To dive deeper than I ever expected to see the ship Carthaginian II, I went with Lahaina Divers. I never expected to book this dive, but while on the island, it suddenly became a new dive to attempt. I don’t have a certificate for wreck diving, but no worries on this one!

As we prepared for this dive, we were informed that we were going to jump into the water, and head straight down following the rope. The water was not as clear as the other dives around the island, and they were not kidding; this dive was deep!! For a first time diver, heading to 97 feet below the waves was new. Finally, after a couple of minutes with our hand over hand motion to help us sink, the ship began to appear out of the murky depth. It was really amazing to see a silhouette appear and then become clearer into a ship.

Not only was this ship sunk to create an artificial reef, but it has been hollowed out so that it is safe to enter for everyone, and amazing critters can be found hiding inside.  Around the ship we saw several schools of fish, a shark swimming away in the distance, and lone fish in search of food. Soon, it was time to begin heading up. We were told to keep a look out because the submarine will come by during dives. So, as we began heading up, the Atlantis Submarine came by, and we could hear it bing..bing…bing until it was once more out of sight.

For the second dive, we were off to the Shark Pit. Whalers would clean their catch in this bay area, and because there was a large amount of easy food, it attracted many sharks; thus the name. This dive is more shallow with clearer visibility.

Here we came across many other fish, purple sea stars that were marching across the sand, sea urchins, and turtles. However, one of the coolest finds during this dive, was the chance of coming across an endangered Hawaiian monk seal. We caught this one off guard, and woke him from his nap. During January, it’s also their mating season so the males can become more aggressive than normal. But, we kept our distance, observed, and he barked at us. After a moment, he swam off, and it was time to begin our trip back to the boat.

To learn more about Lahaina Divers, click HERE.