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Holy Cow!!!! Cathy came up from one of today's dives very excited....

We had a group on board today of mixed snorkelers and divers and hit a couple of spots where we can do both. When Cathy came up she was thrilled to see a fish she hadn't seen ever before in the time she's worked the dive boats in Kona (since '76, 32 years and seeing something new is still a thrill). Before she climbed back on board she asked if I happened to have my camera on board and if she could borrow it to take some photos.... yup. While she was down one of the snorkelers said they'd seen it under the boat and thought it was pretty cool, but didn't know it was anything out of the ordinary...

Well here it is.... After looking it up in Hoover, it turns out this is a rarely seen color morph of the Spotted Puffer (Arothron meleagris). Man, I hope it's still around when I'm back in the water in a week or two. Photo by Cathy.


Posted by Steve at 5:53 PM Labels: diving, Hawaii, Kona, puffers, scuba 
Love the puffers! What a pretty color, I've never seen one like that. The regular ones always make me laugh, they remind me of cows---slow moving (usually) and they like to come alongside and "eyeball" you with their big eyes. So curious and yet not intimidating, one of my favorite fish.
 
They are definitely a neat fish. Thanks for the comment.
 
WOW! I can't believe that yellow puffer! Great photos, too. What dive site did you see it at???
 

Sorry I won't say where that fish is. It's at a site that's dove enough several operators have seen it. ... we're a little tight-lipped publicly about locations of very unusual stuff as even though it's unlikely a collector is reading, you hate the information to get to the wrong person (a good example was several years ago when lionfish arch, which had multiple lionfish for years, just became an arch in basically one day).
 
Wow... I totally understand. Thanks for the reply! I really enjoy your blog.
 daniel said...

thats a nice shot
