All of these photos are from this morning's snorkel at one of my favorite spots on the island of Maui. This is where I come to swim with sea turtles. We call them 'Honu', here in Hawaiian, and they can be bigger than you. They are graceful underwater, and being reptiles, they will come up to the surface to breath.
The name of this spot is Mala Pier. It is just north the popular town of Lahaina, on the west side of the island. The best part is you don't even need to charter a boat to get here. You can wade in off the beach and swim right out in very calm water.
Snorkelers enjoying a wonderful sea turtle experience in Maui
The interesting history of this site is that it wasn't even a snorkel area 30 years ago. In 1992 a huge hurricane, called Hurricane Iniki, sent massive waves towards Maui, toppling the old concrete Mala Pier into the water. Since then, coral has attached and grown on the submerged wreckage, creating a haven for fish. And for some reason, sea turtles have also started to call this area home. There is even a sea turtle cleaning station, where little fish will swim up and clean algae off the sea turtles.
This morning we saw about a dozen different turtles. All of my guests on the expedition cruise were very excited to finally swim with such a majestic creature. I was very happy for such calm, clear water, but I was most excited to find my favorite fish, camouflaging in with the coral. A couple of Commerson's Frogfish were hiding among the coral, perfectly blending in. It is only because I have a very trained eye that I could find them and show them to the guests.
Can you find the frogfish?
The snorkel got even better when one of the guests said, 'is that a shark?" And sure enough, it was a white tip reef shark cruising on the bottom. They are pretty harmless, and I had already told the guests all about them. So everyone enjoyed the rare experience to swim with a shark. I do love Hawaii.
I dove down and followed this white tip reef shark for as long as I could!
Here on the island of Maui, locals will tell you "Maui no ka oi!"...which means 'Maui is the best!'. I tend to agree.
Check it out on pinmapple for the exact location.
[//]:# (!pinmapple 20.88535 lat -156.68752 long Turtle Snorkel d3scr)
-Dai Mar
