A day of free diving in around the thermal exhaust vents at Electric Beach, Oahu. Fish and turtles love to congregate in the warm water pumping from the pipes. Strong swimmers can free dive into the exhaust stream and rocket hundreds of feet out to sea. Weeeeeeee!

Eons ago during the last Ice Age, an ancient waterfall cut a massive gorge through the very foundations of the island of Roatan. Millennia later, the ten-storey canyon at Spooky Channel rests just under the ocean surface, inviting Advanced Open Water Divers to shine their torches into this monolithic marvel.

You begin the dive in murky green shallows of the Sandy Bay lagoon. The eerie visibility for which this site earns its “spooky” status will gradually engulf you as you follow the rocky bottom deeper into the grotto. You’ll feel almost overwhelmed as the channel walls slowly rise and close in from both sides. At 12m/40ft, you’ll plunge through a large dark hole leading straight down.*

The sun is quickly reduced to a few cascading godrays as the channel ceiling closes together stories above. At the surface, a tiny crack in the reef crest balloons outward to form the main chamber, a 29m/95ft deep cathedral of green sea stars, scurrying lobsters, and grotesque rock formations. While this part of the channel is not terribly dense with fish life, sliver-shaped schools of houndfish— smaller relatives of the barrucuda— often congregate in the shadows.

As you drift out of the cathedral towards the mouth of the channel, the visibility quickly clears to the Roatan’s typical pristine conditions. Parrotfish, groupers, and angelfish pluck algae from the rubble. During the summer months the algae growth in this section thrives on the warmer stagnant water trapped in the channel, transforming the floor into a verdant carpet.

After about 20 minutes, you will reach the mouth of the channel. Most divers pass through the large vertical mouth and onto the coral reef. If you feel confident in small spaces, you can find a smaller swimthru to the right to dramatically exits through tiny blue hole onto the wall. Watch your buoyancy when exiting the channel: the wall at Spooky Channel is deep— over 60m/200ft.

The coral reef wall is populated by large schools of bright blue creole wrasse and very large yellowfin groupers. The groupers have are particularly well-adjusted to diver presence, swimming within a few feet of the group. If you are carrying a spear, you can expect to have several of these fish as hunting partners, eagerly awaiting your next lionfish slay.

Alternatively, you can finish the dive with a series of swimthrus near the back of the channel. About halfway back in the channel on the right, you will find a pair of columns at 14m/50ft. Follow the vertical slope up to 10m/30ft to find a series of easy swimthrus, the last of which shoots you out under the mooring line at a perfect safety stop depth of 5m/15ft.

Aquatic Life: black groupers, yellowfin groupers, barracudas, lobsters, king crabs, houndfish, oceanic triggerfish, various sea stars, toadfish

Don’t Miss… looking under the rocks for a toadfish. Though you will probably spend much of your dive swimming on your back and staring up at the channel, it pays to look down for these odd-shaped and very vocal bottom-dwellers.

It’s time to break out your underwater cameras: the Roatan Marine Park is holding its Third Annual Marine Photography Contest!

Winning images will be printed in the 2011 Roatan Marine Park Calendar in order to showcase the natural beauty of Roatan’s coral reefs and highlight threats to their future survival.

Entries accepted for six categories:

• macro
• reef inhabitants
• black and white
• divers
• reefs at risk
• invertebrates

Deadline for submission:
31 July 2010

Details:

• All images must be from Roatan
• Images should be in .jpg format. Please include your full name, entry category, where image was taken, and a title
• Photos may be under or above water, but must maintain a marine context
• 1st and 2nd place in each category will be featured in the calendar with small images for runners-up
• Submission of images constitutes your permission for the Roatan Marine Park (RMP) to use these images free of charge for the 2011 RMP Calendar and other RMP publications. All images will be credited to their owners when used.

For more details of the competition, visit www.roatanmarinepark.com.

Email images to: info@roatanmarinepark.net

Lia and I go back a few years when I was a scuba diving instructor at Coconut Tree Divers on the island of Roatan, Honduras. When I first met her, she was helping film the hilariously disastrous Roatan Movie— the making which was infinitely funnier than the final result. We later collaborated on photo shoots for a few web projects around the island.

Lia probably holds the world record for most time spent inside a homemade submarine (not including Karl Stanley and Barry, of course). For theses images, she was crouched for hours in a tiny spherical dome. She had to keep her lens close to the mere five inches of convex glass separating her thousands of pounds of crushing pressure— but not too close or the cold condensation dripping from the ceiling would fry her camera. She had to wait— and wait— and wait until the right deep sea creature swam by, then try to snap off quality shots with both the submarine and the creature in motion. The results are nothing short of incredible.

