Because of her many years of experience
diving at Molokini Crater, Pauline Fiene has discovered that
the Cauliflower Coral spawn at a semi predictable times in April and
May. 
She has
found the 2-3 days following the full moon during the early morning
hours is when the spawning occurs. The exact time varies from year to
year. We were thrilled to be invited by Pauline to witness the
spawning with her and her crew on the Mike Severns Diving boat Pilikai.
It was a fantastic day of diving. We did see several colonies spawn as you can see from the photos below. Not all colonies spawned that day so we did not see the entire reef turn milky white as Pauline has seen in the past. Perhaps it happened the next day. Or we might get to see it happen in May. The photos show the coral releasing their eggs and sperm into the water column giving the water a smokey/particulate appearance.
We also had lots of time to tour around Reef's End and photograph the
unique and curious creatures.
Pauline points out the circle of baby Garden Eels in the middle of the adults.
Two Gold Lace Nudibranchs were a treat to see.
A Gloomy Nudibranch (all my photos of this were a little blurry, sorry, but a rare find.)
A female Blacktail Wrasse, also known as an Old Woman Wrasse.
I had never before seen a yellow Blue Goatfish! Later, a Shortbodied Blenny peeks out from the coral.
A Whitemouth Morey Eel surveys the reef.
Can you see the Devil Scorpionfish?
