Octopus Beach and a Shark

We spent a TON of time on many different beaches on Maui and on the Big Island. These shots are from a more remote beach on the west side of the Big Island down a very unmaintained road. (Good thing the car we were driving down that road was a rental!!) I remember this beach as the octopus beach, because we met a local man here who found an octopus just off the shore to take home to his fish tank. He said that he had another octopus at home but it was too big, and whenever it sprayed its ink, the whole tank turned color. The head of the new octopus was about the size of my fist, and then of course had all of its tentacles coming out. Quite the sight to see!! The tidal pools were very active with life here, full of tadpoles, small fish, snails, and some sort of sea creature that we named "sea poop"....yes, that's pretty much what it looked like but it moved on its own.

We camped for 4 nights at Spencer State park right beside the beach. (Not the beach in these pics, but another great one nonetheless). One day the lifeguard at the beach quickly called everyone out of the water, and within seconds, a helicopter was flying overhead. Shark!!!!!! The lifeguard had spotted a shark in the bay and reacted very quickly for the safety of everyone swimming there. I guess there are some reef sharks that hang around there which are pretty safe, but this one wasn't just a friendly reef shark. We weren't in the water at the time, but man, it would have been pretty cool to see the shark......from a safe distance of course!!