The Shrimp Goby and other Curiosities

    Yesterday was a beautiful day, just perfect for dropping off some yard debris in Waikoloa and coupling it with a dip at Kawaihae.   And so it was on this perfect morning that we hooked up with Peter and Marla at the Kawaihae surf park.  Marla was heading out for a walk and so it was just the three of us that headed down to the harbor to find a shrimp goby. 

Hawaiian Shrimp Goby.  Kawaihae   May 2020

   Once Peter started looking for shrimp gobies, we discovered how we missed them on our first attempt. We had been looking around rocks out in the sand, where as the shrimp gobies are right at the junction where the sloping rocky littoral meets the sandy bottom.  On our first attempt, sans Sr Kroppje, we were ten feet too far out to sea, which if you'er looking for a two inch basically invisible fish is ten feet too far.  Suffice it to say it took our friend less than five minutes to turn us on to a few of these minuscule life fish.

    I was wearing four pounds of lead so I was able to get down and attempt some picture taking.  As you can see, I got one acceptable photo.  Oddly, I took several pictures that turned out to be only silt and rock.  Apparently the goby darted into the shrimp hole while I was triggering the shutter.   Well, at least we got one picture and the Hawaiian shrimp goby is safely on our Hawaii list.  Where

A trembling nudibranch streaks for the end zone.  Go Huskies!

else, you might ask, could it possibly be?

    As we had only been in the water for fifteen minutes the three of us went out to the platforms.  On the first platform, Peter found a gloomy nudibranch.  The second platform was crawling with urchins.  Not sea urchins but local children who climb to the top and then delight in the twelve foot plunge back into the harbor.

  Plunging children did not deter us and we found both the painted and the trembling nudibranchs.  This was my first trembling of the year.  It is such a lovely animal and always a pleasure to see.  In as much as our Huskies are unlikely to take to the gridiron come September, we have to find our purple and gold where we can.

   The painted was a truly tiny animal, a millimeter or so across and five mm in length.  There was something about the shape as it clung to the fouling muck that suggested a sea slug, so I took a picture.  It was only when I expanded the image on the camera that I could see what it was, indeed, a painted nudibranch of incredibly small size.

A tiny painted nudibranch feasting on the fouling debris.

    At this point Peter and Sandra headed back to the beach.  It's summer now, so I was happy to extend my swim around the corner.  I passed the pair of resident cleaner wrasses and then was pleased to find a keiki cleaner wrasse running a station another fifteen feet past his parents.  I have yet to tire of this active little fish with his broad iridescent blue stripe.  This day we got a nice picture of the tiny blue dart working on a kole.

  On the way back in I checked out the trembling nudibranch.  At this point I would only have needed the decorated nudibranch to have seen the four likely suspects that we see on the platforms.  And I ask you, who among us does not want to put houses and hotels on nudibranchs?

A juvenile cleaner wrasse services a kole,  Kawaihae  May 2020

     I had just given up my search for the decorated nucibranch when I caught the eye of the ringleader atop the platform.  "Do you see anything down there?"  this latter day artful dodger queried me from his lofty perch.  "Nudibranchs."  I replied.  I might as well have said "Higgs bosuns." then neither of
us would have known what the hell I was talking about.  In response to his blank look I said, "Sea slugs."  Well, everybody knows what a slug is, so he muttered "sea slugs" to himself and we exchanged a shaka and I swam off.

   But before I swam too far, I took a couple pictures of the kids up on the platform.  That crack about the artful dodger was just to keep you amused.  This is one of the great family spots on our island and I'm sure these are great kids.  And I gotta ask ya, does this look like the life or what?  Undoubtedly mom is waiting on shore under a canopy with a hamper full of sandwiches and sodas.  Why can't I be a kid again?

On the Platform.  Kawaihae 2020.

   This was a great morning of critter watching, but there was one more curiosity in store for us.  Just after Highway 11 passes Walmart going south through Kailua, one comes to a patch of grass about one hundred yards in length.  People sell things here on the side of the road.  Chinese crackers, Krispy Creme donuts, pit bull puppies, aku and ahi and used cars.  Every now and then politicians and their

Demonstrators along Hwy 11 urge Governor Ige to open up tourism.  Photo SKG

supporters will appear, soliciting your vote in the upcoming election.  Today there were demonstrators, perhaps 150 of them.  Their placards extolled a variety of virtues,  "Small businesses are people too"  and the like.  However,  the main thrust was that Kona needs to be opened to tourism.

   At this moment, from the standpoint of contracting the virus, Sandra and I are living in the safest place on the planet.  But sometime soon this is going to change.  If those guys with the signs have their way it will be even sooner.

Stay happy and safe,
jeff

The Cowry, the Calastoma and the Dragon. Three Great Keikis at Kahalu'u

  A couple days ago Sandra and I timed the tide and headed down to Kahalu'u.  The beaches had been opened for just a couple days and there were a few people at the outside picnic tables and a few

Reticulated Cowrie juvenile  Kahalu'u May 2020

sheltering in place under beach umbrellas.  Although the beach is open, the shelter remains closed.  We wasted no time grabbing our fins and masks and heading into the water.  Halfway through a big rising tide,  it was about  +1 foot, no crawling over the rocks today.

