The Captain's Corner: Underwater Images and Sea Stories Dive Logs

Captain Steve Hogan is owner of Makena Coast Dive Charters and Sea Eagle Productions and is a professional underwater cinematographer. Most recently his work was featured in the Discovery Channel Special, "Extreme Hawaii." Steve shoots in HD (Hi-defintion), D-3 amd Digital. He has shot for Discovery, Travel Channel, Sanyo, Texas Instruments, Panasonic, EarthTrust, EO Productions, and more... Sea Eagle Productions: (808) 879-8201 Makena Coast Charters boat is also available as a support crew for film shoots on Maui. (800) 833-6483 or (808) 874-1273

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Ambassadors of the Sea, our Telly Award Winning video, features Whales, Turtles, Dolphins and Manta Rays swimming gracefully to the beautiful music of Emmy Award Winning Composer, Paul Gilman. Bring the Beauty of Maui Home with you! You will be awed by these magical relaxing images. The segment on whales will show you from underwater all the behaviors we typically see whales do from above—pec slaps, tail slaps, and spyhopping. We got lucky when this adolescent whale swam up to our dive site at reef's end Molokini! $14.95 + Shipping

Gallery and Sea Stories Click here to send this page to a friend! Where is the best place to dive? I have been diving in many beautiful places thoughout the world so that is a tough question to answer. However, whenever asked where the best diving is, my answer is always, "It depends on what day you're there." Each place in the world has it's good points. However, if you are there in bad weather, anywhere can be a disappointing experience. Some of the best bottom seascape beauty I have ever seen has been off the north side of Papua New Guinea in the Bismarck Sea. There were sea fans that measured 10 ft, or over 3 meters across. The water was filled with numerous species of fish life, like lion fish, bat fish, barracuda, gray sharks; I could go on with this list for pages. Some of the best diving in a single day has been in my home water of Maui County. In a single day, I and my charter team were able to see two humpback whales under water, a manta ray, pacific bottlenose dolphins, green sea turtles, and of course, the wide array of Hawaiian fish life. If you ask any of the the people on the dive trip that day where the best place in the world to dive is, they are going to tell you Maui! On our adventures, we regularly get to swim with enormous Sea Turtles, Dolphins, Whales, Sharks, Manta Rays, Tropical Fish and many other outstanding creatures. Join us on a virtual dive here...then come to Maui for the real thing!

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Hawaiian Monk Seal: This member of the pineped family is the rarest of all seals. Their numbers are only just over 2000. Endogenous only to the Hawaiian Islands the seals range the entire Hawaiian chain, however the largest population is among to atolls north of Kauai. The true seals are especially numerous in the colder waters (above 40 deg. latitude) of both hemispheres, with concentrations in the polar regions, but the monk seals, Monachus, are a tropical group, formerly widespread in the Caribbean and Mediterranean seas and around Hawaii.

Seymour the Monk Seal: Some of the most hilarious diving I've had was the rare opportunity to swim with a Hawaiian Monk Seal at Molokini Crater! The seal was quite playful, however, in its seemingly lonely state, very amorous to say the least. The seal would grab onto people to "hug" them, much the way a house dog "latches onto" a person's leg. It is believed that the male seals are driven out of the larger herds by the older males. We believe this is why we had "Seymour," the monk seal, with us for a while. It is illegal to intentionally harass a Hawaiian Monk Seal, however in this case, he did the "harrassing"! Every time we dived in the area were Seymour lived, we would see him playing with snorkelers and divers. We haven't seen Seymour for a while, but we keep our eye out for him. We'll keep a watch and keep you updated. As you can see: Seymour is not shy!

Humpback Whales Maui is a Whale Sanctuary offering a safe place to the migratory Humpback Whales when they come to Hawaiian Waters to breed and birth. Whale Season is December 15-April 15 and is always a real treat. They always put on a show including Tale Slapping, Pectoral Fin Waving and SpyHopping ( like you see in the picture to the right .) Come experience the magic of the humpback whale!

Looking in the eye of a Humpback Whale. I have been one of the blessed few that has gotten to look into the eye of a whale. There is an ancient wisdom in their eyes that seems to be as old as the earth itself. The massive power of their tails is beyond comprehension. These animals weigh forty tons and are forty feet long. Even with this great mass they can propel them selves or (breach) totally out of the water. Imagine these large brained animals with a massive muscle strength being some of the largest creatures to have ever been on earth. Having been on a couple of research projects filming the whales, I've gotten to where I think they could hear the pounding of my heart.

