Manini Beach Park... A New Snorkeling Spot!

Auntie makes sure everyone is happy at Manini Park

    On Easter Sunday, I found myself in the check out line at Walmart.  Not exactly the sunrise service at Columbia Presbyterian Church, but what can I say?  Eves dropping on my fellow parishioners, I overheard a discussion about an Easter egg hunt at Manini Park.  Said hunting grounds was described as being at the bottom of Na po po Road.  I give you this pronunciation, as this is what you may well hear as you wander lost in the Honaunau wilderness.  The road and the tiny enclave is actually Napo'opo'o and I firmly believe those glottic stops should not be omitted.
   At any rate, the description of the park was complementary to information I had received from Laura, who answers the phone at fisheries enforcement at Honokohau, where the the big boats bring in the world record marlin.  She and I had a discussion about spear fishing at Kahalu'u Beach park here in Kona.  She pointed out that the only area on the whole island of Hawaii where fishing is illegal is Kealakekua Bay, the south cusp of which is Manini Point. So as I got ready to pay for my candy eggs, I wondered about this park.  Was it a spot where sweetie and I might find fish unfamiliar with the spear, hook and net?  Friendly and plentiful, from the poisonous puffer to the toothsome flounder.

A Fishwatchers glimpse of the Hawaiian Hogfish

    A few days later, after checking things out with Mr. Google, we made our way south to the bottom of Old Napo'opo'o Rd.  Turning left, as if to drive across the desert to City of Refuge, we instead took the first right, onto a one lane road that wound along the shore for 100 yards to the beach park.  How hard was that?
    The park is privately owned by a gentleman who resides in Portland.  There are a few grassy acres and a lava reef through which winds a sand channel two to four yards wide.  An auntie stands guard under a beach umbrella, keeping the keikis in line and dispensing good advice on a variety of topics.  She told us that the tsunami had actually opened the sand channel thus improving Manini Beach Park as a snorkeling site.  Good old Mother Nature.
    That day the surf was moderate and there was a bit of slosh up and down the channel.  The Redoubtable SKG decreed that it was a piece of cake.   We sat on the lava reef to don our fins and let the surge carry us down the sand channel.   I joined Sandra in the deep water where we cleared the gravel from our fins before setting out.  (I am so lucky to have a great snorkeling companion that can take the surgey sand channel without a second thought!) 

Ladyfish  Elops Hawaiiensis Kealakekua Bay April 2012

     The sea was a little cloudy, but the slight decrease in visibility did not prevent us from noting a severe decrease in fish.  A post-swim talk with the auntie revealed the following:  net fishing (the most destructive to fry) is permitted at that park, as is fishing with a hook and line.  Spear fishing is not allowed.  However, if one goes through the gate at the far end of the park, one can enter the water and spear fish legally.  If one is caught fishing in the middle of Kealakekua Bay, they will be cited, but right by Manini park, all fishermen are welcome.  E komo mai.

The Delicious Achilles Tang with the Goldrim Hybrid

    We did see a pretty good variety of fish and the density was not a lot different from City (what some of you guys call Two Step.)  The variety might have been superior to City, but possibly not.  In addition to most of the usual suspects, we saw a Mu and Mr. Scribble.  Best of all, we saw a Black Tail Snapper and a female Hawaiian Hogfish schooling with a half dozen Blue Stripe Snapper!  Those didn't used to be rare fish, but they certainly are now.  The two snapper species are introduced fish, so I don't know if we should feel badly that they are becoming less common.  The Hawaiian Hogfish, on the other hand, is an endemic that is clearly less prevalent than it was a decade ago.  In the preceding five months, we have seen one hogfish and one Blacktail Snapper.  These were the first Bluestripe Snapper for this season!
    As we headed in, we were cut off by a mob of Ladyfish.  There were at least fifteen of these lovely,  large predators in the school and I got my best picture ever of Ladyfish.

Auntie Sandra brings you this vision of childhood bliss.

