Featured
Fish
Longnose Hawkfish: (Oxycirrhites typus) This little fish
has an elongated body which is compressed and which leads to a slender, pointed
head and snout. 
Color: White or whitish and overlaid with a network of maroon bars of which four are longitudinal and are vertical. The Longnose Hawkfish in Hawaii seem to be much more brilliant in color than any other place in the world where I have been diving.
Size: Three to four inches in length.
Habitat: Found in black coral areas between 50 to 300 feet in depth.
Distribution: Western Mexico, tropical Pacific, Indian Ocean to the coast of Africa
The Longnose Hawkfish is a prized find in Hawaii in the early days of scuba, but since a lot of the black coral has been removed from of the recreational diving depths, they are getting harder to find in the Hawaiian waters.
Photograph: The Longnose Hawkfish is nestled in a black coral tree (antipathes dichotoma). In life, black coral appears as a delicate, multi-branched, rusty-oral or white bushy colony.
(Shot taken by Jim Robinson with a Nikon F4 with a 105 mm macro in Anthis Nexus housing using Fuji 100 Provia film and Nikon SB104 strobe. Camera setting: F8 at 125/TTL, at a depth of 130 feet)
Lone Tree Arch: (North of Honokohau Harbor at 1.7 miles, 8 min.)
The mooring buoy is lined up at a single dead tree on the shoreline in 33 feet of water. The top of the buoy is just 8 feet below the surface. The shoreline runs from east to west and is made up of pahoehoe (smooth, unbroken type of lava) The flow came from Hualalai volcano located just northeast of this dive site. The last eruption was in 1801 and entered the sea just north of this dive site (where our new Kona Airport is located).
Upon arriving at the Kona Airport the sight is breathtaking to see this mass of aa and pahoehoe lava; it would be like landing on Moon or Mars, that's the feeling I get every time I leave and return home.
Just above the lava shoreline, there is a stretch of sand beach with a low line trees. To get to this area by land, you will need a 4 wheel drive vehicle. The pahoehoe quickly drops off from the shore, offering beautiful cathedral caves; one cave leading into another cave with sunlight streaming down from openings in the "ceilings" some of the smaller caves offer refuge to myriad fish.
The underneath overhangs and on the ceilings of the caves are covered with Orange Cup Coral (tubastraea coccinea). Each individual polyp sits in its own separate cup. If you are lucky enough, you might find a Leviathan cowry (Cypraea leviathan) with their mantles extended and wander about the cup coral, grazing on algae or sponges. (See photo)
The area has a large archway and a few lava tubes. Just out away from the underwater shoreline wall, the area flatting out to coral of all variety ( finger coral, lobe coral, cauliflower or rose coral and a few antler coral) with a few sandy patches, a few boulders and rubble from the pounding of the waves for eons. About 30 yards out, it begins to slop off to around 130 plus feet.
On this dive you are most likely to encounter, schools of white-spotted surgeonfish, pennant butterfly and sergeant majors dancing rhythmically in the surge. Many specimens of the colorful reef fish dart here and there, as well as eels of all sizes. As you reach the drop off slope, keep your eye open and looking into the great blue; you may be lucky and see a large pelagic swimming by.