The Shortnose Wrasse at Last or What do you do with really stubborn ear wax?

    Monday morning an unexpected change in plans left us with the day off.  Following breakfast, a look from our lanai revealed minimal surf and so I decided to bop down to Kahalu'u for a swim.  

   By the time I got there the surf was coming up, but the current was weak enough to make getting around fairly easy.  I saw little close in and gradually worked my way further out in to the bay. 

Does the Mona Lisa of Blennies know where to find Shorty?

   The surf was gradually increasing.  By the time I got out to where I could hear the surfers talking to one another, there were waves breaking over me. In that bouncy environment I spotted a  small speckled fish.  Having lots of experience with this little fellow, not to mention having it right up front as my target fish, I knew it was a juvenile Shortnose Wrasse.  I turned and looked at him for an instant and then he disappeared.  

    Having gone so very far, I was not going to give up on this fish.  While looking for him, I spotted a female Coral Blenny.  This species is usually quite skittish, heading for cover the moment they notice that you are looking at them.  This lady, however, was delightfully patient with me and I got five usable photos.  Dispensing with the other four, I kept the one you see here.  How do you like that wry smile?   Is she the Mona Lisa of blennies or what?  Did that hint of a smile mean that she knew where the shortnose was hiding? 

 

    I continued scouting around for the Shortnose Wrasse and in the process spotted a large Haig's Hermit Crab in a depression.  Of course, this is one of the smaller hermit crabs, so in actuality, the fact that he was large meant that he wasn't miniscule.  This is one of my favorite species of hermits, in large part because he has purple legs.  Go Huskies! 

     I took a few photos of him in his depression and then made a lucky
grab.  Once I had him in my clutches he peeked out and then withdrew.  I wedged him into a crevice near the surface and started looking for a hand hold for myself.

    It is a curiosity of many bays in Hawaii that you can swim quite far out and yet the bay remains shallow.  Here I was more than a hundred yards from the beach and the bottom was only five feet down with coral and rubble extending up to within two feet of the surface.  

    Before I was able to get situated (the waves kept washing me off my hand holds) the small hermit poked out and flipped over.  In addition to the the still photograph you have here to enjoy, you get a short movie showing the Haig's Hermit making his escape from his lofty prison.  While you are watching you might consider swimming in the waves while holding the camera still at an acceptable distance from the small crab.

  

  At this point, I entreat you to remember your hermit crab anatomy.  In this picture with General Haig looking up at you from inside his crevice, you can see the long orange antennae, used for feeling, and the two antenulae, which in this colorful species are a handsome blue, beneath the eye stalks.  Remember that the antenulae are used for tasting so they are in close proximity to the mouth.

    By the way, I love that color of blue.  It is my recollection that Meryl Streep, in The Devil Wears Prada, comments on just that shade of blue as she berates Anne Hathaway, who is a Philistine when it comes to the world of fashion.  Knowing young adults from New York City as I do, I suspect that Anne is equally unversed in the world of carcinology.  And by the way, Miranda Priestly calls that color cerulean.

Shortnose Wrasse 1

     Finally I tore myself away from the hermit crab and, lo and behold, I had wasted enough time and our friend Shorty had returned to our wave swept patch of coral and rubble.  In a quixotic effort to impress Kathleen Turner with my photographic prowess  (or to paraphrase the Cowardly Lion, I was trying to be a Lion not a Mowess) I chased that little fish around the coral for at least ten minutes.  As we have previously noted, this juvenile does not like to stay in one place.  Unfortunately, with the waves and the current I could not stay in one place either.  Every time I went for a handhold I was flipped back and forth like the tail of a kite in a hurricane.  

   So what you see here are pictures of a small, darting fish as taken by a consumately immobile photographer.  In each picture I offer you the challenge:  Is it the fish or the photographer creating the motion that distorts the image?  At the end of the day, the pictures aren't perfect, but they aren't terrible and it gives you a good idea what this fish looks like.

Shortnose Wrasse 2  Is it getting better?

   Feeling like I had just been put through the heavy duty cycle on the old Maytag, and with enough material for a stab at a blog, I headed for the beach.

   While I was rinsing off the multiple garments that constitute my winter snorkeling outfit, I noticed a young lady who I had seen earlier, when I was putting on these very same shirt,vest and weight belt.  At that time, I noticed that she was fair skinned, but.it was hard to tell how fair she was because she was standing by the sunscreen dispenser that the Reef Teachers provide, doing her best to cover herself in that sticky white paste.  She looked like Casper's girlfriend.

   Now she was sitting on the rock wall between the showers, cleaned off and looking a more normal shade of slightly pink tourist.  She looked up and gave me a small smile, sort of like that female Coral Blenny we had encountered out in the bay.  This was all the invitation I needed, so I asked her where she was from.  "Minneapolis" she replied.

The Shortnose Wrasse Juvenile.  In focus at last.

    "Oh." I said,  "Minneapolis in the news."  

 "And not for a good thing."  she replied with a bit of a
frown..  To make matters worse I said, "With any luck they won't burn the place down tonight."

    Little did I know that George Floyd, the famous martyr of the Twin Cities,  was becoming old news.  Just a few minutes earlier, in a suburb of Minneapolis, a policewoman had  killed a black boy, stopped for an expired license plate.   She did this with a single bullet when she thought she was using her taser.  Whoa to the land of Hiawatha.  Not to mention all the rest of us. 

   So as you go about your day, concentrate on something pleasant, like little wrasses flitting about among the coral.  And for goodness sake, remember that your gun is on your right hip and your taser is on the left.

jeff

    Not everybody has an earwax problem.  If you don't go snorkeling, you may not even realize that you have a problem.  But if you do go snorkeling, you may notice that earwax can prevent the saltwater form leaving your ear canal and this can create significant problems.  

    Suffice it to say, I have been in a life and death struggle with wax for forty years.  One can use alcohol to make the sea water thinner and that often helps.  Or you can try irrigating your ear with warm water and a bulb syringe.  Until recently, this worked for me.  If you don't use warm water you get tremendous vertigo!

     Here is a tip for when all else fails.  In your local pharmacy you will find tiny bottles of ear drops, which are very expensive.  Nearby you might find a large bottle of mineral oil for a relative pittance.  It is apt to be in close approximation to the chocolatey flavored laxative tabs.  As it turns out, the mineral oil is the same thing as the expensive ear drops and, assuming you are using it for ear drops,  you can purchase a lifetime supply for next to nothing.  

     The first time I attempted to use the mineral oil (which is administered in a very small quantity by a sympathetic second person)  I didn't leave it in long enough. My sympathetic person looked into this and suggested that I stopper up the ear with a bit of cotton and leave it for an hour.  Following this treatment the wax washed right out (with the bulb syringe).

    Never leave sea water in your ears unless you want to end up in the emergency room.  Progress from alcohol, to warm water irrigation and then to this new trick.  Most of all, good luck in finding a sympathetic second person.  He or she will be the key for any number things, ear and not ear related.     

    "What!"

j