The bottlenose dolphin is one of the most common of the dolphin species.  They hang out in warm waters and are a very social animal.  The can grow to be anywhere from 6-13 ft. and weigh 330 - 1400lbs.  The distinguishing feature and how the dolphin get’s it’s name, is it’s long snout.  The snout, however, is not actually the animals nose.  Their nose is the blow hole on the top of it’s head!  They use echolocation to hunt for their food.  The clicking sounds they make can determine the location and shape of nearby items.  They also communicate by squeaking and body language.  So next time you see a bottlenose slap it’s tail or jump out of the water you know they are talking to each other!  We saw the ones picutred above just last week on the Maui Magic!

 Sea turtles are graceful saltwater reptiles, well adapted to life in their marine world. With streamlined bodies and flipper-like limbs, they are able to swim long distances in a relatively short time. When they are active, sea turtles must swim to the ocean surface to breathe every few minutes. When they are resting, they can remain underwater for as long as 2 1/2 hours without breathing. Green turtles often rest in caves or under ledges in deep water.  Although sea turtles live most of their lives in the ocean, adult females must return to land in order to lay their eggs. Scientists believe that nesting female turtles return to the same beach on which they were born. Often, sea turtles must travel long distances from their feeding grounds to their nesting beaches. Just how sea turtles find their nesting beaches is unknown.  Hawaii’s green turtles migrate up to 800 miles from their feeding areas near the coast of the main islands to nesting beaches in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The males accompany the females in this migration and mate with them offshore from the nesting beaches. After depositing about 100 eggs, the female covers the nest with sand and returns to the sea, leaving the eggs to incubate during the next two months.  After hatching, the tiny, one-ounce turtles take several days to emerge from their nest. Once out of the nest, the hatchlings race to the water and swim constantly for the next 36 to 48 hours.  While in the open ocean, young green turtles are  carnivorous and feed on invertebrates such as jellyfish.  The life span of sea turtles is unknown. Hawaiian green turtles seem to grow very slowly in the wild and may take 10 to 50 years (average 25 years) to reach sexual maturity.  Male and female green turtles look alike until they are mature. Then, the male develops a long tail extending beyond the hind flippers. A female’s tail extends only a short distance beyond the end of her shell.

In Hawaii, the green turtle is a threatened species. Only 100 to 350 females nest each year, principally at French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  To help restore Hawaii’s sea turtles to their former abundance, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the State of Hawaii’s Department of Land & Natural Resources have formed a Recovery Team. This team will identify research, management, and enforcement needs and will promote conservation through public education programs. All sea turtles in Hawaii are fully protected under state law and under the federal Endangered Species Act. These laws prohibit harassing, harming, killing, or keeping sea turtles in captivity without a permit allowing these activities for research or educational purposes. Divers should be aware that riding turtles is illegal and puts these animals under stress.

We were out cruising down the southern coast on the Maui Magic, just another beautiful day in Maui, and a pod of Spinner Dolphin joined us right in front of Big Beach.  The Spinner is a small dolphin found in off-shore tropical waters around the world. It is famous for its acrobatic displays in which they spin as they leap through the air, hence the name “Spinner”!

The Spinner Dolphin is usually dark gray, with a creamy-white patch on the belly.   Their beaks are distinctively long and thin, with a dark tip and their fins are lengthy for dolphins of this size. Adults vary in length from 51–93 in and weigh from 51–170 lbs.  Females reach maturity at four to seven years and males require seven to ten years.  They are quite social both with each other and the boats.  In fact you can often find them taking a ride on the boats’ bow-waves.

Dolphins echolocate and communicate using click-whistles and pulsed sounds which you can sometimes hear when they are right next to the boat. Echolocation allows the dolphins to track objects in darker water and to see further than their eyes will allow.  Spinners can actually identify themselves with sounds they make by trailing bubbles from their blowholes and sounds called signature whistles.  You will also see Spinner dolphins communicate by slapping the water with various body parts.

On the Maui Magic we see dolphins multiple times a week.  Most times the will be swimming along our bow or doing acrobatics just a few feet away.  It’s quite a treat!

The white tip reef shark is a small shark, usually not exceeding 5.2 ft in length.  This creature is easily recognizable by its slender body and short but broad head, oval eyes with vertical pupils, and white-tipped dorsal and tail fins . One of the most common sharks found on the Hawaiian reefs, the white tip shark can also be found as far west as South Africa and as far east as Central America. It is typically found on or near the bottom in clear water, at depths from 26–130 ft.

During the day, white tip reef sharks spend much of their time resting inside caves. Unlike other sharks that must constantly swim to breathe, this shark can pump water over its gills and lie still on the bottom. At night, white tip reef sharks emerge to hunt bony fish, crustaceans and octopus. Their elongated bodies allow them to force their way into crevices and holes to extract hidden prey. Individual white tip reef sharks may stay within a particular area of the reef for months to years.  White tip reef sharks are rarely aggressive towards humans, though they may investigate swimmers closely.

