Yesterday, being Tuesday, we took the chance that our favorite beach might not be overrun if we got there early. And so it was that we arrived at Ho'okena around 9 AM. It was an incredibly beautiful morning with bright blue sky and waves lapping gently against the shore.
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| The Christmas wrasse shoots up the wall of the old pier at Ho'okena |
As I arrived at the picnic table, in the shade, overlooking the bay, I said good morning to an Asian lady leaning against the adjacent rock wall. Actually I said something like, "It doesn't look like the dolphins are in today," Which is a pretty close to the same thing down at Ho'okena. She turned and
actually smiled. Then in English heavily accented with the tongue of the rising sun, she told me that the dolphins had been there yesterday and had stuck around until a lady went out and chased them. They then they swam away. We agreed that you don't need to chase the dolphins, just let them come to you.
About the time my new friend and I were finishing with dolphin philosophy Sandra made it to the picnic table. Simultaneously, Mariko-san walked over to join two Caucasian ladies of a certain age who had just arrived in a pick up, had lowered the tailgate and were sorting through their snorkel gear.
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| Bridled Triggerfish, Ho'okena, 2011 |
After some quick preparation Sandra and I were were making our way down the dark sand beach with the cool waves washing over our feet. At the far end, the small surf gave my sweetie a little pause, but we entered together during a calm between sets and were soon snorkeling north along the shore.
The water was clear initially, but devoid of interesting animals. When we made it to the foundation of the old pier, the water turned cloudy. There we encountered a couple fast moving Christmas wrasses. I did the best to get a picture, but fast fish are tough.
We then swam out together over the remaining coral heads until the water was forty feet deep and we were a couple hundred yards off shore. Turning back and angling south, we were finally rewarded with a bridled triggerfish. This is a fish we see regularly at Ho'okena and now
here else. It comes in two flavors; the one we usually see is very dark with a light caudal peduncle. The bridled trigger is a big fish, two to three times as big as the rectangular triggerfish, and it is always
deep. None of this explains why it is so shy. I swam after him and dove for a picture, but the fleeing fish didn't let me get within fifty feet. The only other large triggerfish with which I have swum is the titan triggerfish. Instead of being timid, that fish is downright menacing. Perhaps some day a bridled triggerfish will turn and try to take a bite out of me. Then I will get a good picture.
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| Find four Potter's angelfish. Only at Ho'okena. |
Nine years ago, I encountered a bridled triggerfish by the foundations of the old peir at Ho'okena. It made a mistake and fled towards shore into clear water ten feet deep, enabling me to get the picture you see here. This is a weird photo, but it is the best I have. As I mention this fish every time I see it, I thought perhaps you would like to see what one looks like. It's not a very pretty fish, but it is big.
Soon we arrived at the coral ridge where we see the angelfish. It took only moments before we started seeing lots of Potter's angelfish. I'm showing you a picture in which you will easily count four Potter's angelfish in a tight group. Unusual to say the least!
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| Flame Angelfish, Ho'okena August 2020 |
More importantly, there was one flame angelfish that was exceptionally cooperative. I was able to dive down about twelve feet and get within eight feet of this fish on several occasions. Coupling my proximity with clear water and a bright sunny day, I nabbed my best pictures ever of the flame angelfish. I was not wearing weights, so my stability wasn't as good as it might have been. Nevertheless, here are a couple pictures that I'm sure you will enjoy.
After we exhausted the possibilities with the angelfish, Sandra and I headed over to the small remaining reef near the shore. This little bit of coral occasionally produces something good. And it is sufficiently shallow that whatever you see is within range of the camera.
On this day we saw a large number of Gosline's fanged blennies. Each year seems to provide a bump in the prevalence of something different. Recently we went through a period where the beautiful teardrop butterflyfish was everywhere. This year we are seeing a myriad of fanged blennies. This little fish,
which makes its living by nipping scales off other fish, looks a bit like pencil, or perhaps a torpedo. It is long and skinny and has relatively small fins. Prior to this year, I would see one or two at a time. For the last month I have been running into small schools of these fish. More so than before, these fanged blennies are curious, coming right up to my mask to check me out. Suffice it to say, I can see them when they come up and look me in the eye. Not so much when they are checking out the rest of my aging corpus. I am expecting that sometime soon one of the little demons is going to want to see if one of my legs has scales, the better to provide his dinner.
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| The flame angel turns showing off his his fancy blue trim. |
Often times, when you hear that we have made it ashore, you can predict that the story is coming to a close. We had gained the beach and were walking in the warm dry sand, noting that at least two tents were set up in the campground that is putatively closed. From the direction of the car park I saw a bird flying towards us. It was big as a cattle egret but more compact. As opposed to snowy white, this
bird was a light buff. A look at its face confirmed that this was a barn owl! He barely stroked its wings as he sailed by. For a very few seconds we had an excellent look at the owl, his flat face in profile, flying effortlessly in front of the green palm forest. It was heck of an image which I'm sure I will treasure for years to come.
We showered and changed and were just gathering our equipment together in preparation to depart when a large lady of a certain age lumbered by our table. She had obviously been swimming, for at critical spots the wet of her swimsuit showed through the shirt she was using as a cover up. On her
wrist was suspended a red camera just like mine. After saying hello, I asked her how she liked her Olympus camera. She liked it just fine, she said. She had two more at home that she was going to try to get repaired in hopes that her grandchildren could use them when they came to visit. I wished her good luck with that, since I haven't found anyone that has much interest in repairing my TG 3 that stopped working a couple years ago. The two that she was aiming to have repaired were both TG 5s, like the one I use currently. The one on her wrist was a TG 6, which is the newest model and has not been out all that long. La de dah. She went on to say that she had also had a TG 3. But not only that, she had gone through three Fuji cameras, like you might purchase at Costco for $150. Those Fujis, she said, didn't last long at all. (At this point if you listen carefully you can hear Falstaff muttering, "Cannon fodder, cannon fodder..) And she had also owned a Panasonic and a Sony.... I stopped her before she could add one or more Canons to her list. My dear old D10, still in the fight, couldn't bear it. She explained that she goes swimming six days a week, so it was only natural that she would have destroyed at least ten expensive underwater cameras in eight years. Oy vey!
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| Barn owl soaring effortlessly Museum of Natural History |
Unless I'm mistaken, this leviathan gets the gold medal for camera destruction. I'm going to take good care of my TG 5 and hopefully we will have more photos for you soon.
jeff
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