In the Year of Our Lord 2015 or Box Jellies and Whale Sharks and Bears. Oh my!

      The snorkeling season for the kids form Ono road got underway this week.  Sandra got the all clear from

 her optometrist on Monday and on Tuesday we took our first dip of 2015 in good ol' K Bay.  Kahalu'u was cool and clear, chock a block full of swimmers.  I was pleased to get  pretty good pictures of both of our indigenous needlefish; we were less pleased to have a run in with a whacko who had forgotten to take his haldol with his morning coffee.

     The following day we hooked up with Bob Hillis and his lovely young wife, Kim.  As the surf was coming up from the north, we played it safe and decided to swim on Paul Allen's Reef.  As we strolled down the malecon, dodging the mid morning diners heading for the Fish Hopper, Bob told us that our new friend Doug had seen a whale shark swimming with the dolphins at City of Refuge. 

      Regardless of all the swarming tourists from the cruise ship, I was plunged into a spasm of jealousy.  

That's Doug in the front car making out with the Whale Shark 

That I would give my eye teeth to see a whale shark was only part of it.

    I had met Doug a few weeks before.  Like Bob, he works as a dive guide.  Unlike Bob, he is from Kentucky.  Before he moved to Kona a few months ago, the majority of his diving experience was in abandoned rock quarries.  As the three of us snorkeled, it became apparent that he couldn't tell a barracuda from a blenny. Well, that's an overstatement, but you get the idea. Doug is a really nice guy who is undoubtedly an excellent diver.  And he was lucky enough to take his family, visiting from Louisville, down to Two Step for a swim and just happened to run into the fish of the decade.  While I was sitting in the optometry suite out at KP.org.  Where is the justice in this?

Just in case you don't know what a Whale Shark looks like.

    All of that green eyed monster stuff aside, congratulations to Doug and his family.  Seeing a whale shark from a shore entry is strong work.   And unbelievable good luck.

    Here is a link to a Youtube video of the whale shark taken by a divemaster this last week.   https://www.youtube.co/watch?v=c7_wxASPyPU

    On the beach in front of the King Kamehameha Hotel it was time to put our jealousy aside and get wet.  Or was it get cold.  Kim made us all jealous with a 2mm wet suit.  The rest of us were brave and soon we were all freezing out on the PAR.  It was a beautiful day with clear water and many of the usual suspects.  About ten yards away, Sandra got my attention yelling, "Box jellyfish!"

    Indeed, she had encountered the first box jellyfish that I had seen here in Kona or anywhere else.  we gathered nearby and watched the jelly contract, its four tentacles beating rhythm along with the bell.  As you

Just in case you forgot what a Box Jellyfish looks like.

probably know, this is among the more toxic animals one is likely to encounter in Hawaii.  Guy Hagi, the weatherman at HNL, keeps us appraised of  box jellyfish in surfing locations on Oahu.  Curiously, they are a rare visitor to the beaches on the Kona Coast.

   On shore, Sandra would reflate that she tried to keep her distance while taking her eye off the box jelly to call us over. It seemed to her that every time she looked back in the water, the jellyfish was swimming after her.  That's what she gets for being so sweet.  At any rate, I attempted to keep a safe distance while taking a few futile stabs at a photograph.  Being translucent, jellyfish have proved to be a difficult animal for me to capture on film.  Or an SD card, as the case may be.  This single box jelly was a life invertebrate for Sandra, Kim and myself.  Bob, of course, has seen pretty much everything.

     On the way in, I saw my second octopus of the young year (having already seen one at Kahaluu, of all places.)

    The following day, while sweetie was getting a hair cut, I took a dip on the Ironman side and saw the

Day Octopus, Kahalu'u, January 2015

most subtle color pattern of the Regal Parrotfish ...a pale beige with slightly darker vertical stripes and a pale yellow crescent on the tail.  Leave it to John Hoover to show this color pattern in The Ultimate Guide.

     On the way home, Sandra told me how proud her French coiffeur, François, was of the French police who put a terminal end to the Algerian terrorists.  One might have thought that a sensitive fellow like François would be a bit less blood thirsty.

   Clearly 2015 is going to be full of surprises.

jeff