Monday, September 06, 2010

Lobster Season


Hawaiian Spiny Lobster came back into season September 1 so I had lobsters on my mind when Chris, Larry and I went diving today. Because lobsters tend to come out only after dark and because I have never actually seen a spiny lobster, I really didn't expect that Chris and I would get one today. But about an hour into our dive I spotted the bug crawling around on the reef. We had a little tussle and he lost a couple of his legs but I got a good grip on it and swam it over to Chris. Only male lobsters are game so I was hoping Chris could determine gender, and also, I didn't know what to do with it next. It was spiny and his strong tail was fwap, fwap, fwapping, his legs were scrathcing me right through my gloves and I could barely hang on to it. Finally, I caught up to Chris and held the lobster out of the water to get his attention. At that moment, the darn thing slipped out of my hand and swam to the bottom. I was too out of breath to retrieve it, so Chris dove down and saved the day. The lobster turned out to be male, and he turned out to be quite delicious.


Underwater Pictures Return


I've been without an underwater camera for more than a year since my old camera finally went kaput. I really missed it a lot until Chris recently surprised me with an underwater case for our current camera. It's a soft plastic case which is required because our camera is the touch screen Sony that won't work with the traditional hard case underwater housing. The soft case really keeps out the water, but beyond 25 feet in depth the touch screen is not usable because the pressure pushes against the back of the camera. But it's perfect for snorkeling and shallow dives.

Here are some photos from Scuba diving Saturday with the work gang. We decided to stay shallow on our second dive so I brought the camera along. It worked great and we had an amazing day at Keei. The water was unbelievably calm and clear.