sometimes quite pretty.

At one point I did something I almost never do on a Hawaiian reef. I was actually forced to use my compass for navigation. Normally the slope of the reef quickly indicates which way is shore. I had followed Mark out onto the reef below the wall. After a little photography I found myself disoriented, which was was the shore? I held my compass to the divelight to charge the glow-in-the-dark dial, then got my bearings to head back to the wall. I know I bought the console with a compass for some reason. Just a reminder of how easy it is to lose ones bearings in the dark water.

Orange Cup Coral — Orange cup coral (Tubastraea coccinea) at 20′ depth, Puakō

One feature of the wall at night that you just have to love, are the cup coral gardens. Here and there, usually near a cave entry, the entire wall will be covered with golden cup corals. Bright golden orange, these corals retract their tentacles during the day. It is at night that these gardens bloom, covering entire rock faces.

The strobe worked very well, we were able to head inshore, across the reef shallows, to just the right point. The shallows at Puakō can be a nuisance to cross in the day, they are more so at night. There was no real surf to complicate the issue, but you are just feeling your way across the rocks. I only put my hand on one urchin.

It was a pretty stroll back to the house along Puakō Road. A warm tropical night, a bright full Moon high overhead. We were chatting about the dive, reveling in the experience. One car did pass us as we walked, it must have been an interesting sight… A group of four guys in full scuba gear, dripping wet, walking down the center of the road.

Back at Pete’s place we broke out snacks and drinks. Beer and scotch appeared, dive photos reviewed, as we talked story for hours. Yeah, it was that sort of night.

Going Snorkeling

Normally I do not snorkel around the reef, rather I prefer donning full kit including tank and regulator allowing a more immersive experience. Staying down allows me a freedom of movement, to explore well beyond the twenty five feet or so that I can reach without the gear. Scuba permits me to carry a camera with time to compose a subject and observe behavior.

But on occasion I hit the water with minimal gear, simply mask and fins Sometimes I am accompanying a friend who is not a qualified diver. Perhaps there is no time or allowance for the large amount of gear scuba required and I simply want to swim. Snorkeling is nice this way, taking a long swim is hardly boring when so much is visible just below.

I skim along, the large fins providing effortless speed. The view is different than that of scuba, you are always looking down. I stay in the shallower water where the coral comes close to the surface. On occasion I dip down below the surface to get a closer look, weaving through the coral on long shallow dives. To go up I simply stop swimming to allow my buoyancy to lift me to the surface. A sharp breath clears the snorkel of water. With practice the actions are almost reflex, as natural as breathing on shore.

There are species that prefer the shallows, rarely seen when diving, often common in just a few feet of water. Snowflake morays, the colorful lagoon triggerfish, snorkeling allows spotting of a different reef community. I often make a point to sweep the areas just off the shore in three feet of water or less, just to see what can be found.

Whitemouth Moray

The GoPro HD Hero 2 for Diving

I know, I am late to this party. Not unusual, I do not often jump on the latest tech. I still use an iPhone 3GS, only three models back. It was, as usual, my wife who bequested this latest toy upon me. Without her I would be hopelessly out of date.

The GoPro HD Hero 2 camera is interesting to us as it comes with a standard waterproof housing good to scuba depths. The price was right, Deb picked it up as a Costco special.

Thus I attached it to the top of my usual rig to give it a try on a dive or two. As it turns out, it is a good thing I had my regular camera along, there are some issues with a stock GoPro underwater.

The first obvious issue is focus, as I had heard the camera will not focus properly underwater with the standard dome port. The solution to this is to get a flat port.

The more concerning issue is the burned out highlights visible in the video below. This is not unusual in a camera using a typical exposure algorithm designed for daylight above water. Underwater the red light is gone, absorbed by the water. This lack of red creates a tendency for the camera to overexpose the green or blue.

The usual solution is to set a slight under exposure in the scene using exposure compensation. However, the Hero 2 has no exposure compensation control. There are a couple possible solutions… Commonly available is a red filter for the flat port camera. Will this solve the burnouts? Another possibility lies in using a less saturated color profile as available in the new firmware.

While there were issues with the image, the sound seems pretty good for being in a case, much the same as what I hear when diving. The real test would be to dive with a few whales around to see how well it records whalesong. Alas, the humpbacks headed north a couple months ago. I miss the whalesong soundtrack on our dives. A pod of dolphins perhaps?

I plan to set up the GoPro as a stand alone camera and video rig for diving. Just the camera, an Ultralight handle and arm I have on-hand, plus a video light, which I also have on-hand. I just need to manufacture a tray for the setup, another hour in the machine shop. This should make a compact, lightweight dive or snorkeling camera rig.

I can think of a few other interesting uses for the camera, it has some nice timelapse facilities I need to test. Just the camera to use on the top of a boat. The camera does not do low light, just too small a sensor and lens. Still, there are quite a few things it should do well, a fun addition to the kit.

Postcard from the Reef – Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse

A very common fish, endemic to Hawaiian reefs, the pretty cleaner wrasse easily catches your attention with a brilliant neon color scheme. You see these fish nearly every time you get in the water. They are usually found in some cleft in the reef or above a prominent coral head working over another reef fish. They feed on parasites, mucous and dead skin of the other fish. The cleaning services offered by these small wrasse are so popular that there will often be several fish waiting their turn.

While cleaner wrasse are quite pretty they are also infuriatingly difficult to photograph. You can usually get close, they are not overly shy. The problem is that they never stop moving, swimming with an odd, jerky motion in the water. I have long since lost count of the number of blurred photos I have of this fish.

He’e Mauli

Postcard from the Reef – Trumpetfish

Another very common species on Hawaiian reefs, one commonly seen by snorkelers and divers alike. The trumpetfish can be either bright yellow or silver with dark markings around the tail. Either way an interesting and handsome fish…

Postcard from the Reef – Frogfish

Six years I have been diving the reefs of the Big Island. Despite this I have never seen a frogfish. They are rare, but not that rare!

A flashing light catches my attention from across the open coral. Pete is signaling, he does not do that often, when he does it is usually worthwhile. Pete had been working one wall while I worked the other side of a small channel in the reef. So far I had found nothing unusual.

There it was, a bright yellow frogfish just at the edge of a small plate of coral. Not only a nice find, but a nicely posed one as well, conveniently placed for photography. By the time Pete and I had finished photographing this fish it probably had sunburn.

I owe Pete a beer.

Commerson's Frogfish — Commerson’s Frogfish (Antennarius commerson) at 25′ depth

Category: Diving