Lia has since explored the seas and land of Asia and the South Pacific. She is currently in Australia.

Air: 200bar – 120 bar
Mix: EANx36
Tank: 80cu
Weight: 8lbs

Visibility: 40ft/12m
Water: 73F/23C
Exposure: rash guard, 5mm full wet suit (busted zipper), 3mm shorty, 3mm skull cap

Comments:

Autumn had just arrived in Oahu after a long series of flights from Haiti. I had been roped into working the morning charter. Nothing like a 5am start time to say “aloha!”

Conditions were choppy as a fierce tradewinde pressed down on Koko Marina. The air was Hawaiian cold (65F/18C) and the water wasn’t much warmer (73F/23C). We dropped anchor and explored the crater rims of Hawaii Loa. There was a nice diversity of schooling fish above the small coral heads, but, aside from a few small eels, there weren’t any stand-out creatures. Visibility was down and the surge was quite noticeable in the shallows.

Dive No.: 2000
Dive Site: Turtles, Oahu, Hawaii
Max Depth: 40ft/12m
Total Time: 42 mins

Air: 200bar – 120 bar
Mix: EANx36
Tank: 80cu
Weight: 8lbs

Visibility: 80ft/24m
Water: 73F/23C
Exposure: rash guard, 5mm full wet suit (busted zipper), 3mm shorty, 3mm skull cap

Comments:

2000 dives. That’s a lot.

I thanked the dive group for joining me on this milestone dive. I was particularly glad that Autumn was enduring the cold whipping wind and coming along. The longer we lingered on the surface, the stronger the wind gusts blew. It was a bit of a fight to get down the mooring line.

The bottom was stirred up by a thermocline of 70F/21C water, reducing the sandy sections to near silt-out. Above the reef, however, the visibility extended a good 60ft/18m. Cornetfish whipped vertically above the thermocline, using the angle of the early morning sunlight to hunt for prey blinded by the turbidity. A few small moray eels slithered between coral heads. A lonely porcupinefish fluttered against the current.

One of the most infuriating moments of being a Divemaster is when you spot sometime truly unique and tiny but cannot manage to show it to the group. In this case, it was a bright yellow juvenile longlure frogfish. About the size of a marble, I spotted this bizarre creature hopping along the rocky bottom. Unfortunately, the surge took the frogfish away before I could share it with anyone.

Air: 200bar – 130 bar
Mix: EANx36
Tank: 80cu
Weight: 8lbs

Visibility: 80ft/24m
Water: 73F/23C
Exposure: rash guard, 5mm full wet suit (busted zipper), 3mm shorty, 3mm skull cap

Comments:

Took a group of college-aged girls out on a turtle-finding expedition around Koko Craters in celebration of one girl’s 21st birthday. The turtles didn’t disappoint, as over half a dozen of the beautiful Hawaiian reptiles glided past us towards the wrasse cleaning stations. Several other turtles were sighted snuggled under the crater rim.

Dive No.: 1997
Dive Site: Koko Craters, Oahu, Hawaii
Max Depth: 35ft/11m
Total Time: 43 mins

Air: 200bar – 120 bar
Mix: EANx36
Tank: 80cu
Weight: 8lbs

Visibility: 80ft/24m
Water: 73F/23C
Exposure: rash guard, 5mm full wet suit (busted zipper), 3mm shorty, 3mm skull cap

Comments:

They loved the turtles so much that we decided to do a second drop on Koko Craters, this time heading for the far crater. Once again, the turtles hung out with us in the gentle current. We also spotted an orange frogfish and a few small eels in the crevices.

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Dive No.: 1996
Dive Site: China Walls, Oahu, Hawaii
Max Depth: 51ft/15m
Total Time: 45 mins

Air: 200bar – 130 bar
Mix: EANx36
Tank: 80cu
Weight: 8lbs

Visibility: 130ft/40m
Water: 75F/24C
Exposure: rash guard, 5mm full wet suit (busted zipper), 3mm shorty, 3mm skull cap

Comments:

Easily one of the top ten diving experiences in my life—and I have nearly 2000 dives!

The gentle current from the previous dive had picked up quite a bit. As descended down the gradual slope of the urchin-covered volcanic stone wall, it was evident that we were in for one heck of a ride.

A trio of chill turtles was the first to greet us. They hung with the group for a while, cruising with us as we flew past giant boulders covered in coral splotches, each serving as micro-ecosystems for a host of small fish. The cautious eyes of moray eels and an octopus peered out from between the boulders. Odd-shaped variation of sea urchins lined to stone bottom, interrupted briefly by colorful undulation of divided flatworms. A bulbous frogfish the size of a grapefruit sat carefully concealed between the clumps of coral.

