2014 ... The Year in Review

    In 2014 I turned over a new page.  Like beginning a new checkbook register, I started a new list for Hawaiian fish.  Only we didn't carry the total forward from the previous year...this year would stand on its

The Milletseed is MFK !

own.  I actually hadn't done this in a couple years.  Beginning a new list allowed me to see more clearly what fishes simply aren't easy for a snorkeler around Kailua Kona and it provided an impetus to get out and identify as many fish as possible.  No resting on laurels this year.  By reaching out in a variety of directions I was lucky to make new friends in the fish world,  And I was able to hone my skills and see some new fish and invertebrates.

    First about the list.  I saw 161 species of reef fish snorkeling in 2014.  The obvious highlight was the warty frogfish.  I saw two new crustaceans, the jeweled anemone crab and the seven eleven crab.  Best invertebrate goes to the killer mollusc, the nudibranch platydoris formosa that Sandra and I saw at the pier. 

The Banded Sea Urchin, E. calamaris, spawning.

   For those of you keeping score at home, the best mammal award goes to Chrissie Huffard.  Despite coming all the way from Monterey to Honaunau, she was unable to catch the warty frogfish.  Or was it the wary frogfish?  Her net was empty, her wet suit less so. 

   My outing with Chrissie and the the redoubtable John Hoover resulted in us witnessing the best natural history event of 2014...the spawning of  the banded sea urchin, E. calamaris.  The urchins climbed to the top of the reef and spewed forth their gametes into the sea turned golden by the setting sun.  Like a tribe of miniature underwater volcanoes, they was!  Talk about being in the right place at the right time. 

Of course, some animals were significantly absent.  Milletseed Butterfly was the most glaring.  This fish is not entirely MFK  (Missing From Kona...Not to be confused with the initials of our nations preeminent civil

Chrissie Huffard, "Here froggy, froggy.  Come to mama."

 rights leader, now emblazoned on street signs Seattle to Savannah.)  However,the milletseed butterfly  has become a deep water fish.  Our new resource, Bob Hillis, who in addition to being a fine snorkeling companion works a few days a week as a dive guide, reports that milletseeds can be seen at several dive sites below 30 feet.   Our focus has always been to see what is available from shore dives.  For some reason, milletseeds are no longer found at those sites easily accessed by the public at depths easily achieved by those of us without weight belts, tanks and regulators. 

    Up to now, I have had the conceit that I was seeing just about everything that divers saw.  This year revealed that species formerly common in the shallows have descended below snorkeling depths. Several species we took for granted are now seen primarily by divers.  Bummer.

    Coris flaviotta, the yellow or black striped wrasse depending on how you look at this particular beauty. was also absent from our list, along with Hawaiian Hogfish and Eight Stripe Wrasse.  Devil Scorpionfish and

 the Bigfin Squid,  rounded out the list of what I expected to see this last year.  And not for a lack of trying;  we knew very well that we were missing these species and our eyes were peeled, as my mother used to say. 

    Knowing what was missing, I took a swim on the PAR on December 31 to try and fill in the gaps.  The weather in Kona has been cooler and drier the last few weeks, truly delightful for out of water activities like gardening.  The cool air has had some effect on surface temperature, though, and I am told that this has fallen to 73 degrees.  Diving down doesn't gain you much warmth, either.  Never the less, with sunny skies and a cool breeze, these were great days at the beach.  The inner harbour at King Kam yielded a lot of usual suspects, along with the throng of Christmas Break revelers, but, alas , no scorpionfish.

    Out on the reef, being watchful for boat traffic, I swam over the deeper part, where the coral gives way to sand, at about 30 feet.  In the water column out there I saw Thompson's Butterfly, oval and three spot

Reticulated Butterflyfish, Paul Allen's Reef, New Year's Eve, 2014

chromis.  Ghosting around in the depths was a Gray Snapper, Aprion virescens.  This rather plain looking fish was the last to be added to the 2014 list.  I searched vigilantly, but there were no milletseeds lurking in 30 feet on the PAR.

   On the reef itself, in a modest amount of slosh, I got a killer look at Reticulated Butterfly and my best picture ever of this,  my favorite butterflyfish.  Just so you don't think I'm all doom and gloom, 2014 has been a very good year for retics.  And for Teardrop Butterflies and Coral Blennies, which 20 years ago were not all that common.  

    Back on shore, there was a gentleman holding court beside his truck, which boasted a paddle board.  He claimed to have seen a whale shark swimming with a pod of dolphins about two miles out.  Now that gives us something to aim for in 2015!