Hawaii Trip - Ocean Life

We saw various ocean wildlife during our visit to the Big Island. We first did a dolphin snorkel cruise with the Sunlight on Water tour company. The boat took us out to an area South of Kona where bottlenose dolphins were freely swimming. The boat stopped multiple times along the dolphins' path and then everyone would get into water to watch them swim in front and underneath us. It was exciting but Lily and Vivian didn't like snorkeling in the open water. Jamie and Rachel got to see more of the dolphins from the water, but the younger girls were excited enough to see them swim close by the boat.

The next day just Rachel and I went again with Sunlight on Water for a night snorkel cruise with manta rays. During this unique experience we hung from a raft which projected light down into the water. The light attracted the rays' food source which in turn attracted the rays. Around 20 to 30 rays swam underneath us with some close enough to touch. They were huge at around 8 to 12 feet wide and were very graceful swimming by, often doing inverted loops to feed.

The day after the manta rays the family went to the Ocean Rider seahorse farm. The farm breeds seahorses for aquariums with a goal to prevent people from taking them from the ocean. We took a tour of the farm which started with seeing baby seahorses in their breeding tanks and ended with a opportunity to have a seahorse cling to your finger. This was definitely more Lily's style of experiencing ocean life.

We also got to see some sea turtles from the beaches. Rachel and I saw one in the water while snorkeling the not so amazing Samuel M. Spencer Beach. We all got a better view of turtles on Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. Here a couple were resting on the sand just off the shore.