The Amazing Adventures of Saltwater Taffy and Paniolo Pete continue.   From the depths of Kailua-Kona and the hills of Hualalai, Saltwater Taffy and Paniolo Pete explore Hawaii above and below! 

Today Taffy ventured into the deep waters off of Kaiwi Point and then explored the underwater lava tubes in a place called Suck-em-up.  Aptly named, Suck-em-up has a way of depositing a diver right onto the surface if she is not paying close enough attention.   One minute she can be looking at the big sharks in the mouth of the lava tube and the next caught in a up draft of water headed straight up and out one of the skylights to the surface.  I hate it when that happens.  Luckily today, we managed to keep it on the bottom and enjoyed our sharks from the bottom where we belonged.  Along with 2 sharks, we saw a leaf scorpion fish, a huge zebra eel, a beautiful and shy dragon eel and one of the cutest little frog fish ever!  Back on the boat, Paniolo Pete had had a close encounter with a Monk seal!  I can't believe Taffy and her divers missed it!  But, Frank (I mean Paniolo Pete) has pictures to prove it!  See attached!  A quick e-mail to the folks at NOAA tells us that this seal is a 3 year old male born on the Big Island.   What a great week it has been.