Paul Allen's Reef at its Very Best

    This has been a delightful week in Kailua Kona.  Its been dry and cool with blue skies every day.   And we have enjoyed some time with friends and had some very productive experiences at the beach.

Stocky Hawkfish Looking Up.  Kahalu'u  December 2018

      A few days ago Sandra and I went down to Kahalu'u, our first time back there since we returned from the mainland.   Sandra wore her wet suit, but the water really wasn't all that cold, still around 80, and it was fairly clear.  There were plenty of fish, but nothing especially noteworthy.  I saw one of those small shrimp that like to perch on the coral, only to disappear by the time one has his camera adjusted for a shot.  As the shrimp had vanished I took a picture of his surrogate, the stocky hawkfish who was hanging out nearby.  Its a pretty exposure and I hope you will forgive me for showing you a picture taken from above.  The stocky hawkfish is not especially rare, but it is a bit skittish...it is very unusual to dive down to get a side view without Mr. Stocky slipping into the coral.

    While I was getting my shower, Sandra put the camera to good use, nabbing this picture of the

Playing Ukuleles Island Style  photo courtesy of the Redoubtable SKG

ukulele group that seems to be at the Kahalu'u shelter in the mornings.  They play while we are getting ready to snorkel and their songs have a way of getting stuck in my head in such a way that it provides the background music, however insipid, for the swim.  On this day it was Island Style.  A tune with which I was previously unfamiliar, but still seemed to play over and over while I circled the bay.

   Two days later we met Peter and Marla at Ho'okena.  For us it was the doable 40 minute drive.  For them, coming all the way from Kapa'au, it was almost two hours.  In hopes of having mild surf conditions, we made this excursion on Saturday.  Getting there around 9 AM, there was still plenty of parking and we were able to nab a spot at the table under the banyan tree.  There really is nothing like sitting in the cool shade right by a beautiful beach in Hawaii.  I don't mean to be boastful, but its

With Kroppjean Patience and Persistence.

pretty sweet.

    Our friends had made this long journey with some good fish watching in mind.  Suffice it to say I felt a small amount of pressure.  But not to worry,  Ho'okena yielded up its four specialties: flame angelfish (which lives in a large coral head with its cousin the Potter's angelfish),  garden eels and bridled and gilded triggerfish.  It took Marla to spot the first flame angel.  After that the four specialties fell like dominoes.  The water was clear and its always fun to swim with friends, but we did not see anything unusual.

   Towards shore, on the way out, Sandra and I encountered a really nice finescale triggerfish...big and creamy white.  Naturally this shy species made getting a good picture as difficult as she could.

   We also saw a school of  keel tailed needlefish.  Keeltails are the most commonly encountered

 Big, Blue Keeltailed Needlefish  Ho'okena December 2018

needlefish.  You see them at the surface, so a snorkeler is actually looking up at them.  Usually they are small and largely translucent.  And they swim in a school, turning this way and that in perfect unison, like a flock of songbirds. These guys were nothing like that.  They were swimming in mid-water, actually interacting with one another.  And they were remarkably large and a lustrous, rich blue.   I really wanted to turn them into a school of Heller's barracuda.   If you look carefully, you will even see a shiny blue lateral line. It is reasonable to surmise that this was a breeding group of keeltailed needlefish.

    By the time I was done enjoying them, my compatriots had deserted me and I made my way ashore unaccompanied.

   Back at our table in the shade, we ate an early lunch and looked at each other's pictures.  On this day, Peter was shooting with a Sony camera in a housing.  And he was also wearing what looked like six pounds of lead...maybe more.  Suffice it to say I was out gunned.  He showed us a killer picture of

Bali.  Come for the fish.  Return for the people.

a gilded triggerfish.  To be fair, in addition to lead and a good camera, Peter possesses a great deal of patience and persistence.  Perhaps if you sign on to his blog, onebreathkohala, you will find that
picture of the gilded trigger.

   As you may know from reading this blog, Peter and Marla liked Bali so well that they went back, having returned to the Big Island about the same time we returned from Mexico.  We were still debriefing them and uncovered a useful detail.  They did not have a driver pre-arranged; when they arrived in Denpassar they chose a likely lad from the mob of solicitors that one encounters as he leaves customs.  Is this more dangerous than hailing a taxi on the streets of Mexico City?  Looked at in the proper pessimistic light, either one might seem foolish heading towards a death wish.  On the other hand, this seems to have worked out fine.  They used the man from the mob for a couple more transfers and then picked up another driver off the street, maybe in Ubud, and used him for several more transfers, going as far as Pemuteran.  And back.  Which despite the excellent snorkeling on the north west

The Coral Croucher outside the late Paul Allen's lagoon.  Finally!

corner of this magic island, is a good thing.

   The government of Indonesia sends me 200 rupiah (approximately 10 cents US) for each one of you that I talk into going to Bali, so I have a vested interest in passing on these travel tips.

    Which brings us to yesterday.

    In the morning we hosted my long lost friends from Salem Hospital to a delicious Hawaiian breakfast.  Bagels from Safeway, muffins from Costco, POG from Target and Yuban dark roast.  We did at least throw in some yummy papayas from the market by the library.  I had not seen these two ladies in what we calculated to be 12 years, but happily we were all in acceptable condition and we had a wonderful time talking about Hawaii and Salem and what not.  After I forced them to look at the fish on the Christmas tree and the bathroom wall (this fish thing really has gotten out of hand) we loaned them some powerful fins and

Potter's Angelfish looking out of his Coral Cave.  Paul Allen's Reef December 2018

made plans to meet at City of Refuge tomorrow.

