Early morning snorkel next door at Kahalu'u Bay

Decided to take advantage of the fact that we were staying right next door to one of the most well-populated (both with fish and people) snorkel destinations, Kahalu'u Bay. Unfortunately, the plethora of people thrashing around there tends to disturb the water, which ruins the visibility for viewing and photos. Dying to beat the crowd and see what the bay would be like in a more quiet, natural state, LocalTourist got up early, and headed into the water. Here is a rare photo of the place sans snorkelers.



Even though I was heading into the water at 7:25 (am!), two others beat me to it.




Lucky enough to see a Christmas Wrasse. These guys go by pretty fast, but I finally caught one with the camera.




Close-up on the beautiful pattern and colors.



A pair of Sailfin Tang Surgeonfish.



Here he comes! The infamous stripebelly pufferfish!




And there he goes. Here at Kahalu'u, some of the fish are fed by the snorkelers. Not something I agree with, but the norm here. These guys are so used to it, they come looking for it. They are goofy, but they grow on you.




This one scared the daylights out of me. I was focusing the camera on another fish, when this guy appeared RIGHT at the side of my left cheek. What no food for me?



Male trunkfish, beautifully blue on the lower half, unlike the more muted brown of the female.




Yellowstripe goatfish.






What type of fish is this? Bright yellow tail, bright blue dots, and green stripes flaring out from the eyes, it is very dramatic.





This has to be the most interestingly colored fish. A yellowtail wrasse.





A couple of colorful tails.







Another of the many variations of Butterflyfish. This one is a Saddleback Butterfly, one of the least commonly seen in my experience. Very intricate designs on this one, especially the wavy blue horizontal lines on the lower part of the fish. (Again, click on photo for a better look.)




School of fish just passin' through. Have not been able to put an exact name to this group, but believe it is in the Surgeonfish group.




This coral was the prettiest lavender color. My reef identification book has much less extensive information on coral than on fish, but I think this is a type of Cauliflower Coral. In general, the fish are much more colorful here than the coral, but this was an exception.
Check out finnage on this fish, a Moorish Idol.

Two Moorish Idols, very exotic looking, but surprisingly common.
Here are a couple of Fourspot Butterfly fish. By my count there are two white spots on this fish. Just one of the many undersea mysteries.





Heading toward the beach, a small younger green sea turtle turtle swims by me out to deeper water.





The larger mother turtle grazing on the algae on the bottom of the bay. This was about 5 feet from where many of the snorkelers enter the water from the beach. There is a very large group of these turtles that live here in Kahalu'u Bay, and seem not to mind the many snorkelers that swim there every day. Maybe because it is against the law to harass or touch them. They seem to understand that.





Coming up for a breather in between underwater bites.