Fishwatching and the Ironman 2015

   In Kailua Kona, the second week of October is taken over by the Ironman World Championship.  Sandra and I volunteered in registration, where we had the chance the meet the contestants, who come

Can you see the swimmer in the middle? Photo SKG

mostly from North America, Western Europe and Australia.  On Saturday we watched the race.  

    Our best Ironman moment came in the morning.  We were down at the pier just as time expired for the swim.  The swimmers are given two hours and 20 minutes to complete the 2.4 mile open ocean swim.  We watched as the last swimmer to finish came struggling in.   When the top competitors finish the swim, they are moving right along, but not this lady.  She splashed for five minutes, as she made her way down the length of the pier, the multitude on Alii Drive shouting encouragement.  Simultaneously,  all the guides and marshals had no one else to monitor, so this last swimmer was surrounded by Ironman personnel on their paddleboards.  As she emerged, with just over a minute to spare, she received a huge ovation.  Our champions are like deities on Olympus.  Our age group competitors are like brave hobbits, fighting against all the dark forces of the Ironman: the wind, heat and waves.  God bless ya, Frodo.
     We timed it just right and we were at the finish line for both the men's and women's champions.  This is a very happy moment, the crowd lines the pathway to the finish and the leader is led to the finish line by two Polynesian warriors bearing tiki torches.  One

The Winner is Led Down Alii Drive by a Torch Bearer  Photo SKG

 is alerted to the finish, as a helicopter appears out of nowhere, presumably to document the event.. The only other time we see a helicopter in Kailua is at Christmas when Paul Allen is ferried back and forth from his yacht to his estate.   As usual, the top finishers looked like they could run another race. That degree of fitness is unfathomable.

    In spite of the runners and bikers training on our roads, we still managed to get in a few snorkels.  It has been noted that the Ironmen and their families are so involved with their sport, that they do not partake in the water related activities.  I went to Kahalu'u the day before the race and the park was virtually deserted.  Luckily the water was cool, flat and clear.  While there was not a plethora of fish or invertebrates, I did manage to find a nice and cooperative example of the Dragon Wrasse.  Just before  spotting the dragon, I had a glimpse of an immature shortnose, which made three consecutive visits to Kahalu'u where I had seen that species.  In this way, the immature shortnose wrasse progressed from fish of the year to dirt fish in a week.  Having said that, I'll probably never see another one.

    On that day, I also spotted a small Elegant Hermit Crab.  As the coral has been bleaching and degenerating following our hot summer, I have had lots of opportunity to think about the ramifications.  Half

Will the last hermit crab to Leave K Bay turn out the lights.

 the time I am snorkeling these days, I am wondering which species will be able to survive in the absence of coral.  My guess is that we will have fewer reef fish and more species will be driven into the depths, where there is less damage to the coral.  My guess is that crustaceans like the hermit crabs will be even harder hit than the fish.  They require the crevices and the branches of the coral to protect them from the wrasses and their friends.  The coral also provides a substrate upon which they find their daily bread.  Setting aside this sad prophecy, we can enjoy this picture of the elegant crab with the bright blue eyes.

     A couple days after the race, Sandra and I went on a night snorkel on Paul Allen's Reef with Bob Hillis.  Aside from the usual cardinalfish and squirrelfish, we were lucky to see a brotula.  He was resting on a ledge right by the entrance to Paul's private lagoon

Bearded Cusk Eel / Photo c/o Wikipedia

 and, when illuminated, dodged into a crevice.  By diving down about six feet and holding onto the reef, we were able to illuminate him and get a peek at his whiskered visage.  This species, the only brotula likely to be seen by a snorkeler in Hawaii, is the Bearded Cusk Eel.  It is not an eel, although it has a single dorsal and ventral fin that meet to form the tail, much like an eel.  It lives in crevices and comes out rarely at night.  Hence, unless you are a diver who is poking deep in crevices by day, you will only see one at night.  This was a very lucky encounter with an extremely strange fish.

Not only that, but it reminds me of the song sung by the Cowardly Lion, while Dorothy and her companions were waiting to see the wizard:

What Makes a Cusk Eel Guard His Cusk?