The lionfish, also known as scorpion fish, dragon fish, and turkey fish is best known for striped body, long pectoral fins, and its striking features.  The lionfish’s native habitat is the rocky crevices and reefs in the Indo-Pacific water.  There are several types of lionfish and although they may be spectacular to look at, they are also lethal. Its fins have spines that are as sharp as needles, which they use to inject a potent venom into their predators. The lionfish is considered as one of the most poisonous fish in the world.  The lionfish uses its venom as a purely defensive mechanism. As far as hunting is concerned, it relies on quick reflexes and camouflage. A lionfish’s sting is very painful to people and can result in breathing difficulties and nausea, although it generally does not cause death in humans.  It’s diet consisits of crabs, shrimp and fish which they typically swallow whole.  The largest species of lionfish gets up to 15 inches, however on an average their length is about 12 inches and can live up to about 15 years.

This beautiful triggerfish is one of the most sociable and peaceful of the clan.  The Pink Tail Triggerfish, obviously named for its “pink tail” averages about 3-4 inches.  The larges specimens can grow up to 15 inches!  The body is so dark it looks black, but in reality it is a very deep forest green color. The dorsal and anal fins have a translucent pinkish-white appearance marked with dark bands at the outside edges, and the pectoral fins have a yellowish color to them.  They are distributed through out the Indo-Pacific and you can find them on just about any of the Hawaii Reefs!

The boxfishes are a squared, bony fish,  closely related to the puffer and filefishes.  You can find boxfishes in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.  They come in a variety of different colors, and are known for the ”honeycomb” patterns in their skin and skeletons. This species remains fairly small reaching an average length of about four to five inches. However, on occasion the male could reach up to about seven to eight inches. Their heavy armoured scales are blamed for their limited to slow movements, but because the scales are so strong, few other fish are able to eat them.  Certain Boxfish secrete poisons from their skin into the surrounding water, further protecting them from predation.

The unicorn fish is in surgeonfin family.   They are named after the spike that protrudes from its forehead; however some species have more of a protrusion rather than an actual spike, and some lack a spike altogether. Unicorn fishes usually have a pair of spines on each side of the tail shaft, which they use as a defense mechanism. They are mainly active in daytime and roam in groups feeding on algae. They  can grow to around 20-24 inches and have a lifespan of around 15 years. The horn-like appendage between their eyes begins growing when a young fish reaches about 5 inches in length, and tends to be a little bigger on males. They are generally not aggressive to each other, but when they do fight they use sharp scalpels by their tails as weapons, not their horns. Their skin is smooth and less susceptible to skin diseases than that of other fish in their family.

You know you’ve spotted this fish by the lengthwise, light blue lines across it’s bright yellow body. This fish can reach an average length of about 12 inches and generally lives in the deeper waters of the reef in large schools.  The Blue-Lined Snapper, also know as Blue-Striped Snapper, orTaape is a Carnivore and will eat crustaceans like crabs and shrimp, along with other smaller marine fishes.  Like most Carnivores, if it is something they can get their mouth around they will try and eat it.

The Blue-Lined Snapper was imported from the Marquesas Islands and released into Hawaiian waters in the 1950’s.  The purpose was to increase available food fish resources in Hawaii. One concern with humans eating this fish is the potential for it to be toxic.  Many countries have warnings about eating Red Snapper in particular, but with this fish being related in the Snapper Fish Family, they can be susceptible to it.  Ciguatera is a toxin that builds up in the systems of some reef, algae eating fishes like Tangs/Surgeons, Groupers and Parrot Fish. Other predatory fishes can accumulate the same toxin by eating these fishes.  It is not toxic to the fish themselves, but if a person consumes fish that have ciguatera poisoning, it can cause illness. The distribution of this species includes Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, the East Indies, and the areas westward to the Red Sea so you are able to see it in many different regions of the world.

Here in Maui we see them daily in Molokini Crater swimming in large groups all around our boats!

The whitemouth moray eel live mostly hidden in the coral, with head sticking out of holes in the reef.  They will get up to 5 ft. and length and you will typically see it opening and closing it’s mouth rhythmically to breath and smell.  The Morays have sometimes been described as vicious or ill-tempered. In fact, morays are not an aggressive animal by nature, they are shy and secretive, and they only attack humans in self defense.   Morays cannot see or hear very well and rely mostly on their acute sense of smell.  Most attacks on humans involve accidental bites when the swimmer initiates contact.  The animals bite is not poisonous, however it will leave a nasty bite due to it’s very sharp teeth.  Whitemouth Morays are among the most commonly seen eels in Hawaii.