Kawaihae and Eye Spot Shrimp

Oval Butterflyfish,

    Yesterday dawned bright and blue in Kailua Kona.  As we drove north, however,  we found ourselves under scattered clouds with a rainbow in the direction of Maui.  When we arrived at the surf park in Kawaihae, luckily, the cloud cover persisted but it didn't show any signs of raining.  soon our buddies form Kapa'au arrived and the four of us were in the water, which was still warm, but at the is slack low tide remarkably cloudy.

    As usual, I visited the first platform, looking for my developing oval butterflies.  Marla swam up and told me that the younger of my two subjects had gone the way of the buffaloes.  This wasn't entirely correct as bison in both Europe and North America are hanging on but that little fish was most likely on the wrong side of the seaweed.  The older sister was still there, just as furtive as ever, affording me only one photo.  this is a peculiar photo in that most of the fish is in modest focus but the face is smudged.  I am presenting it for completeness sake so we can all appreciate how this species matures.

   Out on the second platform I found three gloomy nudibranchs.  In as much as we had cloudy weather and cloudy water gloomy nudibranchs seemed appropriate.  I got a couple still pictures that were not terrible and I took this short movie that shows the gloomy's fancy external gills flopping back and forth.

    At this point Sandra alerted me that Peter and Marla were swimming across the harbor to look for the Eyespot Shrimp, giving us the option to follow.  And so off we went, catching up with them about one hundred yards across the water at the one coral that seems to be home to this unusual shrimp.  We had been here once before with Peter and Marla and not seen any shrimp.  When Sandra and I attempted to find it we failed.  It is a long swim and I'm not at all sure how our friends know when to stop and look for this single coral head. 

   Now, shrimp is an interesting word, being virtually synonymous with diminutive.  Yet most shrimp that I have encountered, while small are not tiny.  Hence, I was unprepared, when my dear friend Peter pointed to one of these shrimps, to look for such a small animal.  John Hoover says they grow to an inch and a half.  I estimated these little fellows to be an inch.  Once i adjusted my search image, I was pleased to see many of these tiny shrimps crawling on the coral.  I might have seen ten individuals. The fact that they were so small posed a modest challenge of the TG-5.  I took about a dozen pictures and the two you see here were the only ones in very good focus.  I hope you agree that these are pretty good efforts, everything considered.  In the second picture, towards the tail of the shrimp, you get a glimpse at what someone called an eye spot.

    Swimming back, Sandra and I found a small Frecklefaced Hawkfish.  He was fairly cooperative so despite the cloudy water we were able to nab this appealing portrait.

    At this point the distaff side of the expedition went ashore and I met Peter at the third platform.  he asked If I had gotten some good shots of the shrimp.  I said that I had taken a lot of pictures, so i hope I had something, but wouldn't really know until I got home.  I then went on, in my tedious fashion, to note how the sport had changed.  When one watches birds, or even larger fish, he makes his identification on the spot.  Dealing with these much sma;er animals, that fortunately hold sufficiently still for photography, one frequently make his identification in front of a computer screen.  three was no way that i would have been able to put a name on those tiny shrimp based on what I could see on the spot.  

   Back ashore we chatted for a bit,then said goodbye to our friends.  They are headed out tomorrow to look at a house in SLO upon which they have an accepted offer.  😢

jeff