As we continued along the wave-beaten east Oahu walls, the turtles continued to dive bomb the group. I counted eight of everyone’s favorite reptile. Hawaii’s myriad endemic fish were abundant and active. Floating in the steady current, it was like watching a slideshow of “Best of Oahu.”

There are those rare times in a diver’s life when you encounter something so fantastic for the first time that you know—instantly!—that you will never, ever forget that moment. I have been working on an article for my blog called “The Top 10 Of My 2000” in which I describe the ten most mind-blowing moments of my scuba diving career: diving a World War II submarine; doing a no-lights, no-moon night dive; a deep encounter with a hammerhead shark; seeing my first manta ray; finding megalodon shark fossils in low-viz; surviving the most insane drift dive of my life; exploring a sunken oil rig; being stuck inside a wreck with a sand tiger shark; and The Moment when I fell in love with diving.

Well, the next moment on this dive officially made the list.

As we begin heading towards blue water for the safety stop and boat pick-up, I noticed part of the group intensely huddled around a shallow overhang. As I swam towards my divers, they suddenly scurried away. A strange shape slinked out from beneath the ledge, smoothly swimming with slow strokes of its flippers. It was unmistakable what I was seeing: the six-foot silhouette of a Hawaiian monk seal.

I gave out a huge shout in my regulator. I couldn’t believe my luck. An extremely endangered species, there are estimated to be only 150 Hawaiian monk seals left in the Hawaiian islands—and one of them was swimming with me!

The shouts of excitement were the first thing I heard when the group broke the surface. What an amazing dive!!

Dive No.: 1995
Dive Site: Sea Cave, Oahu, Hawaii
Max Depth: 74ft/22m
Total Time: 38 mins

Air: 200bar – 120 bar
Mix: EANx32
Tank: 80cu
Weight: 8lbs

Visibility: 100ft/30m
Water: 75F/234
Exposure: rash guard, 5mm full wet suit (busted zipper), 3mm shorty, 3mm skull cap

Comments:

Great group of divers: all advanced, independent, and totally stoked for a great dive. Good thing Roger and I delivered!

The sea cave is an impressive sight both above and below the waters. Plunging into the crystal-clear waters, we swam under the arch leading into the cave at 50ft/15m. Schools of yellow tangs swarmed the entrance. A lone turtle, startled by our presence, calmly left her hiding spot inside the cave.

The back of the cave opened into a turbulent washbowl at the surface. Hovering beneath the furious waves, we watched our bubbles spin in violent vortices in the chaos above. After briefly observing the fury at a safe distance, we exited the cave and difted down the wall.

An octopus slithered under a recess, pulsating signals of agitation through the chromatophores in its skin. As we turned to head back towards the boat, a solitary eagle ray glided past the group, barely flexing its blue-and-white spotted wings in the gentle current. As we drifted back, we spotted few more large morays poking out from the crevices.

We hung on the safety stop serenaded by the songs of humpback whales. Just before breaking the surface, another lone turtle—perhaps the same one from the start of the dive—circled our group en route to a breath on the surface.

Dive No.: 1993
Dive Site: Hawaii Loa, Oahu, Hawaii
Max Depth: 40ft/12m
Total Time: 26 mins

Air: 200bar – 140 bar
Mix: EANx36
Tank: 80cu
Weight: 8lbs

Visibility: 80ft/24m
Water: 75F/24C
Exposure: Rash Guard, 5mm full wet suit, 3mm skull cap

Comments:

Flatworms everywhere! In my brief time swimming the perimeter of the crater at Hawaii Loa, I spotted half a dozen beautifully colored divided flatworms. Fish life, particularly schools sergeant majors, was noticeably abundant. Several spotted eels poked their heads out from from the coral mounds surrounding the site. Unfortunately, my Open Water students were a bit too nervous to stretch out the dive, so I had to leave this flatworm-infested site prematurely.

Dive No.: 1994
Dive Site: Koko Craters, Oahu, Hawaii
Max Depth: 40ft/12m
Total Time: 41 mins

Air: 200bar – 110 bar
Mix: EANx36
Tank: 80cu
Weight: 8lbs

Visibility: 130ft/40m
Water: 75F/24C
Exposure: Rash Guard, 5mm full wet suit, 3mm skull cap

Comments:

A return to this classic Open Water training site brought everyone’s favorite crowd-pleaser: two super chill turtles cruising in the gentle current. We also found a cleverly-hidden bright yellow frogfish, a well-disguised plumed scorpionfish, two free-swimming eels, and a clumsy porcupinefish.