The Flying Gurnard Returns to the Pier

She likes the boys in the band, Mr. Scribble is her favorite.

    If you are one of my loyal readers, I'm sure you know that I like snorkeling at the pier.  Even on days when a cruise shipped is disembarking legions of sea going rubber noses, the reef at the pier is relatively free of other swimmers.  Over the last month, I've been heading to Kahaluu a little more often, though, because I just wasn't seeing anything special at the pier.  This week, things finally changed.

Scribbled Filefish, Paul Allen's Reef September 2012

     Two days ago I swam out on Paul Allen's Reef.  The water was clear, but rather bumpy.  Persistence paid off in a close encounter with the Scribbled Filefish.  Do you remember when there was always a half dozen of these curious fish hanging around Kahaluu?  Now every time you see one, its a special event.  The more so because Mr. Scribble is my sweetie's favorite fish. A couple turtles swam by and I got a good look at the Redbar Hawkfish fifteen feet below the lumpy surface.

     But the best was yet to come.  Yesterday I made my way back to the pier.  Although it was Sunday, Kailua was hosting a cruise ship.  the circus had definitely come to town;  lots of people were milling about in their fancy Aloha-wear, buses were headed to the Snorkel Beach and up the hill to Walmart.  (Apparently its cheaper to buy your Hawaiian souvenirs at Walmart, so cruisers take advantage of the free shuttle and spend their day in Kona at Walmart.  Which looks quite a bit like the Walmart back in Anytown, USA.)  And, of course,  the orange and white tenders, loaded to the gunnels with Rubber Noses, were scooting back and forth to the mother ship.

Flying Gurnard, Kailua Pier, Sept 2012  10 ft.

    This day I chose to swim on the Ironman side of the pier, the better to enjoy the boat traffic.   Dodging a few local kids who were flopping in the shallows along with their teenage mothers, I soon found myself pretty much alone out in the bay.  Considering that it was still a little bumpy, the water was quite clear,  Had it not been for the slight tang of diesel exhaust coming down my snorkel, it would have been rather idyllic. 
   
     It was usual suspects on the way out.  On the way in I hugged the swim buoys, just daring those tender jockeys to run me down.  My reward appeared in the sand very near the the third buoy.  An Oriental Flying Gurnard in ten feet of clear water. 

     You may recall that i saw a gurnard last April.  If you didn't read that blog, here's a link:
http://konafishwatching.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-got-my-gurnard.html

Oriental Flying Gurnard 

   This was a much better look.   I dove it several times and here you see the best of my photographic efforts.  Eventually I felt like I had all my angles covered and headed towards the beach.  About a minute later I encountered two young women snorkeling outbound.  I got them to the surface and told them about the gurnard, about twenty yards away.  Off they went.  After a few strokes I decided that the water was warm and I had nothing else to do, so I turned around, overtook them and asked if I could show them the fish.

    Imagine my chagrin when i was unable to find the fish!   Gurnards are sedentary sand shufflers and I could not imagine where the little fellow had gone.   Try as I might, mindful that I was trespassing into the paths of the cruise ship tenders, I could not relocate the gurnard. 

    At the showers I met a man from Azerbaijan, which doesn't happen every day.   He had sailed on the cruise ship all the way from Vancouver.  I didn't ask how he got to Vancouver, or what he thought of the current Diss the Prophet controversy.  I also met a girl from Australia who reported seeing a Manta Ray on the Ironman side two days before.  How lucky is that?  Guess we better keep going to the pier after all. 

jeff

Beach 69, Dude.

Baby Yellow Tang with her fixed Sailfin

     About a year ago, Sandra and I went to Beach 69.  This beach has another name, Waialea Bay.  Few people can remember this Hawaiian name, but virtually everyone on this side of the island is aware of Beach 69, perhaps because of the associated sexual connotation.    Having graduated from high school with the class of 69, I am well versed in the prurient power of this innuendo.  But I digress.

