Dolphin Disaster and Some Great Sightings at Ho'okena

      Early in the week we set aside Thursday for a trip to the beach.    When the day dawned cloudy with a

Spinner Dolphins, Ho'okena, March 2013

 prediction of more rain,  we changed our plans based on the inclement forecast.  By 9 AM, though, it was sunny with fleecy white clouds, so we loaded up the Honda and headed for Ho'okena.

    Arriving at the park, the first thing we noticed was that no one but ourselves had bought into the rainy weather prediction; the parking lot was full to the brim!  After parking on the north side of the small kiosk, we spotted dolphins swimming in the bay.

     Wiki wiki we got into our suits and swam out to the dolphins.  On the way we saw many Gilded Triggerfish  (Rare everywhere else, but a regular here at

Spinner dolphin with Full Thickness Skin Lesion

Ho'okena) and a school of a dozen Rainbow Runners.  The dolphins were a bit coy at first, seeming to surface just out of good photographic range.  We got many good looks and eventually several individuals surfaced just a few feet away.   Swimming with wild dolphins is a special experience.

     On this day, though, the delight was tempered; a few of the dolphins bore frightful full thickness skin lesions through which you cloud see the underlying muscle.  Several others had what looked like early lesions.  Suffice it to say, this made me very sad.  More on this later.

    While we watched, a couple of the spinners leap clear of the water.  Under water I was able to capture one of the spinners carrying a leaf on his pectoral

Spinner Dolphin Engaging in the Leaf Game

fin.   The leaf game is classic spinner play.  A dolphin bearing the leaf lets it go and a trailing dolphin picks it out of the water on his pectoral fin or tail.  Members of the pod were sick, but the group is still engaging in play.

     Eventually it was time to leave the dolphins.  As Sandra and I swam north over the sand, we spotted a sparse colony of Conger Eels.  It has been so long since I have seen Conger Eels in Hawaii, that I do not clearly remember the experience...at least fifteen years.  Conger eels live in the sand, their bodies waving gently in the water like blades of asparagus.  Hence, they are also known as Garden Eels.

    There was a couple swimming near us and I told them about the Conger Eels.  I said, its at least thirty feet deep here, so its too deep to dive down to them.  The man of the couple promptly free dove the thirty feet to the bottom to look at the congers.  I guess it was too deep for me to dive.  Ah, well.

Hawaiian Flagtails at Ho'okena

    Pushing on, we swam over the deeper coral.  turning in at the old landing, we saw some very blue Keel Tailed Needlefish.  Remember the very blue halfbeaks?  Is there something in the luscious water of Ho'okena that turns these fish so blue?  We were getting cold and talking about heading for the barn when I spotted an aggregation of active fish up against the reef by the old landing.  Swimming up to the surging reef, I was treated to a large school of Hawaiian Flagtails.  These silvery fish have a distinctive body shape.  the immatures are common in our tide pools and I have seen a school of immatures in the shallows.  But I had never seen a school of mature Flagtails.  It was quite a treat.  As I watched, the entire school swam up and on top of the shallow reef.

      We were both getting cold, so it was definitely time to make the long swim back to the south end of the

Potter's Angelfish imm hides in the Coral

beach.  When we were almost back, I suddenly spotted a small orange fish in five feet of water.  It was an immature Potter's Angelfish.  This little guy was gorgeous.  He was predominantly orange, unlike the adult who has a predominatly dark blue flank and an orange rimmed face.  I tried numerous times to get a picture of this tiny angel, but each time I dove he took cover in the coral.  I finally had to settle for a picture of him hiding in the coral.

     Immature angelfish are fairly uncommon.  Even in Mexico, the Carribean and the south Pacific.  (If you think about it, Angelfish at snorkeling depth are less common in Hawaii than anywhere else.)   This little guy provided a superb end to very interesting swim.

    As a post script to the dolphin story, this morning I contacted Gregg Levine, DVM, a local expert on

Another Look at the Hawaiian Flagtail

 dolphin medicine.  He looked at our pictures and agreed that this is probably not shark bite.  He told me that dolphins may contract a virus, weakening their immune system and rendering them susceptible to secondary infections.  He promised to keep us in the loop as experts in Honolulu consider what these lesions might be.  Lets hope for the best.

jeff