Moorish Idols Kissing

Just got back from a spare-of-the-moment trip to Maui. I didn't get too many great photos, but had fun diving. Although a common fish, I find this shot to be pretty cool.

I think it's a pretty good exposure. Getting a good shot of a fish w/ that much black in it isn't easy.

Cheers

James

Hey thanks James. On another note; IMHO the reef on Maui is very ill with the exception of some dedicated marine preserves. It was also disturbing to see a common attitude towards handling and touching marine life. On a night dive at Molakini, a Dive Master proceeded to squish the living hell out of a puffer fish by grinding it's head into the coral with a dive light. This was an "attempt" to trigger the fish's natural defense reflex, but it appeared the fish had been through this many times before as it didn't react at all. Also, very rough octopus handling was the norm. If the Dive Master saw an octopus he would HAVE to go yank it out of it's den and wrestle it for about 5 minutes. On another dive, a Dive Master wrestled an octopus until it was completely exhausted and limp. It then swam to the nearest hole in the reef which happend to be occupied by an eel. The octopus was then eaten by the eel because it had no left energy to fight or flee. Great for the eel, bad for the octopus. Too bad the octopus wasn't Blue Ringed.

I agree with you re: handling marine life. The yahoo DMs I have been with fromMaui Dive Shop do in fact yank every octo out of their hole and "play" with it. (have never seen an Ed Robinson's DM do that, BTW).......

Happens often down in the Sea of Cortez with puffers.

When that happens, I make a deliberate effort to swim away and ignore the DM. Have never said anything, but the incident with the eel *may* have made me object, if not to the DM, then to the shop.

Chris

You should have considered seeing the divemasters defense mechanism as you shoved his head into the eels hole also.

Christ, just looked closer at the pics you attached of the octo harassment. It's not only the DM creating death and destruction

Those guys - in particular the photog - are practically standing straight up, on the coral..... Just like practicing their PADI skills

No buoyancy control whatsoever.

I had similar expereicnes with rude and incompetent photogs last time I was in Maui. its people like this that give photogs a bad nam :angryfire:

Rant over

I completely agree!!! After two disgusting charters with Maui Dive Shop, my buddy and I had the pleasure of diving with B&B Scuba. They were highly recommended by some friends that had just visited Maui. Our Dive Master Greg pointed out a lot of the smaller critters that I would have otherwise missed. Our dives with them were awesome and the level of service was superior. B&B Scuba was less expensive and had less people on their boat. They are also very accomidating for photographers. I'll be going back to Maui in a few weeks with my wife. We will definately be diving with B&B and *NOT* Maui Dive Shop.

BTW, got off topic, but that was a very cool Moorish Idol shot.

My favorite MDS story - headed out on a night dive they "insisted" that I use one of their computers. When I pointed out that I had my own, they said "you still need to use it, in case there's an accident we'll have the profile." "But you'll have the profile from my computer." Duh, they still didn't get it, and put the computer on my spg hose.

Here's the kicker - the computer was still loaded and offgassing from whoever they forced it on in the morning....... When I pointed this out, they said Oh, it'll probably clear by the dive.... it didn't :freak:

I have not used them, but have heard B&B is a good op. Glad to hear more confirmation

Chris

ROFL! Guess what? They did the exact same thing on our night dive! It was pretty wierd. When we asked why the heck they put a computer on my computer they were like, "You should be totaly stoked dude! Its like two for one!" It was also wierd when they put glow-sticks on our tank lights that were already on.