     When Sandra and I snorkeled there a year ago, we saw two outstanding fish, the Yellow Stripe Coris and the Shortnose Wrasse.  This outing occurred just as the blog was getting started and, perhaps, I did not adequately trumpet those sightings.  Two really good fish!
   
    At that time, we were aware that this is one of the few beaches where fishing isn't allowed and attributed our success to the lack of fishing pressure.  Here in Kailua, we live 35 miles south of Beach 69.  Even with the weather underground, it is difficult to know when the  Waika-blowah wind is blowing too hard at that beach (or the nearby Mauna Kea) for good fish watching.  As a result, a year has passed and just this week we had a fair opportunity to test the theory that this might be a superb place to look for rare species of fish on the Kona coast.

Night Sergeant  Abudef sordidus  12/25/2010

    We did not see any extremely rare reef fish this day.  As evidence of the ban on fishing, we saw a great number of Night Sergeants, Abudef sordidus.  Back in the day when my boys were young, we would have an occasional angling expedition and this species, the Night Sergeant, was a common victim.   Its not an especially pretty fish, so the remarkable decrease in its numbers don't twang at the strings of your heart in the same way as the loss of Milletseed Butterfly.  Anyway, there were lots of healthy adult Night Sergeants at Waialea Bay on Friday.

Bonefish courtesy of

    There were a few worthy sightings to come.  We swam in the warm clear water to the north shore of the bay.  A brace of Rainbow runners shot by and then, twenty feet ahead were two Bonefish.  This is a fish i have not previously claimed.  Separating out Bonefish from Mullets requires some experience.  These guys are world famous game fish and, according to our resources, mostly fished out in Hawaii.  A shame, since because of their numerous bones, they are not prized for eating.  The water had become cloudy in the sandy shallows, so I am submitting  a picture courtesy of the Florida fishing guides.  They are a primitive species (note the lack of bony rays in the dorsal fin and the extremely posterior position of the anal fin) and hence appear near the beginning of Randall's guide, which is in correct taxonomic order

Yellow Tang  Zebrasoma  flavescens  mature and immature

    We had one more treat in store.   On our way in, we happened upon several baby Yellow Tangs with dorsal fins fixed in the sailfin position.  I've been mulling this over and i can't come up with a good reason why these immatures are blessed with fixed raised fins.  Darwin teaches us that there must be some advantage, so be it.

    Back on the beach, we joined the maddening throng.  On a day with blue sky and little wind, this beach is perfect.  Sadly, we do not seem to have any pictures to share, but the merits of Beach 69 are dramatic.  The sand is soft, the beach is protected by a reef and there are numerous trees near the water to provide shade.  It is heavenly and accordingly well patronized.  We had a nice stroll in the shallows showered off and headed back to civilization.

     The bottom line to the fish finding aspect, is that we did not see any super rare species and we were darn lucky that day last November.  On the other hand, this may be the most pleasant beach on the Kona side to sit in a beach chair and watch the keikis splas in the shallows.

     And so I leave you with the immortal words of Bill and Ted,  " 69, Dudes."

jeff

Abbott and Costello come to Ho'okena

Marilyn the Mermaid heralded a Bodacious Swim.

    In the process of moving permanently to Hawaii, certain things were written in stone.  One of these stone tablets is about to descend upon our unprotected heads;  our most prized pieces of  furniture and 34 boxes of necessary stuff (or at least it seemed so at the time) are going to be delivered in three days.  Needless to say, the receiving and handling of said stuff is going to put a crimp in our fish watching.   With that in mind. the Redoubtable SKG decreed that we spend today, Sunday, at Ho'okena.  Not only would we get in a superior swim, but we'd meet some new friends at our favorite beach.

     We arrived about 9:30 and enjoyed  a slice of banana bread before heading for the water.  It was a gorgeous day, with a bright blue sky and mild surf.  On our way down the black sand beach we encountered a little girl whose grandmother had fashioned her a mermaid tail from the warm black sand.  Cute as a bug,  she was Marilyn the Mermaid and a harbinger of good things to come.

