A Strange Trip Up North

     Yesterday Sandra and I made good on our promise to visit Mahukona.  It was another beautiful winters day on the leeward side, with blue skies and a fleecy cloud tickling the cinder cones that dot Kohala Mountain. 

Banded Coral Shrimp, Kawaihae, January 2022

    We made it to Mahu around 9:30,to find only two cars in a wet parking lot, .  I went to the head to change into my trunks and while I was gone Sweetie chatted up the owner of one of the two cars.  By the time I returned, he was long gone.  However, he had left my beloved with this bit of advice:

 I'm an expert who swims here all the time.  The water is choppy and visibility is only three feet.  I don't think its safe to swim and I'm leaving.  

    We went down to the ladder and watched the water swish past.  This was not the calm bay that the internet had promised.  And indeed visibility was poor.  On the bright side, there was a nice school of Keeltailed Needlefish to amuse us.

    Sandra returned to the car while I walked around the perimeter, past the crane and out to the edge of the pier that faces the ocean.  There I found a school of larger fish, skinny like needlefish, these fellows were a foot and a half in length, graced with a dorsum of rich blue green.  Thinking that these were apt to be halfbeaks, I was studying them as best I could, hoping for a glimpse of red, Rudolf-like tip of the nose.  Out of the corner of my eye I detected a modest swell approaching the wall, upon whose edge I was perched, the better to see those curious fish..  As the swell struck the base of the wall, only a few feet below me, water exploded up and over me.  Suddenly I was standing in two inches of water and

Feather Duster Worm, Kawaihae, 2022

drenched from head to toe. So much for science!

    After shedding my soggy shirt and shoes, I put on my water proof sandals, just a few minutes behind schedule, and we bid Mahu adieu. Twenty minutes later we were at the surf park at Kawaihae.  I availed myself of the fresh water shower to wash the salt, as best I could, out of my shirt and shoes, leaving the latter on a rock facing the ocean, basking in the bright sun.  A few minutes later Sandra and I were slipping into the water at the base of the LST landing.

     Out at the first platform, we were blessed with an excellent view of a banded coral shrimp. He was only a foot deep on his pillar and, as we watched, he actually took a few steps towards us.  The water was cloudy, but at that distance some sort of photo was guaranteed.  

    The water was indeed cloudy, but we were still able to see a few of the expected fish, milletseeds, papio, and dascyllus.  Not the trove we were hoping to garner at Mahukona, but oh well.  I did get a pretty good picture of a feather duster worm washing hither and fro among the rocks.  We saw not a single nudibranch on either the first or second platforms and headed out for the third.  

Acute Halfbeaks, Ho'okena, February 2013  As seen on the internet!

    Suddenly we found ourselves swimming through a shoal of coarse saw dust.  This was an unprecedented situation.  Surfacing, we could see that patch of flaoting wood extending ten yards in every direction.  How unpleasant!  We swam back to the second platform and it seemed like the patches of wood were following us.  Nudibranchs be damned, the two of us were soon back at the shower washing off.

    While rinsing off, a lady came up and asked how we had done.  I showed her a picture of the coral shrimp and told her about the flaoting wood fragments, which she could see even from that distance.  Brave soul that she was she ventured down to the landing, but as far as I could tell, she decided not to swim.

Polynesian Halfbeak, Kailua Pier 2013, for comparison

   It was a peculiar day. but it was punctuated by two very good sightings.  We have already mentioned the banded coral shrimp, but what about those blue fish that I was studying from above immediately before my world class dousing.  Well, it is my learned opinion that those were Acute Halfbeaks.  In 2013 Sandra and I were lucky to see a school of these fish at Ho'okena.  So good were my photographs, that if you Google search images for this species you are presented with two photographs that I took on that day, ever so long ago.  The rich blue green dorsum is diagnostic and so is the lack of red on the bill,  which as it turns out, is not seen readily when the fish is observed from above.  Nine years ago Jack Randall, who we have to assume is smiling down on us fish watchers, put me in touch with Bruce Collete, the world expert on this fish.  And wasn't it just ever so exciting!  Well that was then, this is now and those were acute halfbeaks in the bay at Mahukona! 

   It should be noted that the reason my photographs are still at the top of Google Images for Acute Halfbeaks is that-this represents some arcane fish identification and good luck.

   On that thrilling note, I admonish you to keep your eye on the ocean lest you end up with wet sneakers.  and Go Fish!

jeff 

We have not encountered patches of sawdust in Hawaii previously.  There is a building project going on at the far end of Kawaihae Harbor,  The North Kawaihae Improvement Project, which may be related to this unhappy situation.  It is scheduled to be completed by January 28th.