I thought that they were going to rent masks at Snorkel Bob's and spend the rest of the day acquainting themselves with their new equipment.  As Sandra and I arrived at the pier an hour or so later, I texted Kathy to let her know that she could borrow an underwater camera on Wednesday.  She texted back saying that they were at the Harbor House (drinking beer and eating giant hamburgers.)  So I'm not so sure they took that introductory swim.  Get with the program!

   I texted back, "Have a Firerock for me!" and headed into the Inner Harbour in front of the King Kam Hotel, where the water was now on the south side of eighty.

     I was happy to make it out past the heiau and the breakwater into the warmer ocean.  I swam straight across the little bay to pick up where I left off more than two months ago. It took me a minute or two to find the same head of cauliflower coral that I have been observing.  But it is still there, and so is the pair of coral crouchers!  I believe it is safe to say that this very same unusual and uncommon fish has been in the very same coral for four months.  Parvenu that I am, I hate to say this, but this borders on real  

The usual look at a speckled scorpionfish.  December2018, Kailua Pier

science.  Being by myself, I was able to approach my mission with Kroppjean patience and persistence and was rewarded, at long last, with a picture of the croucher, tucked as deep as he could wiggle his plump, speckled body into his coral amparo.

     That last word comes from the Cuban classic, Guantanamera.  In the traditional lyrics, it is a buck deer that is searching for his monte amparo.  Mountain hideaway to the Spanglishly challenged.  In my lyrics, and it is well within the Cuban tradition to write new lyrics to Guantanamera, it is a pes en la bahia, que busca un coral amparo.   Suffice it say, in whatever language one chooses, this pair of crouchers is well established in their amparo. And, at last, Ive got proof.

     The swim wasn't over.  Around the point, I looked for the yellowtail filefish without success.  I then swam ten yards off shore to look for Potter's angel.  I didn't see one, by I took notice of a lone staghorn coral growing bravely among all the detritus of his bygone relatives.  I dove to take a look at what he might be harboring and suddenly off to my left was a Potter's.  This guy was nosing in and out of a small window in the dead coral and allowed me to photograph him on three dives before disappearing.  This was only about 12 feet deep, so it was a

Speckled Scorpionfish  Sebastapistes coniorta. Kailua Pier December 2018

reasonable chance.

    Finally it was time to head for the barn.  As I approached the breakwater, I found another cauliflower coral to examine.  To my delight, there was, in addition to coral blenny, a fine speckled scorpionfish living in the folds of the coral. This species is sort of like the coral croucher:  obscure, small and hides in Pocillipora coral.  In each respect, the  speckled scorpion is a bit less so, but still it is a fishwatcher's fish to be sure and no one else would be aware of it.

The five stripe wrasse shoots up the side of a rock. 

     These were ideal conditions.  the water was clear and not moving very fast, the coral was only four feet down and there was a firm piece of dead coral nearby to use for a hand hold.  On my first attempt I got the fish in its usual attitude, lying across the leaf with its head facing down.  On my second attempt, he moved, lacing his body flat across a recess.  However, form the standpoint of hiding, he made a poor choice and ended up in a spot where he was still accessible to my prying camera.  Snap, snap, snap.  And whadya know?  Not a shabby picture of a species devilishly difficult to photograph.  And don't you just love the coral blenny peering from around the corner?

    In putting together the blog, I had the chance to search for the species name in John Hoover's book.  It is a testimony to how difficult this fish is, that the picture you see here is dramatically better than John's.  Did I just break my arm patting myself on the back? Maybe.

    Thinking that it had been a wonderfully productive swim, I made it over the rip rap and into the

Five Stripe Wrasse.  Thallasoma quinquevittatum  Kialua Pier December 2018

channel opposite the pier.  Suddenly, in the moving water there was an unusual, small wrasse.  About the size and shape of a smaller saddleback wrasse, this guy had a green base and a variety of rose colored markings.  Honestly, I couldn't figure out what I was looking at, but with that rose colored streak across his upper flank, I knew it was not a usual suspect.  Although he was a very fast moving fish, he stayed with me for several minutes and I took at least a dozen pictures.  As is so often the case, the last photograph was the best.  it wasn't until we got home and Sandra and I could look at the books and compare them with the pictures that we decided this was a five stripe wrasse.

   So variable is this fish, that John Hoover provides four pictures in his book.  Our fish corresponds well to the initial phase, male or female photograph.  

   In my defense, not only is this fish always fast moving and found in surging water, but it is extremely variable in coloration.  Back on the beach at Ho'okena, the persistent Peter Kroppje noted that frequently we are taking pictures of fast moving fish in moving water.  Hence, nothing is still and the result is bound to be blurry.  Unknowingly, he described this situation in spades.

   At last the swim was done and we headed for shore. But I had one more treat in store.  As I finished my shower a veritable giant approached.  Over seven feet tall, he hung a purple bag on one of the

Uncle Tui is now the quartebacks coach for Cal. 

hooks.  Noting the W on his chapeau, I asked, "Is that a Washington W?"  Indeed it was!  the giant's name was Patrick and he is here for two months.  He asked if I was going to the Rose Bowl and we agreed that it was a little much from here.  He then revealed that his nephew played center for the Huskies and hiked the ball to Marques Tuiasosopo.  A few of you may not be aware of Tui, but he is my favorite player of all time.  He was not tall enough for a pro team to believe in him...all he could do was win.   Patrick went on to tell me that his nephew now has a house on Hood Canal and that a couple summers ago Tui came to visit for 4th of July.  At a nearby Indian reservation he pretty much bought out the fireworks stand and, according to Patrick, they damn near burned down his nephew's house.  Now each year at 4th of July, his children want to know if Uncle Tui is coming.

    Thanks to you all for being such patient and persistent readers.  We wish you a Merry Fishmas and a micro-brew beer.