Immature Kole and Johnson Island Damselfish

      We waded in through the small surf, donned our fins and headed right,  over the inshore coral.  Immediately, we found a new fish.  As you see here, this was a petite fish with a yellow tail, a bright yellow eyebrow and a body with fine purple and gold stripes.  Go Huskies, dude!  When one sees a new fish, the initial inclination is to say, " It s a waif!  New fish for Hawaii. Snorkelkids Rule!"   You can see that it was associating with immature Blue Eye Damsels, so for a brief instant I thought we had a new species from the genus Plectogyphidodon. 

Goldring Surgeon (Kole...Ctenochaetus strigosus) imm.,  Ho'okena, 2012

   Had there not been three of these guys, that is exactly what we would have said.  However, only one waif at a time is permitted.  We spent a few minutes photographing this beauty. Using the hang on to the bottom method taught by the Great Oz (and guaranteed to rip your rotator cuff to painful shreds),  we captured the fine photos you see here.  Eventually Sandra said, "Try not to drown." and we swam away. 

     Fifty yards further out we encountered three little fish as yellow as could be.  Tally ho.  We got a couple nice pictures of the little yellow fish.  There were a couple Yellow Tangs hanging around, but these guys were not the right shape.  Check out any book and see that immature Yellow Tangs have  fixed raised fins, appearing even more sailfin than their parents.   At about the same time we saw two more of the miniature yellow tailed fish.

A Yellow Tang Shepherds Three Yellow Kole immatures

    Later, when we had a chance to study these fish, we would find that immature Kole,  Ctenochaetus strigosus, are common in the summer.  Hoover says they come in two flavors, the little yellow fellows and miniature replicas of adult pattern, of which we saw a few.  Randall says immatures vary from yellow to brown.  A search of Google images, which is a pretty useful tool if you know what you are looking for,  reveals two images similar to our fish...striped brown side and yellow tail.  One is from Reefwatch Hawaii and the other is from the aquarium trade.  Boo!  With all due modesty I must say that our picture is better.

Hawaiian Hogfish imm,  Ho'okena Sept 2012

    But the best was yet to come.  We swam out among  the coral pillars beyond end of the old boat landing.  In a lower coral head south of the pillars, where we  saw the Flame and Potter's Angel a year ago, I spotted a gorgeous fish.  Nosing in and out of the coral, he had a bright yellow dorsum, a solid black side and and a white tail.  This was a handsome little fish about thirty five five feet below us.  So crisp were the colors, that my first inclination  was that this was an angelfish.  However, the nose was a bit long and the longer we watched the more he seemed to have an odd shape.

    I was muttering in my snorkel  about it being an angelfish, so much did I like the distinctive color pattern.  Sandra asked, "Do you think its a hogfish?"  I replied, "It doesn't swim like a hawkfish."  (I had noticed the yellow dorsum similar to the immature Freckle face Hawkfish, Paracirrhites forsteri.  This is such a lovely immature that for our family records we give it a special place, Forster's Hawkfish.  The Dragon and Red Labrid Wrasses get their own places, distinct from the adults, as well.)

   At some point I asked, "You don't think this is a wrasse, do you?"  Such is the high level of ichthyology in our family that Sandra replied, "No.  Do you think its a hogfish?"  ( I guess she doesn't know her wrasse from a cold fish.)  Sadly, I'm sure you know what my response was.  I dove the fish six times for pictures, my twelve foot dives bringing me about twenty feet above our tiny quarry.  If the pictures aren't superb, that's my excuse.  Isn't it amazing that the water was so clear?

