Summer in the City Or the Missing Link

       At long last Sandra and I made it to the City of Refuge.   City is one of our favorite places to go snorkeling, but between upper respiratory infections and hurricanes, this was really our first opportunity since returning from Portland.  On this sunny morning, we

Nants Ingonyama Bagithi Baba. 

were lucky to be accompanied by Bob and Kim Hillis.

     Even before we got out of the car I could see swimmers congregated in the area that dolphins frequent.

  A moment's observation revealed that the dolphins were indeed in attendance, so we donned our gear wiki wiki (as quickly as possible) and headed out to the dolphins.  Sandra and I enjoyed a few close passes and nabbed some photos.   The pod sported two fine looking babies.  The circle of life. Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba.  This,of course,  begs the question, "Is the spinner dolphin the lion of the Kona Coast?"  Given his nobility and strong family values, I'm inclined to vote yes.  And rumor has it that this season the Aloha Theater will be showcasing the premier of the Dolphin King.

Hele Me Hoohiwahiwa Nai'a

     After about fifteen minutes of communing with the dolphin king and his heir apparent, Sandra and I headed over to the north cusp.  Along the way we saw a lot of Thompson's surgeonfish, which after all these years I am finally finding a bit more common than I previously thought. Or perhaps they actually are increasing in numbers. 

      Out on the reef in about twenty feet, I saw a fish that I had long speculated about, a Very Long Nose Butterflyfish (Forcipiger longirostris) that was clearly transitional between the yellow form and the black, which is actually very dark brown.  Because of the way I remembered my two experts comments (Jack Randall and John Hoover in their signature field guides), I had accepted that these two morphs were created this way from conception and did not change from one coloration to the other.  This is how I described the fish to Jack and John:

    This fish had a black face that seemed to extend further caudally than on the yellow variety.  The flanks  appeared to have a yellow ground with rows of black scales

 lying over.  This gave the flank a dusky or bronzy appearance, most unlike the bright yellow of the usual yellow variety.

     This unusual fish swam into the coral head you see in the picture, out and over the top and down the other side.  Immediately he swam under a coral about twenty feet down and refused to come out. 

   While all this was going on, I nabbed three pictures, the best of which you see here.  Yes, I agree, its not a very good picture.  In fact, I included my field notes above to compensate for this poor photographic effort. Sometimes God grants you the opportunity to take a beautiful picture and sometimes you take what you can get to document a sighting.  Clearly this is a type 2 picture. 

    In the event that you think I can't take a fish picture, I am including a nice one of a mixed pair of longirostii taken a year ago at City when we went searching (vainly) for the frogfish with John Hoover.  All kidding aside, this demonstrates what we usually see rather nicely.
    It turns out, I did not need to ask Jack and John their opinion of the transitional longirostris.  In the Ultimate Guide... Hoover writes, "Occasional individuals ...turn completely blackish brown..."  I actually read this description (inadequately) before sending off my query.  Do I enjoy living a life of faux pas?  Not really, but sometimes it seems that way.  On the other hand, poor reading skills seem to give one the opportunity for individual thought.   

Transition longirostris, John Hoover's iPad app

      In his reply to me, John Hoover said, "Jeff, Of course they change from yellow to black! And probably the other way too. See lower right photo, taken on Oahu. (This is a screen from my iPad app). - John.

   Not only did my expert chide me (ever so gently) but in the manner of all good authors he encouraged me to purchase his latest product.   To repay his kindness, I am passing on the plug for the iPad app and I'm also including here the picture from the page that he sent along.  I don't own an iPad, but we do have a few android devices.  I'll find out if this app is available for us android users and, in the spirit of the great Sarah Palin (who I believe is one of the pioneers in poor reading skills!) I'll get back to ya on that one.

    Jack Randall's reply was a bit more amusing:

Jeff:     In 1961 I published the description of the very dark brown Longnose Butterflyfish as Forcipigerinornatus (meaning not ornate).  You can imagine my consternation when a friend, who had one in his aquarium, called me to say it was turning yellow.    Aloha, Jack 

A mixed pair of F. longirostris, City of Refuge, Sept. 2014

     In case you missed it, Jack Randall has been naming fish for more than half a century. Wow!

    As a final follow-up, I discovered that it is highly likely that all lonirostris are born yellow and only the brave ones on the turn black. This seems to happen more often on the Kona Coast than anywhere else on the planet.  John Hoover passes this down to us groundlings from the work of Richard Pyle.  The internet is an amazing thing and I was able to google Dr. Pyle who, as you can see, looks like he ought to be on the Orca with Quint and Richard  Dreyfuss comparing scars.   When he is not fighting enormous sharks, he serves as a zoologist at the Bishop Museum.  Arr!

When I was a squirt, every kid wanted to be a harpooner.

     After the exciting encounter with the longirostris, the Dolphin Queen and I swam back to the two step entry. (I am repeatedly annoyed when City is called Two Step. And I really like beating my head against the wall because it feels so good when I stop.)   Here Sandra went ashore and I hitched up with Bob to go shark hunting.  Our friends the DeLukes saw the shark here about a month ago, so we knew it was possible.  And, like Quint, I was obsessed in my search for the shark.

     Bob knew the place where the resident white tipped reef shark hangs out and had attempted to impart that information to me.  A few months ago I had attempted to find the shark following his instructions, but to

no avail.  We swam south across the bay, closer to the National Park than I had ever been, and then followed the shore towards the sea.  Bob finally stopped at an area of healthy coral and showed me a small alcove where two large coral heads almost meet.  Only ten feet deep at  the top of the overhang and perhaps

Hina and Ku Send Birthday Greetings to Don in New Hampshuh.

twenty feet wide, this shark puka is less than fifty yards north of the two remarkable tikis in the park.  I had in fact been very near this spot in my previous search, but did not go close enough to the south shore.  In any event, there was no shark at home on this day. 
 
    The four of us enjoyed a sumptuos lunch at Chez Sandra, which looks remarkably like a picnic table by the bay, and then it was time to go home.  As our guests disembarked, Kim Hillis looked at me and asked, "Can't I get back in the air conditioned car?"  Its been that sort of summer here in Kona.  I hope your fish watching is as hot as our weather.

jeff