These gentle giants migrate from the Arctic to the warm waters of Hawaii, starting about December and stay for the winter months until mid April. While they are here, they give birth to their calves, breed, and take what seems to be sort of a warm weather vacation. While in the Arctic they spend most of their time feeding on the rich krill supply in the colder water. It is believed by some that the humpback whales do not feed while in the warm waters, however from my investigation, there have been some sightings by scientists of the whales bubble netting around Molokai. Bubble netting is a way to surround the food source by creating a column of bubbles with the krill or small fish in the middle. Once the column of bubbles is formed whales then come up through the center with their mouths open, scooping up in their baleen all that stays within the mass of bubbles. The whales work together in this cooperative way to feed that is fascinating to watch. Whale watching is a great spectator pastime for Hawaii's visitors during those months. Our video, "Ambassadors of the Sea" has some of the breathtaking footage I shot when an adolescent whale approached us on one of our dives. This unique footage shows a school of fish feeding off the parasites on the whales back, as well as an underwater look at spyhopping (the whale gets completely verticle and sticks its nose out of the water), pectoral fin waving and tail slapping.

Riding a Manta Ray. On Thanksgiving day a few years ago, a group of us were diving off of the back wall of Molokini. The back wall is spectacular in its 400 foot drop and deep blue waters pierced by rays of sunlight. On this particular day, we were impressed with a different sort of ray-the majestic Manta Ray! These graceful creatures are amazing to watch. As I approached the ray, with wide-eyed divers watching on, it allowed me to hang on and go for a ride! Since they are strickly plankton eaters, and no stinger, they are a completely docile creature. Their defense is their amazing speed and agility. Thus when you have the opportunity to "ride" on, you know that it was something the Manta allowed. It was a day to be thankful for indeed! While Manta's are not rare in Hawaii, it is always a special treat when we get to swim with them.

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The Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle has a great success story. When I first began diving on Maui 20 years ago, I never saw turtles on a dive. Now, almost anywhere along Maui's coastline you can swim, snorkel or dive with the turtles. Like the whales, there is something ancient about them; as if they have been alive forever. Green Sea Turtles are protected by the Endangered Species Act, so it is illegal to touch or harass them in any way. You can, however, swim right next to them! Be careful not to block their access to air, as they need to surface regularly. Typically, turtles surface every 20 minutes or so, but they can stay down for hours!

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Dolphins! Bottlenose and Spinners!!!!!!! While siting dolphins is not rare, it is always a real treat! Even better is having the opportunity to swim with these playful and graceful creatures! Hawaiian Spinner dolphins are native to Hawaiian waters and are aptly named for their spinning and jumping antics. The much larger Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin is also a "local" to these waters. The one to the right swam right up to our divers while they were on their safety stop at Reef's End, Molokini!

Sea Stories and Photos by Capt. Steve Hogan © Copyright Experience YOUR OWN SEA STORIES by diving with Makena Coast Charters! Maui, Hawaii (808) 874-1273 or Toll Free 888-833-6483 Or Email

Dive Logs We are seeing so many cool things...we just have to highlight a few of them! Because we dive every day, our logs would be too lengthy if we mentioned all the cool eels, turtles, sharks, mantas and colorful fish, so we'll try to limit our logs to the exceptional and/or rare. Enjoy... and come out diving! Some of our sightings on dives in: July: Mantas at Molokini! June and July: Grey Sharks are at Molokini for the summer birthing season! April: Dolphins! We enjoyed watching the playful antics of a pod of Spinners hanging around the Kihei/Molokini coast! March: Rare Blainsville Whale sighted off Kihei....unfortunately, it beached itself on Kamaole Beach. One of the few times a Blainsville whale has been sighted alive, even if only momentarily. February 17: Dolphins Everywhere! Hundreds of dolphins spanned the shoreline! Our afternoon charter spent 2 extra hours watching this huge pod of spinner dolphins leaping, hopping, spinning and playing! February 20: A whale swam right under the boat as we were drifting on our surface interval January: WHALES! Daily sightings! Babies breaching! Tails Slapping! We've also been seeing small schools of Gray Sharks and Molokini (they are mellow, don't worry! ) Sunday, January 13 and 14: Whales and Bottlenose Dolphins two days in row! What a treat! Tuesday, January 8: SUPER RARE SIGHTING! Today our divers were treated to a giant Leatherback Turtle that swam directly underneath the boat. This is a first for the Makena Coast Crew (with 20 years of diving experience here!). The huge turtle measured approximately 5-6 feet across and was sighted near some flotsam in the channel between Maui and Molokini. December: WHALES! The Humpback Whales have officially returned and have been the highlight of December's dives. They have been spotted in greater and greater numbers with each dive this month! Along with the whales, the tourists have returned to Maui, too! We are quite joyful to be sighting both! November: Tuesday, November 27: First Humpback Whale Sighting for the season! Three Humpback Whales were sighted today from the Makena Kai. There just isn't much that is as awe-inspiring as seeing these huge, beautiful creatures. WELCOME BACK! Saturday, November 10: Our first dive was on the Back Wall of Molokini. As if the majestic wall and streams of light piercing the deep blue of the sea were not enough, a school of 30 juvenile Grey Sharks was patrolling the site. Our divers came home with gleeful reports from having the opportunity to see this amazing site. Friday, November 16: Today, a Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle came right up to the boat while we were moored at the St. Anthony Wreck. She repeatedly came up within a foot of the boat on the starboard side, then went under the boat and came up on the port side. Back and forth she went! I peered over the starboard side, trying to see if the turtle was still there, when a 5 inch jelly fish came swimming by. It was beautifully pulsating in the crystal clear, calm turquoise waters. I called to Captain Steve (I'm his "First Mate" Eve Hogan) to come look, when suddenly the turtle emerged from under the boat and ate the jelly fish, right before our eyes! All this and we hadn't even left the boat!