Hawaiian Hogfish  Bodianus bilunulatus

    Abbott and Costello made it back to the beach a while later.   We had a delightful meal of tuna salad sandwiches made from tombo barbecued the previous evening.  There were plenty of friendly people and we enjoyed the company at least as much as the tombo.  Soon we were back home.  I still hadn't cottoned to the hogfish part and ended up looking at every angelfish, damselfish, bream and sea bass in the tropical pacific to no avail.  Finally I looked at wrasses and found our fish.  John Hoover has an excellent picture in the Ultimate Guide.  He also notes that the immature is more common in the summer.  Randall only shows the older phase immature, which is intermediate between this guy, with his distinctive black coat, and the female with a pinkish white flank.  No wonder I was having such trouble. 

    Well, thanks for sticking with me on this fish story.  We hope all your fish are friendly and that goes double for your dining companions.

jeff

Black Durgon Color changes at Kahalu'u

   The Black Durgon, Melichthys niger, is now apparently known as the Black Triggerfish.  Is nothing sacred? 
    I have been a fan of the Black Durgon for as long as I have been watching fish in Kona.  Not only does it sport a dramatic color pattern, but around the Kona coast it is plentiful.  Virtually where ever you go you are surrounded by these black beauties with their shiny blue linings.

Black Durgon, Melichthys niger, Blue Stripe Pattern

    Recently, I have seen and photographed two interesting color patterns displayed by Black Durgons.  Although our hero, John Hoover, mentions them in The Ultimate Guide, they are not pictured there.  John Randall, in Shore Fishes of Hawaii, shows a pair with both blue stripes and a bit of orange cheek blush.  At any rate, I thought it would be useful for us to publish them in the blog, making them part of the internet image collection.    
    At the outset, I would like to point out that both of these unusual color patterns were photographed at Kahalu'u.  In my site descriptions, I say some negative things about K Bay.  Here, I would like to say that in the summer when the sea is calm and the current is minimal (and the number of competing snorkelers is relatively low) Kahalu'u is a wonderful place to find something special to capture on your SD card.

Black Durgon, orange cheek pattern

    The first pattern I would like to show you is a black fish in which every alternate scale line has become a luminous royal blue. Randall's picture shows lighter blue lines, so the extent of this color change is obviously variable.   As with the next pattern,  Hoover speculates that the fish may adopt this pattern when agitated.  This individual was not involved in a group activity.  He held this pattern for at least fifteen seconds, but  reverted to plain black when approached for a close up.   To the best of my recollection, this is the only time I have seen this pattern
    I spotted two fish with the second color pattern just yesterday.  Here you see two individuals with luminous orange cheek patches.  This pattern is a bit more common; I'm sure I have seen this before.  However, I've not seen such vivid orange patches.  And I've never been close enough or quick enough to photograph the orange cheeked wonder.

Black Triggerfish, Kahalu'u September 2012

    As you can see, these two durgons are clearly involved in a group activity.  Are they breeding, dining or doing something else less anthropomorphic?  (I personally have trouble ascribing human emotions to fish. Especially when I'm eating grilled ahi.)   The presence of an argus grouper or two suggests that food may be the "agitating" stimulus.  Here is a picture taken just seconds later in which the orange cheek is all but gone.

Mixed Feeding Group, Kahalu'u

    Before leaving the enticing waters of K Bay, I wanted to share one more picture taken just a couple of days ago.  Here you see a variety of fishes in an "agitated" state.  None of them are durgons and no one is sporting an orange cheek.  (But the Orangeband Surgeon is doing his best to emulate the agitated durgons!)  I count eight species here and I assume they are drawn to a source of food. 
   Perhaps you remember times gone by when virtually every day someone would bring a bag of frozen peas, stand in the Kahalu'u shallows and attract a huge number of fish.  Back then there were legions of Milletseed Butterflies, platoons of Scribbled Filefish and swarms of Ring Tailed Surgeons.  It was quite a show.  Of course, I can't say what reduced the numbers of these fish, but my suspicion has always run heavily towards the frozen peas.  It is surely better that we do not feed the fish and find these mixed feeding groups dining upon Mother Nature's bounty.

jeff