Scuba Diving - Maeda Point

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Scuba Diving - Maeda Point

The weather wasn't great today (rather cloudy) but I still managed to get a dive in at Maeda Point. Even though the visibility was a bit iffy (about 50 feet), the water was getting warmer (around 75 degrees). I'll probably need to switch to my super thin wetsuit in about 2 or 3 weeks.

I came across a midnight snapper that was between the juvenile and intermediate stage of its growth. I've never seen one of these fish before so it was pretty cool to see it for the first time. I also managed to get a picture of a spotfin lionfish that really shows it's spot off. The fish turned its tail-end towards me and strethced out it's fins, really exposing its blue/black spots.

While swimming along a coral cliff face, I was looking into some crevices and saw a camouflage grouper. It was just chilling out within a nitch of the coral. I started snapping some photos and my flash went off each time. After a minute or so, the camouflage grouper opened it's mouth just wide enough to show me its many, tiny, sharp teeth. I'm pretty sure my flash was annoying it or it felt threatened.

Just a few kicks later on the same coral cliff face, there was a slight ledge on which a raggy scorpionfish had placed itself. It was really easy to pick out (probably because I've been diving a lot out here). Birgitta and I went down to check it out a bit more and take photos. Once again, my camera flash seemed to annoy the wildlife. The raggy scorpionfish opened it's mouth up really wide (my picture show it with it's mouth open about three-quarters of the way) and moved a bit on the rocks. Because I've never seen this type of fish open its mouth, I figured it was getting annoyed (...or maybe it was yawning??? hahaha) with our presence so we left soon thereafter.

More photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/kdupak/23May2009MaedaPoint?feat=directlink

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Photos

Midnight Snapper
Between its juvenile stage and intermediate stage of growth

Camouflage Grouper
Look at those teeth!