On the Trail of a Frogfish or A Return to the City of Refuge

    Rumor had it that there was a frogfish at City.  As soon as Sandra and I heard the news we started planning an expedition to what was once our favorite place to snorkel.  We waited for a day with cooperative surf and tides, which resulted in a delay of about a week.  But finally, two days ago, we headed south in search of the frogfish.

Ringtail Wrasse City of Refuge March 2022

    It was a beautiful morning for a drive.  To avoid delays caused by roadwork, which has plagued the route south for the last six months, we left early, motoring through Honaunau and arriving at the Pu'uhonua at ten to eight.  As we made our turn towards the national park, we sensed that something was amiss.  The area 100 yards outside the snorkeling beach, which had traditionally served as overflow parking, was full and several cars were parked on the shoulder of the road leading up towards the spot where one leaves the highway.  When we got down to the beach we were in luck... someone had just left and we were able to nab a spot right by the picnic tables, albeit negotiating a five inch drop off the macadam.  

   Once disembarked, we surveyed the road.  All the parking spots against the wall opposite the beach have been posted and barricaded.  And on the roadway up the hill, which had been the natural second choice for parking, all the spots have been similarly removed.  In total, this means that the two dozen parking spots closest to the Two Step entry are now off limits.  Bummer!

Black and Yellow F. longirostris pair.  Honaunau, March 2022

    Due chiefly to Covid, we had not been to City of Refuge for almost two years. (As far as we can recollect)  In the interim, we had heard that the locals were disturbed by the large number of potentially infected people who were continuing to use the Two Step beach and were doing what they could to discourage them.  Well, now we know what they did..they took away the parking.

   But we had ours and we unloaded our grass mat and lunch onto the end of a table.  It was still before 8 AM and there were only a moderate number of competitors for table space.  We changed and were in the water a little after eight.  As we entered, an older gent was exiting and he commented on the poor clarity.  Of course, City of Refuge is renowned for its crystal water and the clarity wasn't that bad.  As I describe our fish watching, I'm going to apply an asterisk * to the fish that were new to the 2022 list.

   The water was cool and we headed with dispatch to the north cusp where the frogfish was rumored to hang out.  We saw little of interest as we made the swim, but once we got there we found lots of fish.  There were an incredible number of Epaulette Soldierfish.  Interspersed with these were a few Spotfin Squirrelfish* which, as is their wont, were quick to duck under a ledge when someone made a move towards photography.  

Forcipiger longirostris,  Transitional,  City of Refuge, March 2022

   We had been given specific instructions as to the location of the frogfish,: in the indentation near the Virgin Mary Statue, on a coral head near the surface.  Sandra and I searched this area carefully for 15 minutes and found nary a frogfish.  While we were searching, a lady of a certain age wielding a strong German accent swam by.  I accosted her and asked if she had seen the frogfish.  She replied, "Not today."  When pressed further she said a friend had showed it to her and she had no idea where that was.  So basically she did not want to help us and was willing to tell a boldface lie to protect the frogfish.  I mean, if our information was correct she had seen the frogfish about ten feet from where we were having this conversation. 

   There were a few other fish swimming in the area, including a large Finescale Triggerfish.*   We swam further out and found many of the fish one might enjoy in this area including Black Surgeon.*   A handsome Ringtail Wrasse* cruised around us in a cooperative manner.  And then we saw one of my favorite fish.  

   Over the years I have been interested in the Long Nose Butterflyfish, Forcipiger longirostris.  Specifically, I am interested in it's two distinct color patterns: Yellow with a black face, making it almost identical to flavissimus , and another,  almost entirely black.  The black morph is more common in Kona than anywhere else. And it seems that the further south you go on our coast, the more common the black morph becomes.

A tail view of the transitional longirostris

   The black is sometimes so total and intense that when I attempt to take his picture, he appears as a black hole in the reef.  The black morph does have a thin shiny blue terminal band on its dorsal and ventral fins and tiny yellow lines at the base of the pectoral fins and tail.  All these markings are small and barring careful examination, the fish appears entirely black. The black morph is useful in that if you see one, you definitely have a longirostris as opposed to flavissimus.  Frequently one sees a mixed mated pair, one black and the other yellow.  On this day we saw at least two such pairings and one is pictured above.

   One interesting observation out of the Waikiki Aquarium is that when a black morph is brought into captivity it quickly transitions to the yellow variety.  This has apparently made it difficult for ichthyologists who hope to study it.

   Nobody really knows how these black morphs develop.  Are some born black and some yellow?  What is known is that the color is not indicative of sex and that an individual can change from black to yellow and vice versa.  Ever so rarely one sees a transitional individual.  Out here on the north cusp of the bay Sandra and I found an excellent example.  He was about fifteen feet down, paired with a yellow fish.  He stuck around for several minutes.

    Here you see my two best efforts at photography.  The second photo is a tail view and it provides a look at the trailing edge of the fin, which is profoundly black with a thin metallic blue terminal line.  Look carefully and you will see a dab of yellow on the caudal peduncle. Abutting the terminal black band we see a transitional section which becomes blacker toward the head.  One is tempted to decide, are there some black scales intermingled with yellow scales or are all the scales a dingy yellow?  Or is it a yellowish black?  And is the fish transitioning from yellow to black or the other way around? 

   Curiouser and curiouser.  Where is Lewis Carroll when you need him?

    When that transitioning longirostris left, we decided that it was time for us to go home, as well.  Just as we started our swim a small pufferfish passed us going in the opposite direction.  He was suggestive of a meleagris, now called (simply) the Spotted Puffer, which is a stupid name because a great many puffer fish are spotted.  In Hawaii the meleagris is black with white spots.    As you can see this fish has an overall brownish cast with darn near golden  pectoral fins and a hint of gold that extends onto his forehead.  And look at those prominent eyes.  Its almost as if he wants to be a French Bulldog.  

    He was swimming for all he was worth, those little fins flapping around like crazy, but he was a small pufferfish and Sandra and I were able to overtake him to get these pictures.  There is nothing exactly like it in the books so I sent the pictures to the Great Oz.  John Hoover was spending his last day diving in French Polynesia, but being the kind soul that he is, he took time out to give us his opinion.  Taking into account that he was in the middle of nowhere without his library, he voted for a juvenile meleagris, saying:  

A Giant Moray Hunting.  photo G. Douwma

Hi Jeff, Those yellow fins are weird. I don’t see any spines. A. meleagris has  an all yellow or partly yellow color variant that is rare in Hawaii but much more common elsewhere in the Pacific. I’m guessing that’s what it is.

    Dear departed Jack Randall is busy diving St. Peter's Reef and unable for sage advice.

   After this exhilarating swim we headed for the barn.  On the way we saw many Barred Filefish and several Achilles Tangs, both of which seem to be undergoing the dwindles in Kailua Kona. 

    As we approached the two step landing we saw a very large eel, perhaps seven feet in length.  He was free swimming and we observed him for five or ten seconds before he vanished into a coral. The eel was a uniform dark gray with  diagonal barring on his flanks and no greenish fringe on his dorsal fin or tail.  This was a Giant Moray, G. javanicus.*  John Hoover tells us that this species is rare in Hawaii, but I have seen it several times, so uncommon might be a better term.   Additionally he tells us that  the Giant Moray will attack unwary divers. Perhaps I was fortunate that it disappeared completely into the coral and that I chose not to dive down for a closer perusal. 

Whitley's Trunkfish  City of Refuge  March 2022.

   As we got ready to exit, I let Sandra go first.  As she swam away, I looked down and saw my first Whitley's Trunkfish* of the year.   Whitley's isn't  a rare fish, but it is highly endemic.  And a it was a great fish to end our snorkel.

   On shore we had lunch and made friends with our fellow snorkelers based mainly on the equipment they brought to the beach.  One young couple removed collapsible chairs from tiny nylon bags.  As it turned out one chair (the smaller of the two) was from REI and the other from Costco.  And our new friends were birdwatchers from Alaska.  I regaled them with my tale of the Wagoners, who worked as lecturers for the Audubon Society and attempted fish watching at Kahalu'u in the mid-eighties, before there were good field guides.  In return, the young gentleman told us that he had worked for a year as a biologist at the Kilauea Lighthouse on Kauai.  Albatross and Red tail Tropicbirds...Check it out.. 

   All this chitter chatter was too exciting so this handsome young couple picked up their masks and fins and headed to thetwo step entry.

   Elsewhere on the beach there was a very attractive young woman. I believe she might have recently escaped from Milf Island because she was affiliated with a three year old daughter so cute and well turned out that it almost broke your heart.  Upon her escape, she and her husband had purchased a small cart that was almost as cute as their daughter.  The cart was full of beach toys, lunch and snorkeling gear. 

Pure Outdoor collapsible cart.  Adorable family sold separately.

   Soon, the lady went off snorkeling and I went to change my clothes.  On exiting the porta potty who should I run into but dad with his daughter in hand.   Leaving out the part about where his pretty wife might have just escaped from (why confuse the issue and open myself up to bodily injury?)  I told him that I had been admiring his cute little cart.  He said that it was completely collapsible and came in handy here at City where one is currently obligated to schlep their belongings from hell'n gone down to the beach.  The part about Milf Island never came up.  

   He thanked me (for complementing his cart, I guess.)  and shortly there after,  Sandra and I were back on the highway.  No frogfish to show for our efforts, but the list for 2022 is now up to 105, which is exactly how many species the Wagoners saw at Kahalu'u in a year and a half.  And that's it from the beach.

jeff