Random Pics From Trip

What a great experience, learned a lot and saw a lot of cool stuff.

Job DONE!

 

 

Yesterday AM we packed up all 4 of the octos at the Waikiki Aquarium and brought them to the United Airlines cargo to ship them on their way to Cali.  They were flown into SFO and got into the city pretty late, around midnight.  Waiting to get word on the health of the animals was incredibly nerve wracking but well worth the wait.  We were all out when we got the news that ALL 4 octos made it safe and sound!!  I couldn't believe it.  4/4 is unreal when it comes to octopus, or any ceph shipping in general. 

 

This morning one of the guys I work with drove up to Steinhart in San Fran to pick up our two animals and brought them back to Monterey.  I'm happy to tell you that both of our octos are in holding and doing well so far! 

 

With our #1 priority checked off the list we slept in for a bit but then went on another dive in the afternoon.  Waikiki Aquarium is looking for another octopus and we want to help them find one if possible.  Our dive today was a drift dive with a ripping current.  We did find one day octo hiding in a very small hole but it ended up being much bigger than we thought so we released it.  The aquarium is looking for something a bit smaller so we caught it and released it.

 

Tomorrow morning will be our last dive, most likely back at Halona Blowhole and hopefully we'll catch one for them.  If not we might be able to snorkel as well.  And then I fly back very late Monday!

A Little Pizza Home

Get it..."Piz-za home...Piece of Home?!"  OMG I kill myself :)  Tonight for dinner we went for pizza.  When we pulled into the parking lot and this is what I saw:

 

So naturally I needed a picture with the sign myself:

 

And of all the completely random yet phenomenal décor inside:



October 27, 2004: A (Boston) Day That Will Live in Infamy



Such a great memory!



JESUS!


Oh yeah, the pizza was really good too.

Goodnight :)

#4 in the BAG!

Today was a snorkel day because we were working with one of the Waikiki aquarists who grew up on this island and knows his way around.  The dive site was set back behind some very nice houses and was extremely shallow.  With 5 of us the chances of finding one were pretty good.  We weren't even in the water 20 minutes and Norton had found one :) We were all pretty stoked about it but went on the dive for another hour and could not find another.  Even though we had hit our quota we wanted to find one for Waikiki

But the rest of the dive was a bust so we called it a morning and brought our last animal back to the aquarium.  We dropped off the octo and then went for some lunch before snorkel #2.  We moved up about a mile or so north of where we were in the AM and decided on a spot filled with relief.  The dive was finally called after an hour or so of no luck but it was still an enjoyable experience.

With all 4 of our animals caught now we are set to ship out in the AM.  We are going to get them on a 1:50 flight out of Honolulu United Cargo and into SFO by tomorrow night.  We are packing up around 9:30AM and crossing our fingers they make it.  We are shipping tomorrow because if they don't make it we'll still have time to catch a couple more and send them on their way.

Wish the animals luck that they get to Cali with no problems!

Hawaii Day 3

Halona Blowhole Dive Site

Aloha! Yesterday we finally got some diving in at a place called the Halona Blowhole and it was unreal!  It's a bit of a climb to get down to the beach so by the time we got down I was sweating bullets and ready to get in the water.  A giant stride off the side wall and off we went. 

We swam out a ways before dropping down but then as we settled out on the bottom we went through very quick check-out skills; mask removal, reg retrieval, and shared air.  With the skills part out of the way we started out on our hunt.  This was an absolutely remarkable spot and the fish and inverts we saw totally blew away what we had seen the day before.  I saw every tropical fish I could think of plus a white tip reef shark and some harlequin shrimp! 

About three quarters into our hour long dive one of the other guys spotted an octo!  I had no idea where the animal was and even when he started trying to get it out of its hiding spot I still couldn't see it.  But he was able to get it out and we got it into a bag quickly.  This was octo #2!!! We were on a roll at this point.

Since we were almost done with the dive anyways we just headed back in to shore.  Once out of the water and out of our gear we started heading back to Waikiki Aquarium.  We dropped off animal #2 and then went right back to the same spot for dive two of the day.

We got back in the water a couple hours after we ended our first dive and the dive site was exactly the same except once in the water we went a different direction.  There were only three of us on this dive as our fourth was having some leg cramping issues and had to sit this one out.  We got in the water and dove down a little further out than the previous dive and started heading up and around the wall on the right.  Again, we saw some incredible fishes and inverts, even a sea turtle and were again lucky enough to spot an octopus!!! Animal #3 put up a serious fight from the get-go.  Even before the poking started to get it out it started inking.  We had one mesh bag set up to try and catch it as we tickled it out from the other side.  Unfortunately there was so much ink that we initially could not see it at all.  It worked its way out from underneath the corals and even under out catch bag.  I saw it as it was underneath the yellow mesh and grabbed it with my hand.  It of course put up a great fight as I wrestled with it to get it inside the bag.  We carried it in the larger yellow bag down to the bottom where we carefully transferred it to a smaller bag and even into a container.

With plenty of time left on our dive we decided to go swim around for a bit and continue the hunt.  We crawled through some tight spaces and ended up 50' down next to a huge ledge and a huge school of fish.  We unfortunately did not see any more octos but the dive itself was incredible and this day was amazing!  We got the animal safely back to the truck and to the aquarium for octo #3!

