Kahalu'u vs the Kailua Kona Pier

    On consecutive days this week I went swimming at Kahalu'u and the pier with dramatically different results.  

   Tuesday morning we made it down to Kahalu'u.   It was a pleasant morning and the tide was high.  Getting in was better than it has been for several years, as sand has filled in a path on the shelter side of the so-called sand channel.  Despite a modest chop, there was fairly little current.  And the water was warm; Yasuko, my sole Japanese friend in the whole world reported it at 82 degrees.  I thought it might have been warmer than that. Kenichi wa!

A keiki Rectangular Triggerfish assures the species survival!

   The good news stopped there.  The water was persistently cloudy throughout the bay.  And the variety of fish was depressing.  The sole good news was cleaner wrasse.  I saw two pairs, and over by the rescue shelter an intermediate, who was morphing from the plain blue lined juvenile to a colorful adult.  She escaped before I could get a picture.  

   And we saw a legion of Rectangular Triggerfish.  Triggerfish seem to be taking the dying coral situation better than some other species.  Wouldn't it be a drag if the state fish became extinct?  No humu humu for youmu youmu!

    The news ashore was better.  Our friend Yasuko was there, telling us about a recent trip to Osaka.  In the Land of the Rising Sun she was shocked by warm weather...80 degrees, in October... just like the water in K Bay.  And there's a new girl, friendly, well spoken, and willing to listen to geriatric snorkelers talk about the good old days.  I showed her my picture of squids and she told me that a few weeks back they had a pair of breeding octopi.  Her name is Haley (like the comet) and perhaps we will see more of her in these pages as the season progresses.

                           🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟

     The next day we went down to the pier.   Wednesday is cruise ship day and the cruisers were there.  But the showers and changing rooms remain behind danger tape, so there were still very few swimmers and space was plentiful on the cubbies.  

A Teardrop Pair, Kailua Pier 2016

   The water was cool and super clear.  And there were fish!   We added the Oval Butterfly, such a prosaic name for a fish that seems to possess an inner lantern that creates that central golden glow, and Teardrop Butterfly.  

    Additionally I saw a Sandwich Island Filefish.  This species, identified by the white spot on the dorsal portion of the caudal peduncle, used to be common, but has become less so.  And amazingly, unless I am mistaken, I have yet to see the more prosaic Barred Filefish, which should be super common.  

   Finally we added Lagoon Triggerfish.  As beautiful as ever!

    Best of all, out by the penultimate swim buoy, I saw a Leatherback.  This is a very streamlined member of the Jack family that we see only occasionally.  Not as rare as squid, but something one might see only a couple times a year.  As I'm only going to be here for five months, and I don't snorkel as often as I did, this is probably the only one for 2024.  This was a fine specimen, almost two feet long. and he was a fine bronzy silver torpedo.  The hallmark of this sleek fish its cute little dorsal fin the size of your pinkie.  It has a white base and a black tip.  So as this wonderful fish swam by me, not in any great hurry (they never seem to stop when they are on patrol) that little, flag-like dorsal made him unmistakable.

Lagoon Triggerfish, Kailua Pier 2024

   I doubt I will ever get a picture of this fish, as in every instance it is here and gone.  So I'm going to burden you with this picture from the internet.  The fish I saw was bigger and better, less silver and more bronze, but at least this will give you an idea.

   I couldn't swim on the far side of the swim buoys with the tenders shuttling in and out with their shore going cruisers.  I got right up to the line and did not see any squid lurking out there in no man's land.

    Ashore, I was approached by some of the cruisers.  One was a lady from Upstate New York who wondered if it was safe to walk down to the sand.  Being a gentleman, I watched her shoes while she exposed her tootsies to the ocean.  She allowed that, by virtue of signing up for a daily excursion, this might be the only time she got her feet wet on her trip to Hawaii.  

The Leatherjacket

    While I was rinsing off with the bottle of water I had brought with me from home, an older couple stopped me and asked if there was a better beach nearby than the tiny strip where we enter on the Ironman side.  I showed them how they could walk around the visitor center / closed dressing rooms and showers and achieve the lovely beach in front of the King Kam.  And as I finished dressing, I spied them through the web of danger tape, pointing at that lovely strand that apparently the cruise company wants to keep a secret, the better to get people on a bus and away from the water.  

     Its wet, you know...you might melt!

jeff