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