    Back ashore, we enjoyed our lunch in the tidy park.  There were a number of moms with kids and a couple families that might have been tourists.  The weather was fantastic ... blue sky, 75 degrees with a nice breeze.  And Auntie Sandra got a couple great shots of the keikis at play.
    On our way home, we stopped at the coffee company for some samples,  an avocado to go and a nice chat with the hostess.  Berni was a local gal, very familiar with Manini Park.  She only swims in really sheltered spots, so she hadn't swum there.  We told her that we found the fish there pretty good, but there were a few species missing, notably the Achille's Tang.  To clarify, i drew her a quick picture on the take home menu.  She knew this fish with the bright orange spot in front of the tail and allowed as how she finds it to be particularly buttery and flavorful.  There goes another super Hawaiian endemic!

Jeff
 
     

I Got My Gurnard.

Oriental Flying Gurnard, Dactyloptana orientalis

     As some of you have gathered, I am a reformed birdwatcher.  Most people are unaware that at the rarified heights of birdwatching, the sport is extremely competitive.  Its one of the things that keeps birdwatchers out in the forest in the pouring rain,  craning their necks, seeking that one sighting that will put them one up on their fellow enthusiasts.  I have brought that same spirit to finding fish.  I look often and try to have every species possible on my list.  No one is going to one up me, by God!  But for a long time this season I was down a fish.    
    There is a fellow I know who seems a little goofy.  He's a hau'oli, so lets call him Joe.   Like me, Joe goes snorkeling a lot.  Virtually every time I go to Kahaluu, he is hanging around the tables talking to the nice people who encourage the tourists not to tread on the coral (good luck with that!), the lifeguards, or anyone else who might listen.  I've never run into him in the water.  The density of swimmers at K Bay, as it is called by those who choose to abbreviate the Hawaiian to a single English consonant, is pretty extreme and one literally runs into people more often than not.  Regardless of our lack of actual head to head collisions,  I have no reason to believe that Joe doesn't enter good old K Bay and look for fish on almost a daily basis.

Flying Gurnard, Kailua Pier, March 2012, 12 feet

    About two weeks ago Joe cornered me at the end of a swim.  While I was wringing the water out of my swimming shirt, he produced a book with plasticine pages...the sort that grandparents carry around with fifty pictures of their young darlings, the better to drive you bonkers.  Joe didn't have grandchildren in his book, though.  His book was full of 5 by 7 glossies of the fish he had seen. 
    He had me cornered fair and square and he turned the pages, displaying blurry photos of Threadfins, Lined Butterflies, Palenose Parrotfish, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  Then, all of a sudden, I found myself looking at a pretty nice picture of a Flying Gurnard.  "Son of a bitch." I muttered under my breath.  I had heard of a gurnard at Kahaluu months ago, but it was always a couple lucky tourists.  I had no idea that Joe had seen one, much less lucked out and captured this rather attractive image. 
    "When did you see the gurnard?" I asked, trying not to reveal my envy.  He wove a tale of seeing the fish a week or so before, certain that it had been speared and thrown into the poke pot. 
    Feeling like Saliere the moment he discovered that Mozart was screwing his prize diva, I trudged to the car and drove home.  In such a situation, one can only stay the course, get out in the ocean and remain vigilant.    

The gurnard changed from lighter coloration to darker.

   Over the next week I saw the Bridled and Finescale Triggerfishes, which really made this season's list more complete.  Then finally, on a bumpy, cloudy day at the pier, I got the gurnard!  He was foraging on the sand by the fourth swim buoy in about twelve feet of water.  I'd never seen one that deep before.  I dove the gurnard and got the pictures that you see here.
   The Flying Gurnard  is a member of the family of scorpionfish, which contains a variety of unusual appearing fishes, stonefish, leaf fish, etc.  Unlike other scorpionfish, it does not have poisonous spines.  The elaborate pectoral fins make it appear birdlike as it crawls across the bottom.  The claws on the leading edge of the  "wings" are used to scratch the sand and dislodge small invertebrates that provide the gurnard his daily fare.
    Until recently, the Hawaiian fish was known as the Helmeted Gurnard, in reference to the bony plates of the head.  The chief reason, though, was to differentiate it from the Flying Gurnard of the Caribbean.   It appears that the name has now been changed to Oriental Flying Gurnard, which is obviously more appropriate.
   So when Saint Peter asks me, "Did you get your gurnard?", I can answer, "Damn straight!  And I got him at the pier, where real men watch their fish."
   See you in heaven (which I believe looks a lot like Kailua Bay.)

