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Molokini Crater is one of the few places where you can actually dive inside a volcanic cone offering some of the best walls Hawaii has to offer.

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Inserted/Added by:	lars, © Author: Lars Hemel
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The small moon-shaped Molokini crater is only a fifteen minute boat ride away from Maui's shores. The volcano sits at three hundred feet deep and offers steep walls all around its throat. Its southern side rises to within 160 feet above the surface and is Hawaii's prime sea bird population sanctuary. Hawaiian legend tells us that Molokini used to be a beautiful woman who was transformed into stone when she and Pele, the goddess of fire, fought over the same man. Puu Olai, the green scoria cone or cinder cone at Makena Beach, is said to be her head.

The Molokini crater is one of the few places in Hawaii where you can scuba dive several steep walls together with pelagic, manta rays and even whale sharks. There are many snorkeling tours and dive tours starting at touristic places such as Ma'alaea Harbor and the Kihei Boat Ramp. It is a place with some of the best and healthiest hard coral formation in Maui, Hawaii. There is excellent shallow scuba diving inside the crater's basin up to the very deep diving at the outer Back Wall. Usage of mooring buoys instead of anchors and Molokini's declaration as a protected Marine Reserve in 1977, have reduced the decline of this heavily dived destination. Nowadays there are over 250 species of fish documented, rewarding this place with the colors and diversity it deserves.