Crabs and Mangoes Don't Mix

Where are we going?  And why am I in this Hand Basket?

Bad  Mango !

   Although I promised the Great Oz , aka John Hoover,  upon whose web site this blog is carried,  that I would restrict my remarks to things marine biological in nature, sometimes shit happens  (if I may quote that greatest of Americans, Forrest Gump) that require reporting.    In this instance, I have a pressing need to convey my experience with mango allergy.
   Mango trees and their incredibly delicious fruit are known to have the same allergen, urushiol, as poison oak, ivy and sumac.  Additionally, the shell of the cashew and a variety of other obscure tropical plants harbor urushiol.   I knew all this, and I am extremely sensitive to poison oak, the national flower of Salem, Oregon where I previously  attempted to farm viniferous grape and Christmas trees amidst thriving stands of  Toxicodendron diversilobum. 

Reef Lizardfish imm.  Kahaluu  August 2012

   Sadly,  I am incredibly fond of the mango fruit that grows almost wild here on the Big Island.  Also, it would seem that I am both impulsive and a slow learner.
    And so,  last Wednesday, having nothing better to do on a cloudy afternoon, I took a walk up the hill to the  vacant lot where grow a variety of fruit trees planted by a previous home owner.  The house is gone, but a tasty variety of fruit trees remain.  This day there were no papayas, but I harvested three lovely lemons.  As I was leaving I noticed a mango in the early stages of ripening hanging about seven feet in the air.  In reaching up to grab the mango, some of the  sap got on my hands and a bit splashed on my face.  Despite washing, I ended up with a painful rash covering most of my face.  By the second morning my eyes were almost swollen shut. 

Calcinus elegans the Hidden Hermit Crab  August 2012

    Suffice it to say, vis a vis snorkeling, I was hors de combat.   A combination of antihistamines and steroid creams rendered me sufficiently recovered that I was able to resume my duties as your correspondent of the deep at Kahaluu yesterday.   The sky was a perfect blue, the water warm and fairly clear.  And it was a very high tide, making entry a breeze and enabling me to swim over all the coral.  If you’ve been to K Bay you know that a great deal of the remaining coral rises almost to the surface on most days.  
   Shortly after entry, I had the opportunity to photograph a small Reef Lizardfish.  This babe held still while I stuck the Canon D10 in his face to capture the accompanying image. 

The Mikado Advancing!

   Further out, Surfer’s Rock was completely submerged.  From a cavity in the coral  I retrieved  a large, well worn drupe encrusted with coraline algae.  Gotta be a hermit.  And, indeed, it was a medium sized Elegant Hermit Crab.  Shy at first, he eventually climbed out, righted himself and posed for a few snap shots.  Good crab. 

Flowery Flounder at rest on the dark sand.

    About five years ago I kept a similar Ca. elegans as a pet in the aquarium.  He lived with us for at least three months and it was a bitter sweet day when we returned him to the fish pond in front of Kona Makai.  That good friend was named The Mikado  He was a delightful pet and served that season as the mascot for the Quetzales,  my long suffering fantasy baseball team.  I’m afraid the baseball  team  was fairly mediocre, but they had an excellent mascot.   Those were the days before we had a good underwater camera;  the only pictures of the Mikado were taken in the aquarium.  So these pictures are in your honor, old chum.  This fine fellow was returned immediately to his depression in the coral.
   On the way in, I spotted a Flowery Flounder, in the salt and pepper shallows near the entrance.  He was cryptically colored.  In the process of getting photographed, he got spooked and we followed him around a short circuit, watching him change color instantly depending on the hue of the bottom beneath him.  A veritable magic carpet ride as he fluttered over the light algae cover of the pahoehoe.

Still life with Lilikoi, lemon and cherry tomatoes. 

To celebrate our bumper crop of passion fruit which grows like a weed here in the heights above Kailua, I leave you with this bit of verse:

It was an itsy bitsy, teeney weeney yellow lilikoi martini, that she sipped for the first time that day.

Jeff

The flounder becomes instantly lighter as he swims over the algae covered rocks.

PS.  My brother wanted me to send him a photo of my inflamed visage, which I had no great urge to memorialize.  When I appraised James of this request, he said, “You know if you did that, Chuck would make you a birthday card featuring that picture.”   And he was right.  One can only imagine the accompanying greeting.  Happy Birthday, Mangoface! ?