Disaster at Kahalu'u

Dobie, Maynard and Zelda. "Watch out for the current at K Bay.  Too much work".

   Those of you who follow the Blog may have noticed that it has been a while since we mentioned Kahalu'u.  The main reason for this is that good surfing conditions have been present here in Kailua Kona for weeks, with only a day of respite here and there.  High surf is associated with strong currents in the bay of fishes.   Strong current, while not insurmountable, means more work for the fish watching snorkeler.  And I am as averse to work as the beatnik side kick of Dobie Gillis, Maynard G. Krebs.

     "Work!" Bob Denver would chirp.  A year after Dobie Gillis bit the dust, Denver took the three hour cruise on the S.S. Minnow that set up 28 seasons of work (there's that word again) as Gilligan.  Well, I swim hard when I have to.  Sometimes it makes the difference between making it back to shore or spending the night at sea treading water.  But in general, I do my best to avoid strong currents.  Its too much work.

Bad Camera.  Too many buttons, not enough answers.

    Yesterday, for reasons unknown, I decided that too much time had passed, the surf wasn't going to change, and it was time to check out K Bay. As Sandra dropped me off, I realized that I hadn't shaved.   By the time you get that close, its time to buck up, the potential of a mask leak be damned. 
So she headed off to the Keahou Shopping Center and I headed for the beach. 

    There were not too many swimmers at 10 AM and the water was just deep enough for me to slide out over the rocks.  And there was another piece of good news...the water wasn't all that cold.  My fear of  a mask leak, unfortunately, was well founded and I was soon emptying my mask about once a minute.  Sometimes I would concentrate on what I was doing and suffer a nose full of water. 

    Early on in the swim, the strangest thing happened.  The camera changed from automatic focus to manual focus.  I had no idea that the Olympus TG 5 could do this.  That being the case (total

ignorance), I had no idea how to focus the camera.  I recognized the problem immediately and attempted to fix it, looking down at the camera through my water logged mask, nose full of water,

Shortnose wrasse juvenile Kahalu'u February 2019

being bumped against one coral head after the next.  All the while fiddling fruitlessly with the buttons.  There are several to choose from, none of them worth a damn.  Despite pausing for several uncomfortable minutes on at least three occasions, I was unable to find the proper sequence to restore automatic focus.  Thus, for virtually the entire water logged swim, I continued to take pictures that were in focus if the subject was five to seven feet away.  Bummer.

    All that aside (strong current, leaking mask and uncooperative camera) I experienced some pretty clear water, which was downright warm in a few spots, and some pretty good fish.  The best fish early on was a juvenile shortnose wrasse.  The adult of this diminutive species, has an amazing array of colorful luminescent spots.  As you see here, this juvenile, which was swimming with some baby parrots, bird and belted wrasse, was basically brown with a constellation of white spots.  This juvenile fish is pretty rare elsewhere, but occurs regularly in the spring at Kahalu'u.  Here I am including the best I could do given the focusing problem.


    There was a nice variety of other fish, including a foraging whitemouth moray and a large zebra

Star eye parrot, Kahalu'u February 2019

that was sleeping inside a coral. 

   Before I headed for the beach, I encountered a very colorful star eye parrotfish.  This is a very common species at Kahalu'u and the lighter hued males, like this one, can be very colorful, indeed.  Lucky for us, he allowed me to swim within the four to seven foot range.

   On my way out, I saw a small juvenile raccoon butterfly.  While raccoon butterflies are common where ever we swim, the juvenile raccoon is rare as hen's teeth.  You will recall that I showed you a picture of what might have been my first taken at Mahukona six or so months ago.  Yesterday's fish was smaller and even more distinctive.  He was in the channel where the water was only six inches deep and swishing in and out, turbulent and cloudy. But the little fish was only a foot or so in front of me for as much as 20 seconds, so despite these difficult conditions,  I got an excellent look.  He was very square in shape, about two inches on a side and had a distinctive black occulus in the upper aft quadrant.  I am including a picture from the internet to give you a better idea what this particular fish looked like.  John Hoover states that

Extreme Juvenile Raccoon Butterflyfish , Volox Underwater Photography

extreme juvenile raccoons may be found in tidepools.  The exit at Kahalu'u now approximates a rocky tidepool with the added feature of some current.

   This was a great fish upon which to conclude this difficult swim.   Sandra met me in the shelter and got the grump home where she soothed my wet feathers with some warm soup.  Its spring at K Bay and I'm sure our next swim there will be more pleasant. Perhaps we will see you there.

jeff