The Dawn of Fish Watching

   Last Monday after I finished my swim and was on the way to the shower, I happened by the canopy that the Reef Teachers are using.  Having something special to share, namely the photos of the Bloody Hermit Crab, I chatted them up.  The three ladies and one gentleman were interested and it seemed like the blood crab was new to all of them.  While they were ogling the pictures, it came

out that one of the trio of ladies was the head of the Reef Teacher organization.  She introduced

The old orange lifeguard tower isn't the only thing missing from Kahalu'u

herself and let it slip that she was working on lists of the fish and critters found at Kahalu'u.  Only
one list for critters, but she was compiling two lists for the fish, before and after 1990.

  As it turns out Kathleen Clark is the Marine Stewardship and Education Specialist for Kahalu'u Bay Education Center.  She has a post office box in Waimea, but I believe her office is in a building out near Costco.  The gentleman reef teacher was kind enough to give me Kathleen's card and she invited me to stay in touch, saying that she would welcome help with her lists.

   After my post snorkeling nap, I wrote Kathleen a letter of introduction.  This grew progressively more manic and I polished it off by quoting Michael Keaton in his timeless guise as Beetlejuice, "You think I'm qualified?"

The best bait to catch a Reef Teacher, The Bloody Hermit Crab, D. sanguinocarpus

   Luckily Kathleen has a sense of humor.  She wrote back saying that she had read and enjoyed some of the most recent blogs and that she would, indeed, welcome my help with the lists.  Best of all, she included the list that you will find in the accompanying blog.  I was unable to turn it into a file and
insert it in this blog.  In fact, my efforts made everything you have just read disappear into the ether.  Kathleen solicited my help deciphering some of the identifications, where neither the common name nor the binomial name matched any current species name;

   As I read that list I sensed the presence of a fellow traveler, someone who had incorporated fish watching into a life that was cemented in bird watching.  For this was just the sort of list a bird watcher would make.  First, the fish are presented in the correct order, as an ichthyologist (or ornithologist) might place them.  This list attempts to start with the most primitive animals, sharks in the case of fish, and progress to the most highly evolved.  These latter, as you can see are triggerfish and puffers.   This is opposed to some other sort of order, like alphabetical, which is an anathema to a bird watcher.

   Secondly, their list clearly displays the lack of a good field guide to the fish of Hawai'i.  One can tell how hard they were trying, but they didn't have the best common names and sometimes their scientific (binomial) names were hopelessly out of date.  Not only that, but they were unable to compete on an even field with with Bob Hillis and Peter Kropje.  Fishwatchers now have books (John Hoover's Ultimate Guide being a prime example) that allow them to put a name on everything they see.  With enough tiny blennies and gobies, a 200 fish list is not out of the question. Field guides to North American birds have filled this niche since at least 1950.  Hawaiian fishwatchers were at least 40 years behind.

   So who were Bill and June Wagoner and how did their personal journey lead them to Kahalu'u?   Bill and June were about the age of my parents, Bill and Ina.  Like my father, Bill served in World War II.  Bill Wagoner was six years older than my father and already a talented photographer, so instead  of serving on an LST in the Western Pacific, he took photographs for the Army Signal Corps.  After the war, both Bill and June worked as lecturers for the American Audubon Society.

   Birdwatchers!  Making lists day after day.  Ticking them off one by one.

   In the early 50s they produced photographs and art of the canyons of Northern Arizona and it is a document form Northern Arizona University, highlighting their collections, that provided this biographical information.  It appears they purchased a condo at the Surf and Raquet Club in the early

The first field guide to Hawaiian reef fishes

80s and fell in love with the fish just about the same time that I did. Although we trained in the same discipline (birdwatching), I was 30 years younger, so I'm still here to tell the story.

   Obviously the Wagoners were limited in their new passion by the lack of adequate field guides. Gar Goodson and his short list in The Many Splendored Fishes of Hawaii, illustrated, sometimes with extravagant inaccuracy, by Phillip Weisgerber was the only field guide similar to the guides of Roger Tory Peterson and Arthur Singer, which truly contain every bird one might see.

  And then, as the Wagoners tell you, there was Tinker.  I can remember when the nice lady at the Middle Earth Bookstore in the Kailua Kona village pointed out the massive scientific tome by Spencer Wilkie Tinker.  532 pages listing every fish that an eminent ichthyologist ever imagined might have occurred in These Very Sandwich Islands up to that point (the book was published in 1978) with black and white photos of dead fish and lots of line drawings.  And Dr Tinker didn't want to give too much away.  Not only did he fail to catalog a bunch of smaller fish, but he gave no clue as to what was likely to be seen on a Hawaiian reef.   Its hard to believe, but in 1985 that is what the Wagoners had.

