The Eyes Have It or a Nudibranch at Black Sand Beach 49

   The surf was up along most of the coast on the west side of the Big Island.   The one exception was, according to Stormsurf, a patch of calm water in the heart of the Great Kohala Bight.  We had been looking forward to the re-opening of Black Sand Beach 49 at the Mauna Lani and figured that it might just catch the southern edge of this sea of tranquility.  I dashed off an email to Peter, who said that he and Marla could not join us, but that they had checked out BSB 49 and that it was open.  However, the Mauna Lani was further limiting the number of visitors they allowed into that jewel of a bay, in the name of social distancing.

White margin Nudibranch  BSB 49

    With that in mind, Sandra and I left early and we were at the gatehouse just before 9 AM.  The nice man chatted with us for a bit and then asked if it was just us two, as if maybe four or five people were hiding in the trunk.  When we answered in the affirmative, he said we could go in, although he was already at the maximum.  What a nice guy.

    It was a lovely morning up in Kohala, sunny but not too hot.  And there was just a tiny amount of surge to deal with.  Immediately after we hit the water, I looked down in the fine dark gravel and what did I see but a nudibranch!  At this stage in my career, the ancient stage, I can still count the total number of nudibranch experiences not at Kawaihae on one hand.

    I actually recognized this cute little guy that was hugging the bottom about seven feet down.  It was a white margin nudibranch. I had seen a few of these nudis about a year ago when Hai and Lottie took me to the wharf  at Kawaihae, what Hai calls the cathedral for the huge number of pillars

A speckled scorpionfish gives you the fish eye.  BSB 49 June 2020

supporting the landing.   John Hoover tells us that this is the most common nudibranch in Hawaii.  Regardless, this black gravel was terrible nudibranch habitat.  He had obviously been washed off a sponge covered rock elsewhere in the bay and it was pure good fortune that he was crawling on the gravelly bottom below us.  Sandra and I each got a good look, then I dove down to attempt a picture.

  I got down three times.  Without any weights and no hand holds on the gravel, it was dive down and bob back up.   After my third dive,  the surge picked up the nudi and he started tumbling over the gravel.  This wasn't exactly a surprise, since he clearly didn't belong there, but it eliminated further photo efforts.

   While I was trying to photograph the tumbling nudi, Sandra saw it attempting to swim.  Its hard to picture a sea slug swimming.  We have a request in to Pauline Feine and she may shed some light on this.

    Out in the bay we saw a nice variety of fish, but nothing unusual.  I was really pleased to see a bunch of  thriving Pocillipora corals, both cauliflower and the slightly larger antler coral.  I started diving these corals, hoping for a coral croucher.  What I found was a couple of the slightly more common 

Arc eye hawkfish checks us out.  BSB 49,  June 2020

speckled scorpionfish.  As one would imagine, they were hunkered down between the leaves of the coral.  Hence, it was a matter of diving down and hanging on, attempting a photo by putting the camera against the coral, all the while holding on while the surf swished my old kapuana body back and forth.  These are difficult pictures even in very calm water.  I did manage to get a head shot so you can look at the tiny scorpiofish peering back at you from the coral recess.

   Once again, Sandra, on the surface, was watching my gyrations.  When I surfaced, she pointed out a fat arc eye hawkfish, saying that he had been watching me make a fool of myself with the little scorpionfish.  This guy was just sitting there all smug, so I took his picture.  

    We checked out the jagged rocks on the west side of the bay, not finding the home of the nudibranch, and then swam across to the other side.  Over there, we saw a depressing amount of dead porites coral.  Much of the dead coral had patches of live coral regenerating on it, but this was small ointment for a sad situation.  I had a couple quick glances at a fourline wrasse which was making his home among the channels in a dead coral.

    Tourists take shells.  That is our mantra for this spring.  And the little bay at BSB 49 has benefited from their shell pickin' absence just like Kahalu'u has.  We saw lots of  yellow cone shells and left

A White Spotted Auger, BSB 49  June 2020

them undisturbed. On our way back in, just protruding from the black gravel, I saw two of something that I thought  might be crab legs. to my delight,  it was a pair of white spotted augers.  I'm a tiny bit ashamed that I plucked one from the gravel for a picture, but had I not I never would have known what it was.  In this instance, the camera failed me.  The best picture I got was with the auger held in my gloved hand.  All the pictures I took of him back on the black gravel bottom were over exposed.  What you see is the best of a bad lot.  This is a fairly unusual shell so I was very glad to add it to the 2020 list.

    Obviously, It makes you wonder what we would see if there were no more tourists.  And that is beginning to look like the prevailing situation, at least for the near future.  There is talk of allowing tourists from Korea and Japan, but mainland US tourism is being discouraged by the continuing 14 day quarantine rule.

   Well, this had been a pretty good swim.  We had seen a couple worthy fish and a cracker jack mollusc, but what about a really cool crustacean to round things out?  Before hitting the beach, Sandra and I took another spin back on the makai side and, while examining an antler coral, I saw a medium sized crab harboring inside.  Once again, I was faced with the task of diving down and pointing the camera between the

Hawaiian Swimming Crab,  Strange eye for a crabby guy.

coral leaves.  And, as before, I got a picture of the animal looking back out at me.  In this case it was a Hawaiian swimming crab that was looking back at us.  And what an eye this fellow has.  The usually mild mannered and restrained John Hoover calls it "bizarre."  The eyes of arthropods are a varied lot, but this one has to win some sort of prize.  What sort of a world view is rendered by that piece of optical equipment?   Maybe Donald Trump has an eye like a swimming crab.  That would explain a few things!

    In addition to that crazy eye, in this mish mash of a photo we get a nice glimpse of the large horny claw and one or two of the walking legs.  Over on the far left, unless I am mistaken, you see one of the swimming paddles.  Suffice it to say, the crab had to be a contortionist to fit into the tiny space between the coral leaves and so he presents a variety of body parts in what one might call a non-anatomic array.

   We had a great time at Black Sand Beach 49.  We observed social distancing, but were still able to appreciate the aroma of some pakalolo that wafted our way as we were showering.  Life is good here on Hawaii.  Where ever you may be, we hope it's good for you, too.

jeff