    Out in the bay, we started examining lumps of coral.  Immediately we found a very unusual cowrie sitting on the sand in a coral depression.   As you can see, the smooth dorsum of the shell was very dark with a confused swirl and slash of grays and dark browns.   One band reminded me of the storm pattern in  Navajo carpet.  Although one rarely dwells on the foot of the cowrie shell, this one was pretty nice, mostly a creamy white with seriously dark teeth dipping into the depths of the shell.  Having taken three pictures we returned the cowrie into the sea, deep inside the coral depression.

Reticulated Cowrie juvenile, foot.  Kahalu'u May 2020

   This was the first of twp animals I needed help identifying.  Neither Mike Severn's Hawaiian Seashells or Hoover's Sea Creatures contained anything like this bizarre shell.  My motto is, "When in doubt, fire off some emails."   And so the Great Oz, Pauline Fiene and Marta deMaintenon, PhD were simultaneously consulted with the blazing headline:

LOOK AT THIS COWRIE!

   Pauline won the speed portion of the contest.

 Hi Jeff:   I knew without even looking at the photo what it would be! It is a juvenile reticulated cowrie. Since it doesn’t look like the adult, nor like any cowrie in books, people are always wondering what it is :-)    Pauline

    As Pauline is the blushing bride of Mike Severns, it sort of makes you wonder why she didn't tell him to put it in the book.  Maybe she likes getting emails from crusty old men.

This flash picture permits a look into the depth of the cowrie shell matrix.

    John Hoover came in second in the speed division with the same identification.  And then, a close third, but with indisputably the best information, came the doctor:
 

That's a juvenile/ subadult, that's why the pattern is weird. Looks like one of the Mauritia group species. Check Stenders' web site, he has some pictures of juveniles under M. maculifera that are pretty similar.     M

 

   So check it out. Here is a link to the muculifera page on Keoki Stender's  site.  Find the juvenile in the second row from the top and you will agree that my three experts are correct.  Keoki's picture of the foot is much stranger than mine.  Obviously his cowrie has not yet achieved the adult shape of the shell, lacks the flat foot of beautiful white with burgundy teeth.  Keoki's cowrie is still sucking on a bottle of formula while our's is enjoying a glass of Chateau Margaux!

https://keokistender.com/marine/mollusks/gastropods/cowries/cypraea-maculifera.htm

Like the shifting of the continents, so is the shell of the juvenile cowry

 

    But even more insightful is the idea of a cowry shell in transition, the different shell elements moving around like continental shelves over geologic time.  If you look carefully maybe you can find Gondwanaland or maybe even Pangaea.  The picture I took with the flash really permits you to look deep into the shell, to lose yourself in the mystery.  Just think, those swirls and slashes of confusion will soon coalesce into the harmony of an adult reticulated cowrie.  Its enough to give ya goose bumps.

    A big thanks to Marta for opening up the meaning of this phase in the cowries' development.

 

   We swam for awhile, just enjoying each other's company and a large number of the usual fish.  The pandemic has had the side effect of hugely reducing the tourist pressure on this struggling jewel of Kahalu'u.  Bob Hillis did not coin the phrase, "Full contact snorkeling" for no reason.   After three months of rest,

Star eye parrotfish Calotomus carolinus juvenile, Kahalu'u 2020

  the coral looks better and there are clearly more shells full of critters.

   Before our next big find, I saw a Strasburg's blenny in a coral depression.  About the same time, he saw me and darted, tail first, into a hole.  Strasburg's is a medium sized blenny with a light chocolate checkerboard pattern.  I tried to wait him out, but he just sat in his hole giving me the fish eye.

    Luckily, something better was just a meter or so away.  Playing with a variety of other keikis, Sandra and I watched a small green fish, roughly 2 inches in length and very shaggy around the fins and face.  He boasted three lines of brilliant white spots on his mottled green flank.  I had the sense that I might have seen this unusual fish before, but had never identified it.  He proved to be very patient and permitted us the opportunity for several photos.  

 

The shaggy look.  Star eye parrot keiki turning towards you.

  Sandra and I were convinced that this two inch sprite was an extreme juvenile wrasse of some sort.  We poured over John's book, thinking the two spot wrasse was the closest to what we had seen.  Curiously, the photo of the two spot juvenile was, in the words of the Redoubtable SKG, "taken by my friend Pauline."  With this in mind, we gave the Queen of Nudibranchs first chance to flaunt her erudition.  By this morning, lacking an answer, we turned it over to the Great Oz, who referred us to page 206 in his book.  There we found a fine picture of the juvenile star eye parrotfish, Calotomus carolinus.

 

    The second picture that I'm showing you is of the fish turning towards the camera.  Thus you get a good look at the shaggy visage that this keiki presents to the world.  This is one peculiar little fish.  

 

    One might have though that this was enough treasures for one day and, indeed, we decided to head for the barn.  Right away we got stalled by a large punctured miter that contained a hermit crab.  We gave the crab a couple minutes to show himself, but finally satisfied ourselves with pictures of the nice

Punctured miter with a hermit crab inside

big shell.

 

   Again we started swimming for the beach.  after only a few strokes I heard Sandra yelling.  She sounded like a cowgirl at the Calgary Stampede.  "Whoop, whoop, whoop!" she yelled.  When I caught up with her, she was pointing at a big green dragon wrasse.  My unpublished data suggests that only 5% of dragon wrasses are green.  This one was the greenest ever.  Like the juvenile star eye, this guy was very cooperative.  Unless you have something against the color of money, you ought to like this fish.  

  Sooner or later Governor Ige is going to invite the tourists to return to these very Sandwich Islands and full contact snorkeling will, once again, be the rule of the day at K Bay.  In the meantime we can enjoy the splendor of this special place and the abundance of our underwater wildlife.

jeff

B'gosh and Begoren.  Its a Dragon Wrasse dressed for St. Paddy's Day!

On the Trail of the Shrimp Goby

    A few days ago we received a report from our friend Peter.  We had last seen him working the third platform at Kawaihae with Hai.  After that, I lost them.  I swam over to the little reef mauka of the landing, where it was extremely cloudy and went ashore.  After showering, we said good bye to Marla, who was doomed to wait for her peripatetic spouse who was nowhere to be seen.  If only she had had a widow's walk, like the wives of whaling captains trod back in Nantucket, it would have been perfect.

Hawaiian Shrimp Goby Courtesy Donahue Lab

    Before Peter returned to his long suffering wife, he had made a discovery.  In the sand very near
the spot where I enter, he had found three Hawaiian shrimp gobies.  He reported that they were in three to seven feet of water, guarding shrimp holes near rocks. He included a beautiful picture, which I am not including here.  (Look at Peter's blog, onebreathkohala.) Instead, I am including somebody else's picture, so you can see what we were looking for.

    That patch of sand, less that twenty yards across, is well known to us.  Although Peter wasn't available to guide us on the spur of the moment, schmoopie and I headed north, dropping off a load of yard debris at the Waikoloa Transfer Station in the time honored fashion. Once at the harbor park we were immediately greeted by a large family of young Hawaiians who had arrived in three vehicles.  Yes, Virginia, although the 14 day quarantine remains in effect for you newly arriving hauoli tourists, the beaches are now open to residents, with the admonition that we practice social distancing.

Mouflon Sheep Mort

    The driver of the first car was proudly displaying a mouflon sheep's head.  When questioned he said that he had shot it himself the day before on the slopes of Mauna Kea, and that they were going to dine on mutton in the near future.

    The mouflon sheep (Ovis orientalis) may be the progenitor for all modern sheep.  The current range of the original animal is the mountains of Turkey, Iran and Iraq and up into the Caucasus. It has been introduced in various other locations in Europe.  Mouflon rams were cross bred with feral ewes and both pure mouflon sheep and the hybrids were released on Mauna Kea between 1962 and 1966.  Along with feral goats and other introduced ungulates, they live at high elevations on Mauna Kea.  It is perfectly legal to hunt them, a license costs a paltry $10 and is good for mouflon sheep, pigs and goats.  You can only hunt in designated hunting areas, which coincide with the best place to see the native Hawaiian parrotbill finch, the palila.  When searching for these birds, which Sandra and I have done successfully on several occasions, it is best not to look or sound like a medium sized ungulate.

    "Bah!" you say.   Well, OK.  Just say it quietly.  And stop looking so sheepish.

    If you are a big game hunter, Nahele Outfitters can fix you up for a three day hunt, meals lodging and tags for $5800.  At those prices, you might as well go to Africa.

    Our new acquaintance didn't want to pose with his trophy, but did permit me to nab the photo you see in the back of his truck.  Shortly there after we were off to the sandy flats.

Giant Shrimp Goby  Lipah Bay, Bali 2008

     The water was quite clear and following Peter's instructions, Sandra and I looked at the holes near the rocks.  In less than five minutes I found a very small fish sitting on the sand not particularly near a shrimp hole.  To the best of my recollection it was creamy white, almost translucent, with fine horizontal lines. I took a picture from the surface and called Sandra over to look.  As she arrived, I pointed and said, sotto voce,  "Its very small."

   This was very different from what I expected, for I had a small amount of experience with shrimp
gobies.  In the winter of 2008, in Lipah Bay on the Island of Bali, I saw and photographed shrimp gobies.  These fish are so named because they co-habitate a burrow excavated by a shrimp.  The goby watches out for predators while the shrimp digs.  I was perfectly happy to label this picture shrimp goby" and expend no further effort to apply a genus and species to that description.

The adolescent Sailfin Tang celebrates Memorial Day 2020

    Yesterday I attempted to remedy that oversight.  As it turns out, there are about 40 species of shrimp gobies in the Western Pacific.  The one I had photographed, but not identified, was the Giant shrimp goby.  It grows to almost 6 inches.  For a dozen years I suffered under the misapprehension that this was the size of all shrimp gobies.  In fact, most are just over 2 inches in length.  This may explain, at least in part, why I have not seen any shrimp gobies in Hawaii. 

   As Sandra watched the tiny fish, he buried himself in the sand.  This is a trick employed by lizardfish, but gobies and blennies tend to dart into holes.  Hoover's Ultimate guide shows three small gobies that live on the sand, in addition to the shrimp goby.  They are all roughly two inches in
length.   There will be more chances to get back to that patch of sand; the shrimp goby has not heard the last of us.

A feather duster worm spreads its plumage in the coral, Kawaihae 2020.

    From there, we swam into the small coral reef.  The water was very clear for that area and to our
delight we soon found the maturing sailfin tang.  This was the first time that Sandra had seen this individual.  As you can see, he is still yellow and looks very much like he did a month or so ago.  He was quite skittish, but persistence paid off with this photo which ca be added to the sequence. 

   While we were cruising this modest patch of coral, we were graced with a handsome feather duster worm.  We have seen the feather dusters growing on the landing and the pylons of the platforms, but I had not seen one growing in the coral.  Its very handsome and I thought you would enjoy a look.
    
     At Kawaihae, more than any other place I snorkel, the little Hawaiian spotted toby, Canthigaster jacator, swims about with its belly inflated.  There was one very friendly little fellow just itching to display this curious pot belly for you.

Canthigaster jacator with a bulging belly

     Back on the beach, the Hawaiians were fishing from shore  with spears in the water and the mouflon sheep was still peering out from the back of the truck. 

   We will be back to Kawaihae soon and with any luck we will be able to add the shrimp goby to our list.

jeff

The Tale of the Broad Fronted Crab and Other Delights

    The coral spawning quarantine that closed Kahalu'u to snorkelers (but not surfers) ended today.  Accordingly, after a quick stop at Long's Drugs for a box of frozen hamburgers, Sandra and I took the swooping drive down to Kahalu'u.  It was a drop dead gorgeous

Snowflake Moray Eel,  May 2020.  Welcome to Kahalu'u

morning, with rain forecasted for the afternoon.  Of late, this has been our expected weather situation.  

    We had timed our arrival to correspond with the tide and at 10 AM there was plenty of water.  As I was putting on my fins, I was joined by a small snowflake moray eel who was looking for his breakfast among the rocks of the entry.  Out in the bay, as I finished adjusting my flippers, I saw another small snowflake poking his nose out of a rocky crevice.  Seems like Mrs.Snowflake has been busy.  In the wintertime my soulmate likes to sing a song about Suzy Snowflake.  Who knew that this playful child of winter was an eel?   Here is a link if you would like to step back into Sandra's childhood:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEe6KOWdbUs

   Our usual path involves hitting the coral heads out a bit, and at the seaward from the entry.

An Unusual Broad Fronted Crab, John Earle and John Hoover

  At the second coral head we hit pay dirt.  Dodging in and out from the shelter of a large piece of debris was a small crab, deep brownish red, with a few white spots on the carapace and white stripes on the legs.  Sandra and I both got a look at this crab which we thought was just less than two inches across the carapace.  I took a couple attempts at getting a picture, but precious little was visible when he hunkered down.  I backed off and hoped he would come out for a shot.  As it happened, he scuttled across the small opening, providing two seconds of complete visibility.  A good look, but not one suited to photography.

  Back at the ranch I repaired first to John Hoover's Sea Creatures... thus identifying this small furtive crab as a broad fronted crab.  I first saw this crab a year ago, also at Kahalu'u and if you have nothing better to do, you can look at the blog form March 3, 2019 for the

Professeur Joseph Poupin

gory details.  I didn't get as good a look  in 2019, but I took a marginally better picture. The picture in John Hoover's book isn't all that good, so I checked on the internet for a better one.  Not surprisingly, I ended up in the crab section of John's web site.  Here I found a slightly unusual picture of this species and the following account by the Great Oz, himself:

    John Earle captured this crab on video at the Lanai Lookout, Oahu. Dr. Peter Ng identified it as a species of the genus Xanthias. Dr. Joseph Poupin further identified it as Xanthias latifrons. There is already a photo of X. latifrons in my book Hawaii's Sea Creatures, but it shows a specimen with a slightly different color pattern.

    For those of you with memories like an elephant seal, you might recall that Joseph Poupin is a world famous carcinologist and a professor at the Ecole Navale in Brest, France.  Ever so long ago, in 2006 and 2007,  he assisted Patsy McLaughlin as we identified Calcinus revi (a tiny white hermit crab) we found on the reef in front of Alii Villas.  This was a new species for the Hawaiian Islands, for the entire United States, in fact.  And at this juncture, I must give credit to Sandra who did the computer search that was crucial in setting this identification in motion.   For a year or two the professeur called me Jeff and I called him Joseph.  And everyone called Sandra la petite fleur de mer.  

     Patsy is now identifying the crabs she finds under the rocks on St.

Strawberry Drupe Drupa rubusidaeus   Kahalu'u   May 2020

Peter's Beach.  Its good to see that Professerr Poupin is still on this side of the sea cucumbers.  

    Back in the bay closer to the Menehune Breakwater I spotted a strawberry drupe.  A few months ago, this was a life mollusc.  You may recall the beautiful golden operculum and the lovely rose around the aperture borne by this medium sized sea snail.  This one was roughly the size of one of those tangerines you buy in an onion sack at Costco.  I can not attest to its taste, although its difficult to believe that the Hawaiians would not eat it, given the opportunity. 

