Puako

They say you could dive at Puako every day for the rest of your life and still not see it all, and I believe 'em! This incredible reef with canyons and caves has a depth varying between 20 - 90 feet and extends about 150 feet from shore then drops off into the abyss. We scoped out an easy entry spot over the rocky shoreline (accessed by telephone pole #115 off Puako Beach Rd. for future reference) which was also cluttered with turtles.

female bird wrasse

Cauliflower and lobe coral dominate creating a high-rise city for schools of black and yellow tangs, masked raccoon and threadfin butterfly fishes, lau wiliwili nukunuku oi oi (rare long nose butterfly fish found only on Kona Coast), blue-green pointy nosed male bird wrasses always speeding by, tiny fluorescent rainbow cleaner wrasses, pinktail and lei triggerfishes (cousins of humuhumu nukunuku apua'a), orange-eyed goldring surgeonfishes, enormous shy peacock groupers and graceful sailfin tangs, razor sharp looking orange-spined tang, bloated striped-belly puffers and miniature Hawaiian whitespotted tobies, creamsicle colored arc-eye hawkfishes and freckle-faced blackside hawkfish perched on the coral cliffs.

yellow tang

Liane has a knack for spotting eels and was lucky enough to see one swimming freely across the bottom. I did get to see a different eel, a large whitemouth moray opening and closing its jaws.

We swam to the edge of the reef, to the deep blue abyss, which is pretty freaky. There's something about being surrounded by lots of deep water far from shore that makes you look around to see if there are any sharks. eek. But we went out there because we could HEAR whales singing. I'm serious. There was a low groaning moan interspersed with a higher pitched voice. Wow. This area is now in my top 3 snorkel spots. The other two are Honaunau (City of Refuge) on Big Island, and Honolua Bay on Maui.