jeff
    

Two Great Invertebrates at the Kailua Pier

Christmas Tree Hydra, Kailua Pier 2012

     In this blog I'm going to show you two fantastic invertebrates that I have seem recently, one on each side of the Kailua pier.  One a mollusc and the other something quite a bit further down the evolutionary chain.  I'm assuming here that you are not going to vote for Rick Santorum and, therefore, believe that Chas. Darwin got it more or less right.
    About a week ago, swimming right by the pier, I happened upon a colony of hydras. Hydroids belong to the Phlum Cnidaria, along with jellyfish, sea anemones, and corals.  This may make the phylum seem pretty diverse, but virtually all of these animals exist in two phases, the polyp and the medusa.  A jellyfish is a classic medusa phase, a floating umbrella with suspended stinging organs.  Anemones are classic polyps.  Coral are polyps as well, living inside a stony edifice.  All these polypoid cnidarians have a less well recognized medusa phase.

Pennaria disticha    Kailua Kona Pier

   Hydras are also polyps.  I discovered this colony of Christmas Tree Hydra right next to the pier, very near the colony of sponges we reported on recently.
     As you can see from the pictures, they individual stocks are three to eight inches in length,  projecting branches very much like the frond of some ferns, with the branches alternating off the central stock.   The fuzzy collections on the branches make this hydra look a bit like a white flocked Christmas tree.   The colony is growing on top of the coral and beneath a stone overhang.  This species lives in protected tropical bays around the world.  Like many cnidarians, this hydra is perfectly capable of inflicting a powerful sting.    

Triton's Trumpet  Charonia tritonis  Paul Allen's Reef

     Just today I went for a swim on the Paul Allen's Reef side of the pier.  It was Wednesday, so I was by myself.   Sandra doesn't go into Kailua voluntarily on Wednesday, the day the circus comes to town in the form of the cruise ship.   The circus was in full three ring glory.  The pier was swamped with sea going rats and the representatives of local merchants attempting to attract their business.  The bus from Walmart was there (can you imagine spending your day in Kona at the Walmart?)  and the beach in front of the King Kam Hotel was full of paddle boarders, boogie boarders (no, there isn't any surf what so ever on that beach) and a group that was going snorkeling behind a jet powered sled.  I put on my simple fins and mask and headed out.

Let's hope our Triton doesn't end up like this!

    It had rained the last two days and this always makes the inner harbor colder, as the fresh water percolates into the bay.  Once out past the rip rap the water was warmer and clear.  On the way out, it was me, the usual suspects and the Marian...the glass bottom boat had captured a cargo of sea going rats.  Shortly after I made my turn towards home, with the Marian about fifty yards astern, I spotted a very large sea snail in about twelve feet of water.  A shell this size, I estimated between 16 and 18 inches, could only be a Triton's Trumpet.  I have seen several shells of this species about two to three inches in length serving as the home to large hermit crabs.  You may recall the picture of the Blood Crab in a Triton's Trumpet.  Those shells were the babies.  This is only the second large Triton's trumpet that I have seen in thirty years.  The first was about ten years ago at Honokohau in about twentyfive feet of water.  Unlike this guy, that snail was foraging along the bottom far below.  This snail was attempting to hide for the day, having pulled his operculum, that dish-like plate that you see in the snails aperture, tightly shut.   It must be hard for an animal that large to hide.  One hopes, vainly I'm afraid, that he is safe from collectors.  the Triton's Trumpet is the shell Hawaiian's blow to start the luau.  One can only hope that this guy avoids the canned poi circuit and lives long to make lots of baby tritons.

jeff