    Hoover says it lives on deeper shelves.  This year we are finding it in shallow protected waters.  

     This guy had a strong grip on its chunk of dead coral and Sandra and I decided to leave it in peace.  Pax vobiscum, Signore Fragole.  

    We were seeing lots of our friendly fishes as we made the circuit.  Out near the Rescue Shelter I ran across a large triton shell with just  a hint of the leg of an elegant hermit crab.  This was a big shell, the size often carried by large blood crabs.   The crab inside was about as big as I have seen for this species.    The elegant hermit crab, Ca. elegans,  is an

Elegant Hermit Crab, Kahalu'u  May 2020

intermediate sized hermit crab.  John Hoover tells us that it can achieve a carapace of about 2 cm, while most of the other hermits you will see mentioned here, the hidden, Hazlett's and Guam, are only a third that size.  The one we kept  as a pet at Alii Villas was known as the Mikado.

     This brute did not get a pass.  In spite of a significant current and waves bouncing me around, I manipulated the large triton shell onto an exposed piece of coral.  Luckily Sandra was there to help with the camera and the spotting.  Together we worked this elegant subject for about five minutes, lots of diving and holding on following which it was time to head in.  And I ask you, doesn't he look like a Mikado?

   We had a delightful time at Kahlu'u and I'm sure we will enjoy those frozen hamburgers.  I hope the quarantine is treating you well.  If you have crab for dinner, raise a toast to the Mikado.  

Cheers,
jeff

  

   

  

Kona Makai at 69

    It was 1992, in the aftermath of Hurricane Iniki, when I first came to the Big Island.  Iniki had devastated our intended destination of Kauai and our travel agent, aware that I liked to snorkel, suggested Hawaii Island.  At the same time, she set us up to stay at Kona Makai.

The author by the fishpond preparing to launch. Photo SKG

    It was a stormy winter's day when my young family arrived at Kona Makai.  Dark clouds scudded over the ocean and wild surf crashed against the rocks.  I was standing on the deck, looking out over the billowing sea when a resident walked up beside me.  "So where do people go snorkeling around here?" I asked my new acquaintance.  "Right down there." he said, pointing at the tiny inlet we call the fish pond.  On that day it looked less like a pond and more like the business end of an electric mixer on steroids. 

   That night I had nightmares about swimming off Kona Makai.

   Since that surrealistic beginning almost thirty years ago we have done a lot of swimming at Kona Makai and seen some remarkable fish there. In recent years, as we have discovered new spots with more and better reef fish, swimming at Kona Makai has become less frequent.  However, I like to swim there at least once a year just to prove to myself that I can still do it, that I am still a member of the tribe, justified in dipping my hand into the communal bento box.

    I had been watching the tides and the surf and decided that yesterday would be a great day to log my Kona Makai snorkel for my 69th year on the planet.  Sandra and I were down there early.  We had

Achilles Tang    Kona Makai   May 2020

expected no wave action , but there was enough small surf for her to warn me several times not to take any chances.  I left her to read, sitting pretty in the shade on the Alii Villas pediment, while I walked carefully across the rolling pahoehoe to the time trusted entry.  While I was fumbling to get my gear together, without falling on the lava in the process, a man perhaps ten years younger than myself walked down, put on his fins and jumped in.  Show off.  At about this time Sandra took a picture which I have titled Unsteady Jeff. 

   Eventually, I was all set and slid into the fish pond.   Right away I saw a couple Achilles tangs.  With his bright orange caudal peduncle, precisely the shape of Achilles heel, this is one of our favorite fish. Back in 1992 when I was teaching my boys the fish, James called this fish 'chilles tang.  He also said pisghetti.  Isn't that precious?  The Achilles tang used to be fairly common everywhere.  Either fishing pressure or environmental change has reduced its numbers.  Here at Kona Makai it is still common.

Yellow Margin Moray Eel Kona Makai 2020

   Its hard to go home and its difficult for me to swim at Kona Makai.  Virtually all the coral is gone, along with the animals that rely upon it.  Surgeonfish and triggerfish, which are primarily vegetarians, are still present.  And we saw a few of the more common butterflyfish, but all those little blennies and hawkfish were not to be found.  Towards the end of my swim I saw the juvenile of the blackside (freckled) hawkfish perched on a rare piece of coral.  My effort at taking his picture only served to chase him away.  In 40 minutes, that may have been the only hawkfish I saw. 

    Just as I was ready to head back into the fishpond, a reticulated butterflyfish swam by.  This handsome fish with his houndstooth coat is a favorite.

Reticulated Butterflyfish  Kona Makai  May 2020

   Getting out was no problem, even in my aged and decrepit state.  A Japanese lady with her lap dog was sitting in the sun near the exit.  I had the sense that she was wondering if she would be responsible for calling 911 when I fell.  

    Kona Makai condominiums still has a hose by the pool that is available for snorkelers to use for a shower and gear wash.

 Thus refreshed, I met up with Sandra.  Mission accomplished.  Now I can look forward to turning 70 with a clean conscience.

   While the lack of fish at Kona Makai bordered on the horrifying, the underwater topography, with large boulders and lava tubes makes for an interesting snorkel.  And as we saw with the reticulated butterfly, if you are in the water, you never know what might swim by.

jeff

 

Locust Lobster, Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

The best sighting of the day was made by Sandra.  While I was swimming in the ocean, she was checking out the tidepools where a dozen years ago we found rare hermit crabs.  While she was stepping carefully from one slick stone to the other, a small brown crustacean leaped from the shallow water. And then it leaped again before scuttling under a rock.  After looking over John Hoover's critter book, she is convinced that she saw a Hawaiian Locust Lobster.  Here we are showing a picture of a locust lobster borrowed from Wikipedia.  Note the blunt face.  If you happen to have a copy of Hoover's book, the picture there is much better. 

  

A Kailua Pier Update...Snorkeling on Mother's Day

   Yesterday was Mother's Day.  The authorities took note of that auspicious celebration of motherhood, and in a biologic sense, sexual reproduction.  And they carried it to its logical extreme.  This year Mother's Day coincided with the spawning of the cauliflower coral.  Some bureaucrat decided that even a paltry few swimmers would decrease the success of this activity and closed

A Mellow Yellow Red Shouldered Tang adolescent  Kailua Bay May 2020

several Big Island beaches to swimming for the five days projected for cauliflower coral spawning.

   It was only three years ago when Lindsey Kramer, our DLNR marine biologist, encouraged me and other narture-minded snorkelers to check out the coral in the morning during this period.   The water at the pier was cold and I didn't witness any spawning coral.  Over the last two years though, associated with cooler summer water, a variety of pocillipora coras have started to make a foothold around Kona.

   Compared to any previois year, when swimming was encouraged during this coral spawning period and there were legions of visitors thrashing the waters at Kahalu'u, there are incredibly few snorkelers at K Bay.  So this decision to close the bay to this paltry few seems odd at best.  I wonder where the bureaucrats got the idea?

   At any rate, Kahalu'u was not available for a morning swim, so Sandra and I came up with a plan for a Mothers Day swim at the pier.  We arrived a little after 9 AM and there were already lots of swimmers.  I got changed and left my stuff on the ground, eschewing the cubbyholes, which were, in any event, quite full.  What this meant was that the recreational swimmers are back in force.

Guineafowl Puffer, Kailua Bay May 2020

    Out in the water I immediately saw a juvenile red shouldered tang.  This keiki starts out all yellow, usually with a faint orange shoulder patch.  As he matures he trades up to the two tones of gray and a progressively prominent red shoulder patch.  The fish I saw was eight or nine inches, clearly a teenager, but he was still completely yellow.  He was cooperative enough to let me take this picture so you can see for
yourself.  We have seen these persistently yellow fish before, but this was an especially nice one.

 I swam out in the the shallow area, thus keeping out of the way of the swimmers.  In the shallows I caught a very cooperative Guineafowl Puffer who was just itching to have his picture taken.

   At about this time I noticed that there were no boats using the pier or the mooring buoys.  Figuring it was safe, I spent the next twenty minutes on the other side of the swim buoys.  It is interesting that out where the large boats tie up to the buoys, the coral is dramatically better than on the mauka side of the swim buoys.   Although it is a little deeper there, one has to assume that the better coral is

Ornate Wrasse Kailua Pier   May 2020

related to less pressure from thoughtless swimmers. Maybe those beach-closing bureaucrats had a point, after all.

    Unfortunately, all of this did not correlate with a whole bunch of interesting fish.  Out by the last swim buoy I found a nice male Ornate Wrasse.  He was down around ten feet, but I was able to dive down several times and take his picture.  From above, one got the full effect of his iridescent green lines.  From the side, we get the color on his face.  Neither photo is perfect.

   Ornate wrasse is not an uncommon fish, but it is not found frequently at Kawaihae or Kahalu'u, so I was happy to see it. 

   I got ashore in time to shower before getting picked up by my sweetie.  I was surprised to see that the government has turned off all but one shower head and posted a sign about social distancing in the shower.  This did not affect the social distancing while waiting in line for a shower, but everyone

Ornate Wrasse  Kailua Pier   May 2020

seemed smart and determined to do the right thing.

   The one other thing that the government has done is to close the dressing rooms, replacing them with two porta-potties on the ladies side of the building.  I wasn't going to change in any event and I didn't walk around the mauka side of the building to count the homeless.  My sense is that closing that brick and mortar restroom has forced the unfortunate to find other facilities.

    So my Mothers Day snorkel turned out pretty well.  There is plenty of swimming taking place at the pier, the various boats that use the pier may be elsewhere and the facilities have been reclaimed by the citizenry. Perhaps I will see you down there.

jeff

The Brown Anole Lizard at Casa Ono

The Anole Lizard and the Money God  photo by SKG

    Yesterday while I was recovering form snorkeling, Sandra was out cruising in the yard with her cell phone.  She saw one of our many anole lizards gazing at the Money God and couldn't resist taking his picture.  While she watched, a moth fluttered nearby and the lizard was on it faster than a marine on a
grenade.  As she had her camera in hand, she was able to get a photo of the lizard holding the moth in its mouth.

   The brown anole lizard is native to Cuba and the Bahamas.  It has been sold as a pet throughout the United States for many years.  When released in a suitable environment it is remarkably successful, out competing, and in many cases dining upon, native species.  For example the green anole lizard of the Carolina's is now seen infrequently.

