Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Snorkeling in Sharks Cove

On Labor Day weekend, I went with a few friends from school to the North Shore for a snorkeling/diving trip. That is, the five who are scuba certified went diving, and the two of us who aren't went snorkeling. I'm really going to get on that dive certification thing, but in the meantime, I'm having a lot of fun snorkeling, and at least I had a snorkel buddy.

Sharks Cove is a very popular snorkeling spot located on the North Shore. It's not as big or as popular as Hanauma Bay, but it may be second in fame on the island. The trouble with Sharks Cove is that during the winter, when the North Shore experiences its world-famous huge waves, the cove is not suitable for snorkeling. But for this Labor Day weekend, at the beginning of September, the wave forecast predicted all glassy water. Of course, being a popular snorkel spot, and it being a holiday weekend, it was a pretty crowded place.



There was a nice variety of fish, though after the Big Island, I have to say I was a little underwhelmed, mainly due to the lack of live coral in Sharks Cove. This is about as much live coral as I saw (at the bottom right--looks kind of alive, right?):


It's really sad that all the coral near the shore of highly populated Oahu has died off, and you have to go into deeper water to see what live coral is left (or so I hear). Still, while Sharks Cove may have provided a relatively drab backdrop, it did have plenty of beautiful, cute, colorful, and interesting fish. Sadly, no sharks.





The schools of needlefish were pretty cool.


Cornetfish, another long and skinny fish.


A very colorful fish with an interesting pattern


This one was such a cutey--very small, maybe three inches or so.


My favorite: the spotted boxfish. The bright blue sides mark it as a male. It was so cute; I stalked it for a while.


View from the parking lot near Sharks Cove




Check back on Thursday when I'll post the video from the trip--you can see more of the cute blue boxfish (I mentioned I stalked it), plus catch a glimpse of an OCTOPUS!

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