"What makes a muskrat guard his musk?
What makes a cusk eel guard his cusk?
Whadda they got that I ain't got?
The Ultimate Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fishes!
You can say that again."

    And who knew that Bert Lahr was such an enthusiastic fishwatcher?  Go figure.

    Yesterday, five days after the running of the Ironman, Bob and I went up to Mahukona.  He had been there twice, same as me, but we had never been together.  (The respective better halves held down the fort at the Daylight Coffee Company.)   Similar to my experience a few weeks ago, there was no wind in Kawaihae, but at Mahukona there was a significant breeze with whitecaps offshore.

   Unlike our recent trip, yesterday there were lots of swimmers.  It wasn't like Cruise Ship Day at K Bay or any mid-morning down at City of Refuge, but here the entry is limited to the ladder, one swimmer at a time.

It was a busy day at MHK.

 This is Hawaii, so everyone was polite as he or she waited to climb up out of or flop into the water.  

    Another difference was the clarity.   The water was much more cloudy everywhere in the bay, extending even into the depths offshore.   Luckily this didn't effect the fishwatching too much.  Of course, the photography is intimately associated with water clarity.  but a good carpenter does not blame his tools and neither does a good fishwather blame the ocean.

   Early on we happened upon a Milletseed Butterflyfish.  As recently as seven years ago John Hoover called the millletseed butterflyfish, "Hawaii's most abundant butterflyfish."   Boy Howdy (that's Walt Longmire-speak) have the times changed.  The milletseed is

found, apparently, below snorkeling depths on a regular basis.  However, I had not seen one in almost two years.  I had wondered if I would ever see one of these yellow beauties again.   I fondly remember the schools of milletseeds at K bay and this particular fish made me very happy.

  I chased that milletseed around for a few minutes trying for a good photo.  As it turns out, I saw a second milletseed on the way in.  It might have been the same fish, but the colors seemed brighter, especially in the picture.  Could there be two?  O frabjous day, caloo callay.

     At the entrance to the bay, abut ten feet down there is a pipe of questionable utility.  Upon it I found several handsome colonies of sponges.  Big healthy sponge colonies aren't so common down in Kona and a

reticulated butterflyfish was swimming around to add more beauty to the display.  Although I got an excellent look (and I imagine you are enjoying the picture) I am not sufficiently skilled to put a name on this sponge.  Looking at John Hoover's pictures in Sea Creatures, I wonder if it might be fire sponge, so until you know better, please approach these handsome animals with caution.

    In the depths of the rock wall of the north cusp we saw an octopus.  This was my first octopus in six months.  He was a handsome fellow, swimming back and forth, changing his color from a dark chocolate to a mottled gray, matching the coral rubble.  He was about thirty feet deep and the water clarity, or lack thereof, prevented good pictures.  (Although I took a dozen, none are worth showing you.)  Every time I dove down to get a little less cloudy water between meplayful mollusc, he retreated into the coral.  I had a great time with the octopus, but sadly,

Blacklip Butterflyfish   Mhaukona  October 2015

this is another animal that needs hiding places in the coral to flourish.

     On the way back in, I dove down to get a look at that second milletseed butterflyfish and came face to face with a yellowtail filefish.  the camera wasn't turned on and by the time it came up he was hiding.  I did get that picture of the bright milletseed butterfly that you saw earlier.

    In the coral opposite the end of the pier, I saw a blacklip butterfly dodging in and out among the coral.  While I was chasing him around for a picture, a Racoon Butterfly swam nearby.  I knew the Blacklip, also known as Klein's, was small, but the raccoon seemed huge by comparison.  In fact, it is a little less than twice as big.  Persistence paid off and we finally got a couple pretty good pictures of that small butterlyfish, especially when you consider the cloudy water closer to shore.

    Well, I said I wasn't going to blame the ocean and I did anyway.  We saw other good stuff including and orange tailed immature of the pinktail triggerfish and a school of oval chromis.  Too many fish to describe in detail.  Mahukona is a really good place to look for fish and I hope to see you there.

jeff