   The brown anole lizard was introduced to Oahu in 1980.  It wasn't until 2011 that it was reported from the Big Island.  I have been seeing these fast, muscular little lizards for many years, but in the last year or so their population has exploded.  Like miniature velociraptors, they leap from rock to

The anole lizard catches a moth  Photo by SKG

rock as we make their way around the yard.  

   Not unlike geckos, if one moves slowly and talks baby talk to an anole lizard, it will allow you to approach within a foot or so.  If you have a large male, and you are both complimentary and patient, he will extend his remarkable orange dewlap for your pleasure.  As Sandra had such good luck with the moth eating anole yesterday, she and I took a short walk this morning and nabbed this picture of one of our stud anoles extending his dewlap. 

   There is a lot to recommend anole lizards.  They don't seem to come in the house, so they don't require cleaning up after.  My sense is that they are far more intelligent than geckos, although both are clearly carnivores.  If I had to pick one or the other for my best friend, I would definitely pick an anole lizard.  Luckily I have

A male anole lizard extends his dewlap.  Who's a good boy?

Sandra, so that isn't likely to come up in the immediate future. 

jeff

Early Morning at Kahalu'u or Should I shake hands with the eel?

  

   This morning we had lots to do, so if I was going to get my swim down at K Bay, I had to go early.  I left the house at 7:30 and was sitting in the water putting on my fins at 7:45.  In addition to being early, it was a cloudy day, so I didn't have much natural light to make my pictures look happy.  On the bright side, aside

Saddleback Wrasse, Kahalu'u May 2020

from the homeless guy who was using the facilities, I had the park to myself.  

   Unlike a few days before, the water where I sat had not been warmed by the sun, so it was a little chilly.  On the other hand it was not high tide, so there wasn't a lot of the chilly water to contend with.  After crawling through the opening, I was greeted by a flotilla of night sergeants.  And the water was a little warmer.

    Out in the bay there was not an excess of sunshine, but there were plenty of fish.  Early on I had a nice encounter with the resident pair of saddleback butterflies.  I was cautious and they let me get pretty close.  I don't know if you guys in the peanut gallery appreciate this, but after the lined butterfly, which is a very big fish, this is our second biggest butterflyfish.  If the light had been a little better, this would have been a picture suitable for a guidebook.  Oh well.

    For those few of you who are not kapunas, which the State of Hawaii and Costco now officially  define as over 65 years of age,  the peanut gallery originated in vaudeville, comprising the cheapest

The juvenile cleaner wrasse wishes you a happy Cinco de Mayo.

and rowdiest of seats.  I doubt any of us are old enough to remember vaudeville.  But some of us are old enough to remember Howdy Doody.  The Howdy Doody show originated in 1943 as a radio show on WNBC in New York.  It was one of the first programs to make the transition to television, way back in 1947. It was the very first children's television program!  The host, Buffalo Bob Smith, who was from buffalo, NY,  wore Western garb as did the eponymous puppet.  And the children who appeared on the live program, were, you guessed it, the Peanut Gallery.  Sitting in front of the TV back in Tacoma, I thought maybe I was a member of the Peanut gallery, as well.  And so, you readers in the blog now know what an auspicious and historical mantle you bear,  Try not to be too rowdy! 

    Just a bit further along, I found the coral where Peter and I had the close encounter with the pair of yellow margin morays.  The tiny blue cleaner wrasse was there working on a female stareye parrotfish.  As I prepared to take my picture the parrotfish said, "Adios."  How do I know this? 

Bluestripe Snapper, Kahalu'u May 2020. 

Today is Cinco de Mayo!

     After the cleaner wrasse, which without the eels was a little anti-climactic, there was a bit of a lull. I made it all the way out to Surfer's rock and suddenly found myself cruising over a large zebra moray.  I could see a foot and a half of his body, but, ostrich like, he was keeping his head buried under a coral ledge.  I was only a couple feet away, and the current kept pushing me back at the eel.  I circled, dove down in front of him and took the flash picture you see here.  He was glowering at me from his shaded depression.  I am supposing that what we are seeing are extruded mouth parts .  It looks silly now, but in as much as there weren't any lifeguards present during this swim , I was more concerned with not being washed too close.  to tell the truth, I didn't want to get bitten by an eel even if there are lifeguards present.

Supermale Yellowtail Coris

     The water continued to be clear and we continued to see fish.  Over by the Rescue shelter, I was
chasing a blue stripe snapper.  He didn't want anything to do with me until I found a porcupinefish hiding in a coral cavern.   Once I started trying to get a picture of the porcupinefish, the bluestripe snapper came right over.  He was like, "Why didn't you say we were going to harass the porcupinefish?  I'm down with that!"

    At the same time I got this picture of a supermale yellowtail coris.  These big males are common at Kahalu'u so we should see lots of little red labrids. 

    Heading towards the end I got this nice picture of an orangespine unicorn tang.  This is a common fish, and with his clown-like markings, one of our most popular.  You would think that he would be easy to photograph, but they are just wary enough to qualify this as a good photo. 

