REEFS

So the girls and I only started this blog four days ago, and we're excited to see that we've had visitors from all over the world. Welcome everyone! One thing you may not know about us is that between us we speak about 7 languages - some better than others! So feel free to post comments in any language and hopefully it will be one of the languages we know. If not, we'll just pretend we know it, and respond in English with something generic like, "Right on!"

Today's post is all about REEFS and how incredibly magnificent they are. One of the most incredible SCUBA experiences is a wall dive - that's scuba speak for diving along the side of a reef (it looks like a wall) as opposed to descending to the bottom. You'll have to forgive me for posting about Molokini yet again, but I have a lot of pictures from there, and it's a diver's paradise! Molokini is a volcanic crater, and the back wall drops down to depths of 300 feet. It's also home to 250 species of fish, so you're sure to see a lot! Also, it's advanced enough for the most seasoned diver, but it still has plenty of entry-level diver areas for those who are newly certified. This is me diving along the wall (still in my first fins, and still not sure what to do with my arms).

What's incredible about reef diving is how the colors change with the visibility. You may be able to see the reef from a hundred feet away or more, but once you get up close, the colors are astounding. The reef looks great from any distance, but once you're within a few feet, the colors are so vibrant that there's nothing like it on solid ground. If you look at Wikipedia for "reef" - you'll find lots of really big words like "Permian-Triassic." As law students, we're used to big words, but these geologists and oceanographers do not mess around. According to wikipedia, the biggest threats to the coral reefs include overfishing, pollution, and shipping traffic. There are lots of organizations you can get involved with to help protect our reefs and have fun diving while doing it! Check out www.reefcheck.org and www.reef.org for more info.

This last shot is a sunset on the Maui shore near the dive site. The clouds accumulate over the other side of the island (near Ka'anapali and Lahaina).

Hugs and Fishes! Jenny Mo

I break for SHARKS!

Ok - so I know I should be studying - after all, I only have 2 more weeks to go until finals. But if I can't actually be diving, I'll settle for blogging about it.

So - it was my first actual boat dive - Maui, HI in June. I was on the dive boat, and our dive master was explaining the hand signals for the various aquatic life, safety basics - the usual. Anyway, he explains that Molokini is home to different species of sharks and puts his hand sideways against his forehead (dive sign language for shark). He says if he gives us that sign, don't panic. He tells us that divers almost never get bitten because to sharks, we don't look like food with all that gear on. Besides, the reef is teeming with other things that keep sharks quite happily fed. Still, I was concerned. Until that day, my only encounter with sharks had been watching "Jaws."

As soon as I descended, our guide gave us the shark sign - on my FIRST dive! Sure enough, there was a white tip reef shark close enough to touch (it seemed). They are beautiful, magnificent creatures, and I wasn't scared at all - because it was only a baby! I was a little concerned about running into the mother, but no such luck. Suffice to say, seeing a shark on my first ever SCUBA dive and I was....bitten (by the SCUBA bug, not the baby shark).

For those of you out there who have never been on a dive boat, I'm throwing in a picture of what one looks like. I'm told this is a pretty good dive boat, all things considered. I've never been on a live aboard trip, or had the pleasure of being a guest on someone's fabulous yacht, but I had imagined dive boats being more.... luxurious? I imagined there would be somewhere to stretch out in the sun, somewhere to make snacks, relax... no such luck. Most boats are pretty bare bones in my experience. In fact, I've actually been on worse dive boats than this. At least this one had an upper storage! I'm the girl sitting down, listening intently to the dive master. I don't know who the other two people are. It looks like I'm wearing some kind of weird eye gear, but it's the vest in the background. But the thing is, once you're on a dive boat, all you can think about is getting in the water. There's no time for shuffle board on the Lido Deck!

So my first ever boat dive was a complete success. In fact, I was one of the last ones to ascend, and I still had about 500 PSI. Ha! See ya - Jenny Mo