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Published: January 14th 2013
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THE MAHI SHIP WRECK
DIVE WITH HONOLULU HONU DIVERS
Adam at the surface interval Oahu Dive 3. The “Mahi” wreck.
The "Mahi" is an old WWII minesweeper that was intentionally sunk in 1982 as an artificial reef and it is a world class dive. It is 185 ft long 33 ft wide steel hulled ship weighing approx 500 tons. It rests at 95'/29m of water and that is often the maximum dive depth as whitetip reef sharks and octopus often hide between the bottom and the wreck. If you want a longer bottom time the deck is between 60-80'/18-24m and there is plenty to look at. The Mahi's bridge collapsed during a hurricane a couple of years ago and most divers are not allowed to penetrate the inside of the wreck.
On a typical dive at the Mahi, divers can expect superb visibility; we had 200+ viz and blue water. It said to have huge variety of invertabrate life and rare frogfish are sometimes spotted on the mast of the Mahi. I was shooting wide angle so I didn’t bother.
Together with the Sea Tiger it is the best dive site to spot schooling eagle rays. We saw a formation of eagle rays and I counted 17 of them.
Log 510 60ft
THE MAHI SHIP WRECK
Starboard side. We had a school of eagle ray in formation but the divers scared them away. 60 min 77oF 80cc back pretty dry ank + 10 lbs 3mm+7mm+lavacore 200+ ft viz
We had whales for our surface intervale. Five of them…just a regular day with Honolulu Honu divers….Yeah!!! W H A L E S !!!! We got at a safe close distance and jumped in the water a few times but still far for a shot. They stayed around for quite a while.
Oahu Dive 4. Starz
Starz is a natural laberith sort of looking like a combo between underwater tunnels, arches, swmthorughs, caverns, ledges….pretty cool with the light coming through. It was exiting for video. It would be an interesting dive for underwater photographers that have the time to plan the shot with silouhettes of divers passing through…just let your imagination go. We saw a bright red pipefish with a fluorescent yellow tail and I hope I see it again when I have my 100mm on. Also I saw 3 species of nudis: A green seagodess like yesterdays, a bumpy one Indo type and an stunnig purple aeolid that made me regret not having 2 set ups ready to go on the boat: One for macro and another
The "Mahi"
Hector was trying to take a photo of my reaction after he signaled me If I could hear the whales!
for Wide.
The next day I talked to Sandi one of the local muck diver and she thinks the beautiful purple nudi I saw was a blue dragon. I borrowed some images to show how it looks like so I can find another one and shoot it properly.
Log 511 82ft 45 min 73oF 63cc back pretty dry ank + 10 lbs 3mm+7mm+lavacore 200+ ft viz
I took H3 higway for first time that was a complete adrenaline rush. I don’t think I have ever felt anything like it. Wow.
Here is a guide for Hawaiian seaslugs that is going to come handy. I had no idea there are so many here :
http://seaslugsofhawaii.com/general/combined-family.html#Nudibranchia
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auspicious
Michelle Duer
Whales and Nudis, does it get any better? Congratulations on winning the prize for your "Octo with Eggs" photo in the last blog. ~always enjoying your photos!