Scuba Diving - Maeda Point and Onna

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Scuba Diving - Maeda Point and Onna

Today was the 4th of July but instead of doing the traditional BBQ at the pool, I went out scuba diving. My first dive was at Onna Point. We literally had to drive off-road to get to this dive spot. We were all glad that our cars didn't get stuck! It was really nice outside but extremely hot. Once my wet suit was on it seemed like it took me forever to get to the water. Unfortunately, we didn't see a ton of fish. The water was really clear though. The dive lasted about 40 minutes and then we decided to try Maeda Point.

Maeda Point was awesome! If you come to Okinawa, go diving here. I saw a TON of different types of fish. It was great! Even though there were a bunch of people here, we never really bumped into anyone. Some of the fish I saw included clownfish swimming in anemone, puffer fish, needlefish, trumpet fish, tiger fish, sea cucumber, blue damsels (very tiny), an octopus, stripped butterfly fish, and a ton of other which I don't know the name of. I think I'll buy one of the dive cards that has pictures of fish along with their names so I can identify them when I go out. Unfortunately, I didn't have an underwater camera with me, but I was able to find some pictures online that are good examples of what I saw.

The coolest thing I saw at Maeda Point was the octopus. It came out from a hiding spot in the coral reef and kind of walked along the top of the coral with its tenticals. At this point is was a dark red color. It wasn't blended into it's surroundings at all and it must have felt relatively safe even though we were hovering around and watching it. All of a sudden something creaped it out and it swam away to a coral reef overhang where it spread out it's body, completely changed color, and blended into the coral. If I had been just swimming along, I would have never noticed it. Another interesting thing the octopus did with its body besides changing color, was that it made itself look all jagged like the coral too. It was really awesome. I wish I had been able to take a video. If you go watch this video, you'll see the octopuses ability to blend into it's surroundings and camouflage itself really well:

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Another fun part to Maeda Point is a cave that you cave five into. There is a cove in the side of the coral reef and you scuba dive or snorkel into it. I have included a photo I found online that someone else took while they were there. Inside the cove, we had to turn on our flashlights because it was so dark. There were tons of fish swimming around near the edges of the walls but I wasn't able to make out what type they were.

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