On the Trial of the Painted Nudibranch

     Over the last few years I have come to the conclusion that high surf in Kona is no less likely in the summer than in the winter.  It could be that the winter storms bring larger waves, waves big enough to wash the sand from White Sands Beach.  But for the proportion of days when the surf is big enough to discourage a rocky entry at City of Refuge or Kona Makai, or cloud the water around the

Three painted nudibranchs on a blue spong.  Kawaihae Harbor August 2019

Kailua Pier, I think it is close to the same.  And, you guessed it, we are in another period of good  surfing conditions right now.   

    Regardless of the surf, I made my way down to the pier a few days ago.  It wasn't only the surf that was of concern; we are now in another very rainy period.  Up at Casa Ono we experienced four inches of rain on three alternating days. That's more than twelve inches of rain in five days!  A week or so ago, Kailua Bay made the Honolulu news, as it was closed for brown water. Woof!  This place used to be  desert, now there are bracket fungi growing on the avocado tree.

    As I arrived at the pier, there was a sweet little Japanese lady (tiny, actually) who was dressing to leave while I was putting on my swim shirt. She told me that the water wasn't too cloudy, but not too clear, either.   All in all, that was good news.

    Well, the water was a little clear near the beach, but I couldn't see the bottom when it was deeper than six feet.  I did some tooling around in the shallows before I got out, but didn't see anything of note.  As I reached the steps, I encountered a problem that may be as bad as brown water.   An insane homeless man was stumbling along pushing a bike and screaming at the voices inside his head.  I let him go on his way before completing my exit.

Painted nudibranchs, Kawaihae Harbor August 2019

    I had a nice cool shower, one of the highlights of snorkeling in the heat of the summer, and then went to change into my dry clothes.  In the restroom, the man and his bike were locked in one of the stalls, where he was continuing his loud assault on the voices.  Kona is not the sweet little beach community it once was.  Rain or shine, we have a problem.

   As the surf was persisting, the following day Sandra and I made our way up to Kawaihae Harbor. 

A Gloomy Nudibranch appears magically on the First Platform

We had checked with Hai, but he was going surfing.  Sure enough, when we arrived his jeep was in the parking lot and he was 50 yards off shore on a board.  Unfotunately for our friend, there was very little surf.  We made it down the the bay, happy to have each other to go snorkeling with.

    We spent some time around the first platform looking for Hai's small black frogfish, but seeing little of note.  At the second platform, it wasn't but a minute or so before I saw a trio of nudibranchs.  They were chubby little guys with green bodies and jaunty red rhinophores and gills.  The largest was about two centimeters long, the smallest half that.  It took me a minute, but I correctly identified them as painted nudibranchs.  This was a species that Hai had found and identified for us a couple months ago.  That animal was small and tucked away.  So poor was that sighting, that I felt guilty including it on my list.  But it did provide the incentive to study the species and file it in the memory banks.

   If we had felt a modicum of shame before, here we had delicious redemption.  These fat little fellows were going nowhere fast and I was able to take a dozen photographs.  I had forgotten my

The distinctive Banded pattern of a juvenile undulated moray.

weights in the car, so I was bobbing around just a bit more than I might have been.  Out of all those pictures I got a few that weren't too bad.  

    We scoured the second and third platforms, seeing some old friends like the wire coral goby and a couple feather duster worms, but no more nudibranchs.  After an hour or so of swimming, Sandra headed to the beach and I took one more spin around the first platform.  Right away, I found a gloomy nudibranch about two feet down, totally out in the open.  Obviously these molluscs are very compressible.  I suppose they can shelter inside sponges and various other fouling plants and animals, but it is sort of weird how they suddenly materialize.  Its almost as if Captain Kirk beams them down.

   Regardless, I nabbed a few pictures of the Gloomy, which is a very handsome nudibranch, similar in coloration to that famous mobile fish, the palette surgeon.

    Having finished with that I was just heading to the beach when I saw, about ten feet down, an undulated moray eel hunting.  The

Kawaihae Harbor, the north shore.  With water spots.

undulated might be the least common of the half dozen morays that we see during the day.  And

there is one other thing about the undulated...they bite.  This guy was sporting the distinctive pattern that John Hoover calls juvenile.  Aware of their reputation, I got a good picture of the tail and didn't get as close for a face shot as I might have.

   Apres swim we enjoyed a nice warm shower by the seaside and then made it over to the restrooms by the marina to change.  While we were there, I nabbed this sweet picture of the north end of the harbor with the tropical foliage in the background, blue water and ffluffy white clouds.   Those water spots in the sky are just what you would expect from a camera after a great morning of snorkeling.

jeff

A second look at this day's gloomy.