Back In Kailua Again

   Sandra and I returned from Portland this week.  In the Rose City, we had observed the newest member of our snorkeling clan.  CJ is a fine little trout of about 8 lbs with red hair, a lusty appetite and spine tingling

Houndfish at City of Refuge    Photo Martin DeLuke

 screech.  With all the attention lavished upon him by the family pooch, Riley, he may grow up to be a houndfish.

   Speaking of which, in our absence Casa Ono and the adjacent waters were looked after by our dear friends Martin and Gail DeLukes.  They had many good days of snorkeling, seeing their first Day Octopus among many others.  One day at City of Refuge, they nabbed this Cracker Jack picture of the previously mentioned houndfish.  They were hoping for a barracuda, but all they got was a sweater.  Sorry, that's a different joke.  Who can blame them for thinking that  this muscular menace, this Master of Disaster,  might be a barracuda?  I mean, just look at those choppers!  Kudos to the DeLukes for taking such a marvelous picture.

    Also while we were gone, our bosom buddy Bob (nice alliteration, no?) Hillis, while sailing on the bright blue sea, plucked an errant buoy from the waves, only to find living in the eye, where once there was a line attached to a crab trap or such, this marvelous

Spotted Oceanic Triggerefish   photo Bob Hillis

little trigger fish.  The Spotted Oceanic Triggerfish, Canthidermis maculatus, as related by John Hoover in his web site, Fish Not In My Book, is usually found associated with drifting objects and rarely seen close to shore.  Bob removed this small beauty from his watery nest and took the picture you see with the helpless trigger lying in the bottom of a bucket.  One assumes that later in the day this tiny morsel  (he was only 3 cms)  was consumed by an unsuspecting patron down at Da Poke Shack.  All kidding aside, what a cool find.

    Hoping for something almost as good as the oceanic triggerfish, Bob and I went snorkeling at Kahalu'u the day after we returned.  As I entered the bay, I encountered a lovely lady in her mid thirties wearing a handsome black eye patch.  More importantly, she was wearing her fins and edging backwards down the sand channel.  Always the chevalier, I instructed her to sit down in the water and swim out from there, thus saving about thirty feet of backwards edging and a possible twisted ankle.  "Like this!" I said, plopping

Novaculichthys taeniourus stpatrickii.

 on my skinny old bottom and donning my fins and mask.  She in turn layed down in the entry, floating on her back, so I will never know how she tucked the strings supporting her eye patch inside her snorkel mask.  This information might prove useful  in a set of unforseen circumstances.  One can only assume that she has more experience manipulating that patch than she does with swim fins and sand channels.

     Anyway, the alliterative Bob was waiting and we were soon swimming  in the extremely pleasant, if somewhat cloudy water.  (I want the water to be 82 degrees every day of the year.)  On my way out to Surfer's Rock I spotted one of the maturing shortnose wrasses, which has truly gone from fish of the year to Dirt Fish, at least at K Bay.

     Near the rock, I observed and photographed this wonderful green Dragon Wrasse.  It took a bit of work, but we finally got this verdant beauty into focus.  You may recall that earlier this year I was bemoaning the fact that I did not have a really good picture

Tops or Hermits?

 of the green dragon wrasse.  Clearly, I can no longer complain about that.  Just gazin' on his lovely green visage crates a longin' for March 17th, a dram of Jameson's and the skirl of the pipes.  B'gosh and begorrah, laddie, let's raise a glass to the green dragon wrasse,   Novaculichthys taeniourus stpatrickii. 

     Nearby I saw this small colony of tops hiding in a crevice of the coral.  As hermit crabs of a species seem to select a certain variety of shell,  I picked at one.  Unable to extricate it, I left them alone.  My research does not clearly speak to this trio being molluscs or arthropods, but they made a nice picture regardless.

Hebrew Cone.

   I missed a picture of a cute four spot butterfly immature, but nearby got this Hebrew Cone.  Only a small portion of the shell remained in Hebrew, the rest had been debased by coraline algae. I feel like I have subjected you to enough ethnic references for one blog, so I won't torture you with   verses from hava nagila and recipes for matzo balls.  Although even if you are stung by the Hebrew Cone, the effect wears off within twenty four hours. 

Shabbat Shalom from your favorite token gentile,
jeff

The Master of Disaster, Apollo Creed   "Ain't gonna be no rematch."
Rocky,  "I don't want one."