Come With Me Under the Sea

A photographic journey into the beautiful underwater world that many incredible animals call home

If you’ve ever snorkeled or dived in the ocean, you know that the undersea world is a beautiful place full of wonderfully diverse animals. If you’re like me, you never tire of exploring it.

However, I also know some people are not able to have the close encounters with marine life that I have had. I’m sharing these photos and descriptions of my most memorable underwater experiences so that you can still admire the undersea world’s beauty and the animals that call it home.

The manta ray pictured in the first photo is one of many incredible creatures I’ve had the joy of encountering while swimming underwater.

I was fortunate enough to live on Maui for 10 years, and regularly saw a fabulous variety of marine life when I snorkeled there, both from the beach and on boat excursions.

I’ve also snorkeled off the coast of Hawaii’s other main islands, as well as places like Grand Cayman, Fiji, and Grand Bahama. Each location has its own uniquely beautiful underwater world, but Maui remains my favorite.

All of the photos in this article were taken in the undersea world that surrounds Maui. They are digital photographs of pictures I took using a disposable underwater film camera, so the quality of the images is not optimal. I hope they still give you a sense of the beauty that exists under the sea.

A rare and magical underwater encounter

I can count on one hand the number of times I encountered a spotted eagle ray while snorkeling. Over the course of 10 years and countless hours spent in the ocean, I think I saw a grand total of three.

On two of those three occasions, the ray swam past me quickly and I only got a brief look at it.

The third was a magical encounter that I will always treasure. A spotted eagle ray swam so close to me I could have reached out and touched it. Then it proceeded to swim in circles around me for a surprisingly long time.

I did not move, other than to turn my body so that I could see it continuously while it circled me. That spotted eagle ray seemed as enchanted by me as I was by it. Time stood still as we watched each other, fascinated, until it finally swam off into the ocean’s depths.

Underwater angels

Unlike the rays, which were a rare and delightful surprise to find while snorkeling, green sea turtles were a common sight. I saw at least one almost every time I swam in the ocean near Maui.

The frequency of my encounters with sea turtles did not make them any less special, though. To me, the turtles were like underwater angels. They were spiritual messengers reminding me to notice and be grateful for the incredible beauty and diversity that exists not only in the ocean but also in all of creation.

The turtles always seemed so calm and serene as they glided past me. Watching them helped me relax and enjoy the experience of being immersed in the undersea world.

Most of them had no fear of humans (except for the rude people who stupidly tried to ride them or didn’t leave enough room for the turtles to surface and breathe).

That lack of fear meant I often had to be the one to back away to prevent an underwater collision!

Other memorable moments with marine animals

When weather conditions prevented me from snorkeling, I often visited the Maui Ocean Center to see marine animals. It is a wonderful aquarium, so close to the ocean that the animals in its exhibits are regularly released and replaced with new ones.

I was able to participate in one of those animal releases. Baby sea horses born at the aquarium were scheduled to be set free, and I got to wade into the ocean carrying a container full of them with a staff member and let them go.

Thanks to my volunteer work with Hawaii Wildlife Fund, I also got to witness a sea turtle crawl ashore, use her flippers to dig a nest, and lay her eggs. Later I was able to help clear a path for the newly emerged hatchlings to crawl to the water’s edge and watch as they made their way into the surf and floated out to sea.

I have many other treasured memories of time spent with marine animals, both in and out of the water. I hope that I will have the opportunity to spend time with them again soon.

If you’d like to see more of my underwater photos and read about some of my other encounters with marine life, including the time I held and fed a stingray, read this story: