okinawa dive center
Dive Shop Bluefield

Hi everyone, it’s Miho

Today was on and off rainy and sunny in Okinawa, you know, typical tropical weather. Very unpredictable.

It was the second day of diving with Kathy and Joe – specialists of coral. We dove Yurigahama, Chishi, and Tamana Farm yesterday in the Kerama Islands, and I took them out to our local spots on Okinawa West Coast today.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Okinawa West Coast

1. Yamada (Onna)
2. Maeda (Onna)
3. Maeda Drop (Onna)

Objective: Boat Dives
Weather: Mild South Wind
Air: 32C (90F)
Water: 29C (85F)
Visibility: 30m + (100ft)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

Our first dive at Yamada was so much fun, and the dives around Maeda, including the one in front of Blue Cave, and a drift – anchor dive from the drop off.

Although they were beginners in SCUBA diving (just got OW certified), they are so knowledgeable about coral and environment, which I learned alot from diving with them. We had different perspective than our normal daily dives – we were always just looking beneath the coral and trying to find something unusual and cool!

We talked and discussed a lot about Okinawa’s current oceanic environment and coral reef conservation issues.

Miho

Hi everyone,

Today, we had very good dives at north dive spots in Kerama Islands.While ‘Maeda Blue Cave’ is getting popular and famous even outside Japan, I like this cave in Chishi – where we can observe many sea creatures.

Above picture is a goby called ‘Blueband Goby’. They are always in a pair, and eat small planktons from sand. They put some sand in their mouth, take what they want from it, and throw out the rest of the sand from their gills. When one of them eating, one of them looks out for danger, and they take turn. It’s so funny to observe them.

Not only just showing sea creatures, diving with Bluefield, we introduce the sea animals’ behavior, characters, and how to observe. This will be done during the dive briefing and in the water, using

Today, we took our new boat, B-FLAP out.
You can see our main cruiser getting to the dive spot – this picture was taken at Zamami Island.
We had guys from Korea, a Japanese family, and a couple from Switzerland.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Kerama Islands

1. Chishi (Zamami Island)
2. Sand Triangle (Gishippu Island)
3. Light House(Zamami Island)

Objective: Boat Dives
Weather: Mild South Wind
Air: 32C (90F)
Water: 29C (85F)
Visibility: 30m + (100ft)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

Hi, we had our favorite dives today around Okinawa West Coast.

***Today’s Okinawa Diving Information**
Okinawa West Coast & Whale Shark Dive

1. Maeda Blue Cave (Onna)
2. Yamada Point (Onna)
3. Whale Shark Dive (Yomitan)

(See the Okinawa West Coast Map)

Objective: Boat Dives
Weather: Mild South Wind
Air: 32C (90F)
Water: 29C (85F)
Visibility: 20m+ (70ft.)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

Here are some good and funny pictures…

This is a one that Akira took – the whale shark came so close to him all of a sudden, he got his fingers accidentally!
The one on the right is  at Yamada. He is my favorite frogfish these days. You can go so close to him, so close that you can even observe his ‘esca (lure)’.

Here is my favorite nudibranch – looking like Pikachu from Pokemon!
This is my son’s favorite too!

You can find 4-5 of them on the net at Yamada Point now. It’s the season!

Dive Shop Bluefield – English Speaking Dive Guides Available!

Today, we had Henry, Kaori, and Steven from Hong Kong diving with us!

***Today’s Okinawa Diving Information**
Kerama Islands

1. Tamana Farm (Gishippu Island)
2. Kamigu (Gishippu Island)
3. Chishi (Zamami Island)

(See the Kerama Island Map)

Saw some green sea turtles during the first dive, as well as a tiny tiny commesal shrimp on a whip coral.
Then, explore the Sand Triangle side of Kamigu.

Our last dive of the day was at Chishi. Enjoyed the cave filled with many many Arrow Cardinals- small baby fish. It’s a symbol of Okinawa’s summer here underwater!

by Miho

Dive Shop Bluefield – English Speaking Dive Guide Available!

Saori got a nice picture of a green sea turtle swimming, in the Kerama Islands.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Kerama Islands

1. Hija Bay (Kuroshima Island)
2. Tamana Farm (Gishippu Island)
3. Light House(Zamami Island)

Objective: Boat Dives
Weather: Mild South Wind
Air: 32C (90F)
Water: 29C (85F)
Visibility: 30m + (100ft)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

Hi there,

We (Akira, Yuto, Saori, and me) had many dive teams on our boat!
Took Swift out to the Kerama Islands as always, and enjoyed 3 dives there.

***Today’s Okinawa Diving Information**
Kerama Islands

1. Sand Triangle (Gishippu Island)
2. Turtle Reef (Gishippu Island)
3. Light House (Zamami Island)

(See the Kerama Island Map)

Objective: Boat Dives
Weather: Strong South Wind
Air: 30C (86F)
Water: 28C (82F)
Visibility: 20m+ (70ft.)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

We visited Turtle Reef today!
Not only enjoying the turtles, we found macro creatures as well.
There are many sea fans and feather star sover there, where  shrimps and pigmy hide themselves.

Interesting stuff we saw:
Pigmy Seahorse
Crinoid Shrimp
Juvenile Red-spotted Parrotfish
Hypselodoris bullocki (Nudibranch)

It was Terry and Erik’s last day of diving in Okinawa.
Very sad to see Uncle Terry leaving Okinawa…..

Thank you very much for showing up your smiley face on weekends – although I was the only one who speaks English (and all the guys here are a bit shy to talk to you in English), everybody loved to have you all the time, Terry!

I will miss you so much – hope to see you in the states or here.
-probably here, then we can go diving again together!

Love,
Miho & Bluefield Staff

Today, we had good dives at Zampa area.

With the strong wind from South, we chose to dive the Zampa area, because it’s all protected from the wind, has a variety of dive site just like Kerama Islands, and have dynamic seascapes.

***Today’s Okinawa Diving Information**
Zampa (Okinawa West Coast)

1. Bolo Point
2. Nagahama
3. Mishiragi

(See the Okinawa Dive Site Map)

Objective: Boat Dives
Weather: Strong South Wind
Air: 30C (86F)
Water: 28C (82F)
Visibility: 20m+ (70ft.)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

Bolo Point is our favorite – we just dove the same dive site last weekend, but depending on where we anchor the boat, this dive spot has totally different view.
Swimthrus, caves, and drop-off.
Lots of colorful fish. Fire dartfish, Octopus….
Saori found a cute Leaf Fish over there as well.

I think these caves are better than Blue Cave at Maeda.
We had very good visibility too.

Nagahama, we found some cool nudibranch, banded coral shrimps, and lots of anemonefish.

For these dives, as both maximum depth and average depth get deeper than other dive sites, it’s nice to dive with Enriched Air (Nitrox).

Hi everyone,

We enjoyed very good diving in the Kerama Islands as always.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Kerama Islands

1. Chishi (Zamami Island)
2. Chishi Pinnacle (Zamami Island)
3. Kamigu (Gishippu Island)

Objective: Boat Dives
Weather: Mild South Wind
Air: 30C (86F)
Water: 28C (82F)
Visibility: 30m + (100ft)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

The visibility was fantastic!
The pinnacle at the corner of Chishi has many many fish, including Yellow-spotted Chromis, Butterfly Fish… and Anthies.

Enjoyed the swimthrus, dynamic landscapes around the pinnacle.

At Kamigu, I took Hiroe and Toshi to take a look at Skelton Shrimps.
They are soooo small, but very fun to watch.

Miho

Today, we had good dives around Onna area.
Enjoyed the Blue Cave, giant frogfish, blueribbon eels, and moved to Yamada.

The Panda Anemonefish was still having eggs over there.

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Okinawa West Coast

1. Maeda Blue Cave
2. Yamada

Objective: Boat Dives
Weather: Mild South Wind
Air: 30C (86F)
Water: 28C (82F)
Visibility: 15m + (50ft)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

Hello there,

We had two divers from Singapore again!
We headed to the Kerama Islands for some good dives – the visibility was awesome today!

***Today’s Okinawa Dive Site Info**
Kerama Islands

1. Kamigu (Gishippu Island)
2. Akaya – Coral Garden (Gishippu Island)
3. Chishi (Zamami Island)

Objective: Boat Dives
Weather: Mild South Wind
Air: 30C (86F)
Water: 28C (82F)
Visibility: 30m + (100ft)
Suits: 3mm / 5mm one piece

There’s one rock which is my favorite in Kamigu.
There were so many Arrow Cardinals hanging around today. It makes us feel ‘Summer in Okinawa’!

Starting from Kamigu to Akaya,to Chishi, we enjoyed a variety of dive sites today. Turtles, many kinds of coral, and lots of fish!

Damien and Fund liked the ‘Blue Cave’ at Chishi.
There weren’t so many people, we enjoyed diving through the sunshine shower from the top of the cravesse.

Here is a good shot of Crown Fish – a daddy taking care of eggs… Just like the movie ‘Finding Nemo’!
It’s usually very hard to take pictures of Anemonefish with eggs, especially when the sea anemone’s hands are long and when there’s some surge in the water.
I think I got lucky with this shot! You can see the eggs below the fish.