A Rocky Outing at Kahalu'u

   Yesterday was supposed to be a wonderful day.  We had lunch with Peter and Marla the day before; perhaps as a consequence Sandra was excited to take her first snorkel since returning to Hawaii a month ago.  We got to the bay just at high tide.  It was a 1.8 at 8:45 and we were there just before 9.  It was a bright blue day and we were down to the water ready to go in a few minutes. 

Strawberry Drupe encrusted with red coralline algae.

    As the tide was high, many of the rocks we needed to step on to get in the water were submerged.  Sandra held my hand as I stepped on one wet rock and then I decided to avoid another wet rock and take a giant step out onto the sand.  I'm still recovering from back and knee problems, not entirely strong and flexible, and this step was a bit too far. I tottered and then fell down.  It was a slow motion fall, but my coccyx landed hard on an irregular chunk of immovable lava rock.  Meanwhile, Sandra had been surprised by the sudden release of my hand and she fell onto her left side.  

   Miraculously, neither one of us was significantly injured.  so instead of riding in an ambulance up to the hospital in Kealakekua, we dusted ourselves off and swam out into the bay.  The water was cool and clear.  As we met out by the reef teacher's buoy, Sandra spotted a small porcupinefish.  This is an unusual fish for Kahalu'u and I would have loved to see it, but by the time she got my attention, he had disappeared, probably inside a coral.

Spotted Linckia Starfish,  Kahalu'u,  Dec. 2022

    We swam out to the middle, seeing a nice variety of fish.  Attached to one of the corals I found a fine Strawberry Drupe.  Now that we are aware of them, we see this larger snail shell every now and then,  It is about as big as a self respecting lilikoi, which means that this one was about the size of the nasty hematoma that I would develop over the next couple of hours.  Sometimes the shell is covered with fouling organisms and blends in with the dead coral.  In this instance, he was covered with rosy red coralline algae.  Quite strawberry like, indeed.  Most often these shells are home to the eponymous snail, but sometimes they house a larger hermit crab.   To no avail, I gave this one a good tug and verified that it was the snail, not a hermit.

    We were still feeling good so we headed further out.  Way out there, in a coral fenestration, I spotted a smaller Spotted Linckia Starfish.  These guys can be tricky.  They can lose most of their arms and resemble something quite different, like a nudibranch, albeit one without gills..  As you can see, this one was a straight forward five pointed star.  You could have plucked him off the rock, pinned him to your chest and gone out to shoot bad guys at the OK Corral. 

     When I think of starfish, I picture of muscular arms prying open an oyster shell and eating the soft mollusc inside.  This linckia, we are told by John Hoover, lives on hard substrate and may get by eating coralline algae.  Like Lewis Carroll's Walrus, I think I'd rather eat oysters.  And as my dear brother will tell you,  nothing goes better with an oyster than a glass of Pinot Grigio.  

 Come walk with us, dear oysters,for the day is Clear and Bright. / And if we get hungry on the way, we'll stop and have a bite!

Well, we didn't eat any oysters.  and we certainly didn't eat any coralline algae.  But on the way in, we followed a pair of Saddleback Butterflyfish.  This is one of our reef's most handsome fish, frequently seen in pairs and not unusual at Kahalu'u.  These dapper devils, like many butterflyfish, subsist on coral polyps.  One might assume that their continued presence in our bay indicates that there is an ample supply of live coral polyps upon which a butterflyfish might satisfy his appetite.

Saddleback Butterflyfish Pair, Kahalu'u Dec. 2022

    Me and my appetite, on the other hand, are holding out for oysters.

jeff