Orangespine Unicorn Tang, Kahalu'u May 2020

   Back on the beach, I watched two kapunettes get in the water while I showered.  And then I got to watch the the lifeguards getting ready for work.  Finally I headed back home, only to discover that I
had left my suit and camera in the changing room.  So, you see, I got to go to Kahalu'u twice on Cinco De Mayo 2020.  I hope you had a good holiday, too.

jeff

   

Grrr!

Little Blue Butterfly

A beautiful sunrise at Casa Ono sans Chuck's house.

    Saturday morning was lovely.  Before seven, I was able to nab a photo of a fleecy cloud lit by the rays of the sun as he nosed above Hualalai.  I'm including a picture of the beautiful sunrise.  Having nothing but time on my hands, I used the clone brush to remove Chuck's roof from the right

foreground.  Other people have taken up baking during the quarantine.  We were already baking, so Sandra has taken up painting and I am spending more time fooling around with my pictures.

   Soon Sandra was coffeed up and we were off to Kahalu'u.  She was excited to go, having read the report of all the fine fish and critters that Peter and I encountered a couple days before, but she was also excited to see the tiny blue butterflies.

   As per the new usual, we parked on the hillside above the beach park.  If our only goal was swimming, it would have been far more convenient to park in the shuttered car park.  As it was, this was the perfect location for butterfly watching.

    Before I got out the door, Sandra had spotted the tiny blue butterflies in the weeds of the vacant lot.  This time we would take pictures and I had the camera at the ready.  As is the case with most butterflies, their flight is quick and irregular.  Hence, I proceeded to take pictures of the weeds,

Lesser Grass Blue Butterfly in resting position

hoping to catch a tiny butterfly in the frame.  In one instance, we spotted a butterfly in resting position and were able to get a pretty good picture of that particular insect.  The other picture that I'm showing you here is a tiny blue butterfly caught at the edge of a frame and enlarged dramatically.  Its sort of amazing that we got useful pictures using this method.

    Back at the ranch, we cropped the pictures and we were very pleased that we had captured these little blue butterflies.  As I mentioned in the prior blog, the only little blue butterfly that should be on our island, as noted in the Hawaii insect museum and other sites, is the Blackburn's blue butterfly.  We had thought this species was only to be found in the same habitat as the Kamehameha butterfly, upland forests.  To get a confirmed identification, I emailed my pictures and field notes to Daniel Rubinoff, the butterfly guy at Hawaii-Manoa.  Here is what he said:

The right way to grow old...sitting in the warm water at Kahalu'u.

Hi Jeff,   That's the lesser grass blue, very small. Came in a few years ago. Zizina otis... yes they are widespread across the islands, especially at low elevations...Dan

    Interestingly, when you look up this butterfly on Wikipedia, you find that it uses plants of the legume family for a host plant.  First on their list is  Alysicarpus vaginalis, which is a common ground cover.  Perhaps it is no coincidence that this is the plant on which the butterfly is perched in my "resting position" picture.  

   So there you have it, yet another introduced species, one so new that it is just finding its proper place on the internet.  If you find yourself in Hawaii, having completed your 14 day mandatory quarantine, look in the grass as you walk to the beach.  Quite possibly you will see Zizina otis.  Highly preferable to seeing a snake in the grass.  Like Donald Trump!

   Down at the beach, Sandra and I were amused to see two kapunas filling the entryway into the bay.

Rockmover intermediate, note the antennae and fin markings.

  As we entered, we said hello and they scooted aside so we didn't get too close.  The tide was near the low high tide, perhaps plus six inches and the water in which the friendly kapunas were sitting was in

the upper eighties.  What a deal for them.

   Out in the bay, there was little current, the water was cooler, but very clear.  Early on we saw a small rockmover that was in the transition phase, moving up from being a dragon wrasse. He was very furtive.  I could tell that he wanted to swim out and flop around like a dragon wrasse, but somehow knew that in his current form he could no longer imitate a piece of seaweed.  He retained the long antennae of the dragon wrasse and some of the alternating markings on his dorsal fin.  Sadly, he was too big to imitate seaweed and too shy for me to get a good picture. I have hyped the contrast in this mediocre picture in hopes that you can see the antennae and the fins.

   Kahalu'u may be the best place in Hawaii to look at rockmovers, so its surprising that we don't see this intermediate form more often.  As we started to swim away we both saw a tiny green dragon wrasse, perhaps about an inch in length.  This fellow was doing a convincing imitation of a piece of  wave tossed seaweed. 

   Following that I took a picture of a very high crowned cone shell,probably an Imperial cone.  Since that species of cone is usually found at depth, we can assume a hermit crab had brought it to the bay.

A Mourning Gecko.  Definitely not an insurance salesman.

   Later in our swim we saw a trio of barred jacks.  Basically, we just had a good time swimming together in the warm water...with very few competing swimmers.

    We started the blog with a picture from our home and so we are going to end it.  Sandra trapped this unusual spotted gecko in her office window.  Her research indicates that this is a mourning gecko.  Here he is getting his picture taken prior to release.  In this instance, the gecko is mourning the fact that his Facebook status has been changed from indoor gecko to outdoor gecko.  In any event, don't buy car insurance from this lizard.

jeff