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Monday, November 19: Wow, what a day! "Seymour" the Hawaiian Monk Seal returned to Molokini Crater today after several years of absence. He acted as if we were his best friends reunited, nuzzling with the snorkelers and divers who were thrilled to not only see him, but be within inches away as he playfully and curiously explored his "dive buddies." Captain Hogan got awesome footage of the seal as he put his nose right up to the lens and smelled the camera to see just what it was. He played with the people for at least 30 minutes before moving on to other business. Seymour usually hangs out for a while when he comes, so we are hopeful for tomorrow!

THEN, while enjoying our second dive location—the St. Anthony wreck—a pod of 15 Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins swam up! Everyone got to experience these beautiful and graceful creatures in the water. Again, quick on the camera, Captain Hogan captured it all on tape! It is hard to describe the absolute awe that one feels when blessed with an opportunity to watch them swim up close and personal.

Put your OWN stories in YOUR dive log! Come diving with Makena Coast Charters— safe, fun and adventurous diving on Maui! Toll Free: 800-833-6483 or Local: (808) 879-8201 Click here to email Makena Coast Dive Charters!

Vitae of Captain Steven Mark Hogan Education * PACIFIC MARITIME ACADEMY Honolulu, Hawaii 1984 * DIVER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Seattle, Washington, 1978 Professional Experience Experience * Professional Digital Cinematographer, Underwater and land * Underwater and land wildlife photographer * Researcher/Videographer, Ocean Mammal Institute * Underwater Camera Operator for Wonders of Hawaii for The Travel Channel * Underwater and Above Camera Operator on Discovery Channel's Extreme Hawaii, . Creator of Segment on diving World War II B-24 Bomber Wreck off the coast of Maui. * Director of Photography on Paul Gilman's underwater focused special., Ocean Odyssey * Executive Producer: Whales, Turtles And Dolphins: Ambassadors Of The Sea, A Musical Underwater Voyage Video. Sea Eagle Productions. 1995. Award in Wildlife category 1996 Telly Awards. * Underwater director, Camera operator and consultant to the program, "And Then there is Hope", Dolphin Assisted Therapy, produced by E O Productions, 1995. * Co-Produced: Whales, Turtles And Dolphins: Ambassadors Of The Sea, the live program, presented at The International Conference Of The Whales, January, 1994 1995 with the Whales Alive Foundation. * Camera operator and contributor to the program, To Touch a Whale to Save a Dolphin, Hosted by Lloyd Bridges, produced by Earth Trust, 1993 ABC. * Produced over 600 marine presentations from Papua New Guinea, Australia, Fiji, and Hawaii in home video sales. * Host of local Maui TV program: Fishing Hawaiian Style 1984-85 * Vice President, Personnel Manager and Owner Makena Coast Charters, Inc., June, 1986 to present * Vice President, Personnel Manager and Owner Maui Diamond Sea Sports, 1988 to 1995 * U.S. Coast Guard Licensed Captain, Since 1983 * Diving Technician * Commercial Diver. SCUBA Diving Instructor * Dive Master  For Reservations call Toll Free: 800-833-6483 • On Maui (808) 874-1273 Click here to email Makena Coast Dive Charters! Click here to send this page to a friend!

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