Happy Thanksgiving

     Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day, so with that in mind I went down to the last place that I saw a turkeyfish, now known more properly as the Hawaiian Green Lionfish.   The idea being, that if I have made a

You Don't Need to be the Emir of Kuwait to Eat at the Fish Hopper.

tradition of searching for a Christmas Wrasse on Christmas Day, why shouldn't I look for a Turkeyfish on Thanksgiving.  Suffice it to say, turkeyfish, at least at snorkeling depths in the middle of the day, are rare as hen's teeth.  So the quest was more Quixotic than our Yuletide tradition.

     On the way to the pier I passed the Fish Hopper.  The hostess there was posting their Thanksgiving menu which did not offer Turkeyfish, but rather a complete turkey dinner, replete with cranberry sauce and stuffing.  Or if you were feeling particularly flush, say you just got off your private jet from Dubai, you could have the rack of lamb.  I had left Sandra at home, slaving

Perhaps Next Thanksgiving Our Hawaiian President Will Pardon A Turkeyfish!

   

 over a hot stove, so from my point of view these choices were moot.  To be fair, I asked her if she wanted to come snorkeling and she replied that she was already looking forward to me being out of the house for a couple hours.  Go figure!

    At the pier, everyone was full of holiday cheer and good will.  A gentleman who had just swum ashore was pleased to find an audience in yours truly.  He had just seen a barracuda, he said, a great big one.  It was following the fish ball which when he left it was just seaward of the last swim buoy.   I had heard of this great Great barracuda before we left for the land of the Barong.  In fact, a month ago I followed someone's instructions and swam all the way out to the anchored boats and didn't see giblets.  (I hope you appreciate the amount of investigative work that produced a word that might mean worthless turkey organs!)

    Two weeks ago we saw a great barracuda in Bali, but I had not seen one in Hawaii since February of 2012, nigh on three years.   Armed with precise instructions, I plunged, brimming with anticipation, into the

My last Greast Barracuda in Hawaii  Kailua Bay Feb 2014

 cool, clear Thanksgiving Day waters of Kailua Bay.  Looking for a Turkeyfish as I swam out, I made it to the fourth swim buoy.  Here there were not even haggis, which might describe the animal  products left over at the Fish Hopper.  As I wasn't in the boat channel, at least not yet, I started making concentric circles from a spot twenty yards southwest of that fell buoy.

     Looking for the fish ball, I paid particular attention to cloudy water.  While I realize that this observation relies heavily on Jeffrey Hill Unpublished Data, I am absolutely convinced that the water around the fish ball is cloudy.  I don't know if the big eye scad seek out cloudy water or if the enormous amount of fish generate the cloudy water.  Nevertheless, on my second looping pass, there was the fishball.  And sure enough, there on the mauka side was the barracuda!  All those descriptions I had been hearing back on the beach were accurate...this was one big fish, probably the biggest barracuda I have ever seen.

Great Barracuda  Kailua Bay  November 2014

     I had the camera ready and as the barracuda swam away (into the cloudy water) I snapped off four quick shots.  Sadly, the mode the camera was in included flash, so while you see a barracuda, the dingy water is reflected back and its a poor picture.  But it is documentary evidence.  Luckily, the quick look that I had was significantly better than what you see here.

    After the big fish swam into the murk, I looked up to find that my concentric circles had brought me a lot closer to the anchored boats than I was to the last swim buoy, which was now about a hundred yards away.  Not to worry.  That's why God gave us swim fins, a good attitude, barracudas and Thanksgiving.  Not necessarily in that order.

    It was unlikely that I would see a Turkeyfish on Turkey Day.  The way I felt, the Great Barracuda was way more than I had any rights to hope for.  On the way back to the beach I sang (through my snorkel, of course) that anthem made popular by Heart, back when I was chasing girls to no noticeable effect at the University of Washington.   For the rest of the blog I invite you to click on the link, pretend that its back in the 70's and listen to the Girls from Jet City earn their chops.

Here's What They Serve on Thanksgiving in Bali!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0OX_8YvFxA

    This, of  course, led me to recollect my sister in law's automobile.   Barbara owned one of the last barracudas (the car, not the fish) in existence.  She loved her 'cuda.  One sad night in the early nineties a drug crazed drunk smashed that defenseless yellow antique to smithereens.  Chuck and Barb were roused from sleep about  2 AM to a repeated banging in front of their home, nestled halfway between the Seattle Zoo and the Fremont Stone People.  The aforementioned DCD had his car perpendicular on their small street and was repeatedly smashing the 'cuda and the Chevy that had the misfortune to be parked on the other side.  Seattle's finest, when called to the scene, shot the guy dead before he could explain his motivations.  Or at least that's what they would do now.  And it would serve him right. 

Barracuda!

    Let's hope this barracuda has a better fate and that lots of curious snorkelers get a peek.

jeff