Christmas Traditions

   Christmas is almost upon us and it seemed like it was time to set aside the gardening implements and get on with the fish watching business. Most notably, we needed to prepare for our Yuletide search for the Christmas Wrasse.

    Yet one sad bit of horticultural obligation stood in the way. Our beloved avocado tree, following the lead of many of her sisters here on the Big Island, was infested with the Avocado Lace Bug. These tiny insects, originally from South America,  colonize the underside of the leaves.  Like aphids, they suck the sap from the leaves and in short order turn them a rust brown, eventually killing both the leaves and the new growth stems to which they were attached.  Hence, we had a mostly barren tree, surrounded by leaf litter and dead stems.  Que triste.

The HMS Avocado beating to windward.  Damn the bugs!

   And, yes, we speak of those leaves and stems in the past tense as I was forced to cut down my long time friend. This was a big tree, thirty feet at least, in height. She bore us many a fine crop of avocados,these were each plucked with my twelve foot fruit grabbing device. and when carefully brought to ripeness on the kitchen counter, made the most wonderful guacamole. And yet, me and my battery powered chain saw were able, in less than a week, to bring her down and haul her bones to the yard debris

 So tear that noble fruit tree down, long has she borne on high, such scrumptious avos ripened well made guacamole pie.

With thanks to Oliver Wendell Holmes

    As I'm sure you will recall, Guacamole Pie was a specialty of Killick's (the captain's steward) when Hornblower was stationed in the Leeward Islands, blockading Martinique.  

    Or alternatively,  picture me dressed in black, sitting on the last two feet of stump and contemplating a gnarled fragment of branch:

   Alas, poor Avocado.   I knew him Horatio.  A tree of infinite jest and most wondrous guacs.

   It's not clear if Anne Hathaway and the bard himself, sitting on the lanai overlooking the River Avon, ever shared a bowl of guacamole and chips.  But given the opportunity, I'm sure they would have.

   As for Hamlet, he had Ophelia put avos in his omelet.

   Soon enough, the avocado tree was in repose at the green waste depository and it was time to hit the beach.  Early last week we went to Kahalu'u twice.  Suffice it to say, it was disappointing.   We saw no Christmas Wrasse and not much of anything else.  The only high point was provided by our petite friend Yasuko, who happily accepted a paper mache butterflyfish, bowing and exclaiming "Arigato!"

Oval Butterfly at the Kailua Pier, where it was once common.  2016

    After those fruitless expeditions, Sandra said,  "Enough of that.  Let's go north." As wavy conditions were predicted for Mahukona, we ended up going to Kawaihae Harbor.   The water here was cold, but as clear as ever I can recall.  The same old fish at Kawaihae are pretty good.  We saw a pair of saddle back butterflies, plenty of milletseeds and a single Oval Butterflyfish, presumably looking for a mate, the better with which to share a slice of guacamole pie.  This latter (the fish, not the pie)  has become, insidiously, a fairly rare fish.  Not so long ago, one could count on it out in front of Hulihee's Palace, but those days are apparently behind us.  With luck, this soldier will hang on for a couple weeks so he can be added to the 2022 list.

    The best thing we saw was a handsome Cushion Starfish, clinging to one of the pillars supporting the second platform.  This used to be a treasured find, but it is fairly common at Kawaihae.  You may have noticed that I didn't mention any nudibranchs, which is in a way, saying that we saw not a one.  The fouling organisms carpeting the pillars were not exactly luxuriant; this may be a result of the cool winter water.  Or maybe we just had bad luck and insufficient time to observe.  The water was cold and as a result Sandra and I swam for less than an hour.

Cushion Star with blue sponges, Kaawaihae December 2021

   As at Kahalu'u, the best part was the people on shore.  After our swim at Kawaihae, we encountered Hai, Lottie and Nai'a.  Nai'a will be two in February and naturally she is smart as a whip.  She was a little shy with me, but she and Auntie Sandra got on famously  

    Wednesday night we went to church and sang a few Christmas carols.  After the service, we had a nice chat with Rebekah Keizer, who is the pastor's wife.  A former college basketball player and the mother of two charming children, Rebekah is a delight. She asked us if we had any Christmas traditions.  Sandra told her about seeking the Christmas Wrasse on Christmas Day, and said that we would go to Mahukona to find it.  Of course, that depends on conditions, but why get caught up in all the details.

    Rebekah, in turn,  told us that their family gets up early Christmas morning and drives north to Kua Bay.  We are not so good with some of the Hawaiian names, which as they roll off the haole tongue sound much the same.  So we verified that this is what we call Cemetery Beach, as the entrance to the park is across the road from the entrance to a U.S. Military Cemetery.  You don't hear about this bay often in the blog because the rocks make for an interesting, intermediate (read dangerous) exit.  This is another reason we call it Cemetery Beach.  Also, three years ago there was a fatal shark attack here.  

Kua Bay, aka Cemetery Beach  Nice white sand , sharp rocks.

  Anyway, the Keizer family tries to be the first ones at Kua Bay on Christmas morning, hence leaving their footprints in the virgin sand. Virgin sand, virgin birth.  Nice, right?  Following this they return to Casa Keizer to open gifts.  At this juncture the two aforementioned children observe their colleagues in the street playing with toys that they opened two or three hours earlier. 

    Yesterday Sandra dropped me of at the pier.  I can't understand what it is about showering with drug addicts that she finds objectionable, but if she is happy to drop me off I am happy to swim.   In preparation for Christmas Day I chose to swim on the Paul Allen side, which has much better habitat (wave swept rocks) for the eponymous wrasse.  Try as I might, I did not see any Christmas wrasses.  But I did see a nice variety of fish.  Best was a heavenly host of menpachi, Epaulette Soldierfish to those of you who are not Japanese fishermen.  They were cavorting twenty feet down in some dying coral where we hope to see Potter's Angelfish, which did not appear this time. 

Johnston (Blue Eye) Damsel,Paul Allen's Reef, 12/17/21

    In the little bay outside the jetty, there were three nice heads of healthy meandrina Cauliflower Coral.  One green, one purple and one brown.  On the latter I spotted a pair of Johnston Island Damselfish.  The keikis are prettier but these bigger fish still have the striking blue eyes that provide their common name.  Quick on the draw, I got this picture for you to enjoy.

   Both going out and coming in I was treated to a large number of Red Pencil Sea Urchins which had climbed to the top of the rocks at the tip of the little jetty.  When the sea urchins climb to the top like this, it may be a harbinger of spawning.  This being the time of the full moon, breeding may be exactly the reason they were so prominent.  These urchins were in particularly good shape and the red of their spines was vibrant.  This is yet another reason to suspect that these animals, obviously looking their best, were breeding.

    On the way back I encountered a small whitemouth moray eel poking out near a couple of these many handsome urchins.  Maybe this picture will make it onto next year's Christmas card

jeff

A whitemouth moray and red pencil urchins with you a Merry Christmas!