   A few years after that first encounter, I purchased a copy of Tinker in a used bookstore. I got the second edition, which includes some color plates.  In possessing the book the Wagoners used, I am a step ahead of Ms. Clark.  However, as I fought my way through the list, I found that when Tinker failed, the internet would usually provide me a path, finding the archaic binomial name and directing me to a modern classification.  Its interesting that in just under 50 years how the classifications and common names have changed.

Large spotted snake eel, Opthicthus polyophthalmus, Komodo National Park

    Well hats off to the Wagoners.  With the tools they had, Bill and June did an amazing job.  Before writing this blog I reviewed my old lists; I still have three from the 80s.  All three are hand written on papers scrounged from our family vacations.  My favorite is a list on the back of the house rules for Kona Makai Condominioums.  On that list I register only 71 species and that includes snorkeling at Kona Makai and the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel in addition to Kahalu'u. It wasn't until the 90s that I started printing my lists, with the use of a computer and printer.  It doesn't speak highly of me, but those later computerized lists were the beginning of my use of scientific names on my lists.  It is likely that the Wagoner's list was actually comprised from hand written lists.  Lucky for them that they knew Dickie the Diver, possessor at an early date, of a word processor and printer.

    By the way, it wasn't until the 90s, with the advent of better field guides authored by Jack Randall and John Hoover, that I started logging over 100 species on a 10 day family vacation.  By then I was snorkeling at many different locations and, as in bird watching, a variety of  habitats makes a huge
difference as to how many species you see.

The Scrawled Filefish,  Aluterus scriptus, Kailua Pier 2014

   The Wagoners placed many fish on their list that I have not seen in Kahalu'u Bay, but see elsewhere at least occasionally.  Bill and June were clearly astute observers, so when they say they saw Potter's angelfish in K Bay, we need to take them at their word.  The fish that stands out most brightly is the snake eel, actually the large spotted snake eel, Opthicthus polyophthalmus.  When I first saw that on the list I thought they were over reaching.  However, on reading Hoover more carefully it seems that K Bay is not bad habitat for this rare fish. Two good observers and lots of hours certainly increases the likelihood of unearthing a great fish. 

    As you read the list, you will note many fish that are no longer seen at Kahalu'u.  The one we miss the most is the scribbled filefish.   Mr. Scribble used to be common at Kahalu'u.  Five scribbled filefish would swim right up to the entry and greet you as you entered.  This was so in 1999 but by 2001 they had disappeared, never to return.  The Scribbled Filefish is now found only associated with deeper reefs next to open water.  We see it occasionally past the last swim buoy at the Kailua pier and out by the island at City of Refuge. 

Milletseed Butterflyfish,  Kahalu'u August 2012

   Gar Goodson called it the Scribbled Trigger and the Longtail Filefish, but he did have the correct binomial name, Aluterus scripta.   Tinker uses Blue-Lined Leather Jacket  Osbeckia scripta. I started using Scribbled Filefish in 1988.  The Wagoner's liked Mr. Scribble so well they claimed it twice,
using  different common and binomial names, which suggests that they were using Many Splendored Fishes, even though they give Gar no credit.   There are other instances of this in their list, common and binomial names that appear nowhere else. This does not take away from their pioneering work; they were doing the best they could.

    As the years pass, other fish disappear from Kahalu'u.  The milletseed was once seen in large schools, then only a rare individual would be seen.  Now one must go to some special spots, kawaihae Harbor and Mahu Kona, if they want to see this lovely fish at snorkeling depth. 

The manybar goatfish dashes away, Kahalu'u June 2020

    Before putting this blog to bed, I wanted to snorkel once more at Kahalu'u, and in preparation, I took a hard look at theWagoner's list.  I began wondering when I had last seen a manybar goatfish Parupensis multifasciatus, at K Bay.  Luckily on my hour snorkel I saw two.  The first was hiding under a rock and then dashed away.  The second was patrolling the extreme shallows as I got out.  So the picture I cuaght of this versatile fish is a fleeting one. But rest assured, he is still there, hunting with octopus, eels and jacks.  That's a load off my mind and I'm sure yours as well.

jeff