Johnston Atoll

Hi all,

Just got back from my trip to Johnston Atoll and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It was a lot of work and there was not much time left for photography, but I did manage to take my camera in a few dives. Here are some that I like:

Tagging sharks:

And a few fish ID shots:

Chaetodon tinkeri

Carangoides orthogrammus

Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos

The rare (and super expensive in the aquarium trade) Centropyge nahacki.

I will post more later...

Luiz

Beautiful shots Luiz. Were the shark tagging ones done with a magic filter? They have that intense blue feel to them.

Thanks for the comments... the over/under was done with the 10.5 and no magic filter, but strobes on the bottom; the water was really blue. I don't know if the magic would behave very well in an over/under, I think the topside would be oversaturated.

Luiz

Great shots, Luiz. Especially, C. Nahacki - which atoll did you spot this at? Johnston? Did you see more than one? Very nice.

Much Aloha

Bryce

Nicely done Luiz. Love the background on that Jack.

Thanks Luiz, I've always wanted to dive Johnston & area, I love the unusual Hawaiian fishes reported there. Is it as pristine and as many sharks as we have heard????

I love the over/unders of the shark tagging, what nice blue water as noted above!!!! I've only seen Dr Gruber from Miami tag lemons in rather "non-blue" water off Jupiter, FL. And needless to say no one got in to do the beautiful over/unders you captured cause there were too many bulls in the area.....

Nahacky's angelfish, for the rare one, right (sorry I still think in common names a lot...)???? Lucky you to get to see it! Please post more when you can, I love to see "Johnston only", or "Johnston mostly" fish species. Well done for getting to partake in such a great adventure!

Best, C

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Herb: I really like that background too, this is one of my favourite photos of the trip.

Bryce: C. nahacki was at Johnston, and as far as we know it only occurs there, that's why it is so expensive. We saw many of them below 100ft and part of our mission was to collected 5 alive to bring back to the Waikiki Aquarium. They are there now but I don't know when they will go into the public exhibit, maybe in a few months.

Carol: Yes, there are tons of sharks there! The only "Johnston only" is Nahacky's angel... What is very interesting about Johnston is that it also has many components of the Hawaiian fauna. Many of the Hawaiian endemics are there, and some people say that Johnston is a gateway between the Pacific and Hawaii, but I think that it is simply an outpost of the Hawaiian fauna.

Here are some more shots:

And an abstract macro of an Acropora coral:

Luiz,

Great stuff! Did you do any of the fish collection? Now that Bruce has left the aquarium, who is in charge? Did Charles get promoted? If so, he deserves it.

In that last shot, is that an Acropora sp? I didn't know they had any in Hawaii. If so, that is super-cool. I also like the Ulua and Tony Nahaki's angelfish. Right on! If they're as hard to shoot as the potters, then that was a hard shot to get.

Cheers

James