Kahalu'u Bookends and the Optical Octopus

    Sandra and I have decided that snorkeling on the weekends is just to difficult, vis a vis social distancing.  With this in mind, I have been trying to get in a swim at the beginning and end of each week.  This time we went to Kahalu'u on Friday and Tuesday.  There was nothing spectacular, but I did take a couple pictures that may interest you.

A Female Ember Parrot Ushers a Christmas Wrasse.

  On Friday we connected with one of the Reef Teachers, Susan, and her husband John.  Sometime in
the blurry future they may join us at Kawaihae for some nudibranching.  On this day they related the tale of an eagle ray at Kahalu'u a few days previous.  A subsequent report from another reef teacher, Vincenzo, revealed that there was one large eagle ray, perhaps six feet from one wingtip to the other, and three smaller eagle rays.  They swam back and forth across the inner part of the bay for twenty minutes and were easily seen from shore.  Although two or three reef teachers are in the shelter on most days, that is not the case for snorkelers.  On this occasion no one was swimming.  One of the reef teachers went in the water but was unable to hook up with the rays.  Curious. 

   Six feet seemed like a big eagle ray to me, but John Hoover tells us they can attain ten feet.  Wow!

Christmas Wrasse, Kahalu'u  August 2020

  Out in the water I did not see anything earth shaking.  However, I did encounter a female Ember parrotfish that was accompanied by a nice Christmas wrasse.  I followed the pair for about five minutes and was lucky when the Christmas wrasse made a turn back away from the parrotfish.  He swam around me, about ten feet distant and not too fast.  I was able to snap off half a dozen shots, one of which I present for your consideration.

   This association of  ember parrot and Christmas wrasse is one of my favorites, perhaps because the male ember parrot is so big and the wrasse so distinctive.  Other associations, like goatfish and eels and octopus seem more explicable;  they are all hunting for invertebrates in their own way.  In this instance the parrotfish presumably is chomping coral polys while the wrasse is going for invertebrates hiding in the sand.  Despite my over developed brain (just kidding) I can not understand what the benefit is to either party.  Nevertheless, we see this fairly often.

   Towards the end of the swim I found a small pearl wrasse over by the rescue shelter.  As you can see

Pearl Wrasse, Party of Three.

this little lady looks just like the larger female and she was just as active, darting hither and yon.  I like this picture with the small saddle wrasse and the Pacific Gregory who, if I may indulge in a bit of anthropomorphism, looks a bit indignant.  

    Yesterday I returned to K Bay.  With the pier difficult to access, it is almost the only show in town. Vincezo was holding down the reef teaching post and related the complete story of the eagle rays.  

 The water was sufficiently warm for me to fear for the coral and more than a little cloudy.  The pair of juvenile raccoon butterflies were still hanging around the entrance.  Once I got past them I didn't see anything special for the next twenty minutes.

     Out in the middle I came across a small octopus residing in a coral.  He was brave enough and I took

The Optical Octopus Gives you the Fish Eye.

several pictures.  It is my contention that there is something peculiar about octopi and photography.  It is rare that I have an octopus picture look like anything but an indistinct mess.  This may be more on me than the cephalopods, as not everyone seems to have the same difficulty.  Before I left  I dove down  (it was only three feet) and held on.  From that awkward position I snapped two quick ones, sort of over my shoulder.  

    Back at the kiosk it looked like the first of those two pictures harbored some promise.  When I got home, though, the octopus was just a dark amorphous mass.  My tried and true photo processor, Ulead, will not work on this computer.  It is, after all, about 15 years old.  A year or so ago I purchased Corel Paint Shop, which is not as good, but way better than nothing.  This program came with a curious tool, fill light/clarity.  I have no idea how it works.  Our good friend Martin DeLuke, a genius of optics, may understand the black box magic therein, but it is beyond me. Regardless, as a last resort I cranked the fill light portion almost to the pin and came up with the picture you see here, which is somewhat better than an amorphous mass.  Good octopus. 

    The swim finished up back in the cloudy water with a turtle and a pair of saddleback butterflies. 

Saddleback Butterflies, Kahalu'u  September 2020

    All the time I was snorkeling I was the only one in the bay.  Starting tomorrow Governor Ige is closing all the beaches to social gatherings for the coming holiday week  One can anticipate that there will be even less swimming at Kahalu'u.  Its all pretty strange.  I hope you all stay safe.

jeff