Day 2: Update

After our visit to the Waikiki Aquarium we came back to the hotel and got our gear to head out snorkeling.  Our first spot was at a pier on the south-east side of the island, Makai Pier.  We snorkeled around for at least an hour.  This was my first time in tropical Pacific waters and it was pretty awesome!  I didn't even wear a wetsuit :) And even though I was still freezing by the end it was worth it to say I didn't have to wear a 9/8 wetsuit.  We saw all sorts of fish out there, the fish I see in Splash Zone but had never seen in the wild:

• Moorish Idols
• Moray eels
• Yellow tangs
• Convict tangs
• Picasso triggers
• Hawaiian Dacyllus
• Several spp of butterflies, wrasses
• Trumpetfish
• Goatfish
• Spiny lobster
• Urchins
• HUGE sea cucumbers
• Many more that I'm not familiar with

As you may notice there are no cephalopods listed here.  We didn't find any octos even though we probably swam over 100 of them in the incredible corals below us, we just couldn't find them.  So we decided to move on.

We drove northeast to Kaneohe Bay's Chinaman's Hat to see if the conditions were a bit better. The previous spot was a bit cloudy, maybe 15-20ft visibility, but not outwards, downwards. When we pulled up to this spot we immediately noticed the milky coloration of the water and had to make the decision to move on.  We went just a few miles north and found a spot at Swanzy Beach Park to jump in.

After about 20-25 minutes, as my snorkel buddy and I were swimming parallel to the beach searching through large porites coral heads, I saw a large sea turtle swim off in the distance.  As I was turning to let my buddy know about the turtle I heard the other dive team yelling our way to come over.  They had found an octo!  We cruised on over to find this day octopus hunkered down in a very small hole in the rockwork below us.  The hole was maybe 6" wide and 3" open at 6-8' deep; so it wasn't going to be easy.  Oh and the current was rippin'!

Our tools included mesh bags for collection, a dive knife, a very long "tickle stick/spear" and muscle.  The first move was to try and break away so of the rockwork to have a better shot at extracting it from its current house.  This entire process would have been 1000x easier had we been on SCUBA but after a while snorkeling became quite exhausting.  We were able to work away some of the rocks, started trying to "tickle" them out with the gigantic metal spear...ok we were using the blunt end but it's WAY more dramatic the other way.

After 10 minutes we had a mesh bag stuffed in the hole, were using the knife as our new tickler, and were all exhausted.  But we kept going.  We were giving the octo a good 30 seconds or so of rest to see if it would start to come out.  Every now and then we'd swim down and reach our hand in to see if it'd start to grab on.  At one point it grabbed my hand and started pulling!!! 15 minutes had gone by and we were on the verge of having to call it.  At that time, with all 3 of us watching from the surface it started to crawl out.  I immediately dove down as fast as I could and grabbed onto it before it could bolt.  It latched on to my arm/hand and then started inking like crazy!  All I could see was black ink and a very pissed off, red/brown octopus.  I fought to keep it in my hands, catching it mid-water as it tried to swim off, and eventually was able to get it into our small mesh bag.  We did it.  We found an octopus on our first dive day and now all we had to do was bring it back to the Waikiki Aquarium.

90 minutes later the octopus got put into the holding tank, healthy, probably not happy but alive and well.  There was a TON of traffic and we were on the opposite side of the island so it took way longer than expected.  But we have one on board and we are all stoked about it.  The animal is maybe a pound or so which is perfect for transport and exhibit.  Tomorrow we are going to take a stab at diving and with any luck we'll find octo #2!

Wish us luck :)

Chinaman's Hat

Swanzy Beach Park

Dive #1!

Hawaii Day 2

Arrived in Honolulu yesterday.  We are out here in search of the elusive day octopus, Octopus cyanea. After we arrived we just got settled in, got some food and called it a day.

Today we woke up to 30mph winds and white caps so unfortunately diving is out.  We went to the Waikiki aquarium to tour and grab some gear.  And it looks like we are going to attempt to snorkel in some shallows and hopefully get some dives in tomorrow.

For the Win.

The New England Patriots just won their 4th Superbowl and I've gotta say this was the best victory yet.  The first one was also incredible, because honestly we never should have been there and in the wake of 9/11 it was fitting for our team to pull off the upset.  But this was a victory against the defending champs who easily have one of the best defenses in the history of the NFL.  A Seattle team that talks a LOT but usually backs it up. 

But then you see Richard Sherman gloating on the sidelines after Revis gets blocked by the ref and gives up a TD.  And you don't feel bad that the birds were only one yard from victory.  You don't feel bad that Pete Carroll made the worst play call in superbowl history.  And you definitely don't feel bad after the classless Seahawks, clearly beyond frustration start a fight,  an all out brawl in the end zone. 

People are gonna say the Patriots did not win but the Seahawks lost it.  But the Patriots had to fight back from a 10 pt deficit, took the lead and Brady put it in the hands of the D.  And on the one yard line a no-name kid made the play of his life.  And now Malcolm Butler is a household name in New England. 

And after an encroachment penalty got Brady out of the endzone all it took was one kneel down to solidify his legacy as the greatest QB in the history of the NFL.  And guess what? He's not going away any time soon.  4 time Superbowl champion, 3 time Superbowl MVP, leading all passing stats in the playoffs...no contest.

We are living through history and it has been surreal to watch.  And to think we were only one miraculous catch and one unfortunate drop away from having won 6 championships...is remarkable. 

Life is good...and now I'm on my way to Hawaii.