A Tale of Two Crabs

How aboot those wee orange flippers, eh?

     The surf is up again, even bigger this time.  But before it became difficult to snorkel, I got in a few good outings.  About a week ago, Sandra and I went with Jon Slater to the Paul Allen side of the pier.  The second Canadian I've shepherded in that location in as many months.  Jon is a vigorous young man (at 50 he is ten years my junior) who has swum in senior events and has his eye on triathlons.   He has his eye on hiking up Hualalai, our 8700 ft. local volcano. As a competitive swimmer, he chooses to wear ittsy bittsy blue and orange fins, so he is in training, even while fish watching.  Sandra's mantra this season is that she doesn't want to guide any more non-swimmers.  Lucky for John, he made the cut.

Where are we going?  And why am I in this Fish Tank?

     Despite the fact that it had been pretty rough the day before,  the water was clear.  That's the advantage of swimming along a lava rock shoreline, no sand to get stirred into the Kona crystal.  On the way out, we saw usual suspects, with the exception of a pair of Harry Potter Angelfish.  They were in the same spot I had seen them twice before.  Come to think of it, the first time I saw this pair was with  David , our friend Ross's SIL.  As with the Bunyon-esque David,   Jon wasn't much impressed with Harry and Hermione,  I guess if you haven't struggled to see your first Potter's, or if you are blissfully unaware of them, they aren't all that impressive.  Or maybe it takes a little more to impress a Canuck.

Haig's Hermits chilling   Kona Makai  6 ft  Nov. 2011

    On the way back, Jon and I snorkeled the extreme shallows, the area where one sees Five Stripe Wrasse, if they  are very lucky.  While Jon was chasing some silvery fish that might have been mullets (I didn't see them) I saw something really cool...a Haig's Hermit Crab strutting along with his turban shell.   I watched the little purple fellow for about a minute.  I was in about one to two feet of water that was surging in and out against the lava shore, so photography was out of the question.  It was a really good look, though,  combined with a solid intermediate swim  (to keep from getting bashed on the rocks.)
    This was only the second location I have seen Haigs Hermit Crab.  In fact, the first time I ever saw this species was just last season, in the rocks in front of Alii Villas (which is the only other place, aside from Paul Allen's Reef, where I have seen the Five-stripe.)   This is an unsheltered area where the sea surges against the rocks.  I have a colony staked out in and around a distinctive green staghorn coral. By now, I have seen that family of Haig's many times, but I had never seen one any where else.  The picture of two of the colonists was taken during the Creepy Calm...it would be suicide to dive against that cliff currently. 

Blood Hermit Crab   Kailua Pier  February 2012   6 ft

     A few days later,  I took a swim at the downtown side of the Kailua pier.  (Sandra had dropped me off while she went shopping.)  The swim was pretty routine, with clear warm water and the usual fish.  I have made a habit of finishing this swim against the part of the pier where the cruise ship tenders disgorge the sea-going rats.  The location where I had recorded a cracker jack  butterflyfish on three consecutive outings.  I was looking to make it four in a row.
       As I made it out to the end of this part of the pier, I was hailed by a local youth of perhaps sixteen years.  He politely admonished me that I should swim where it is safe, inside the buoys.    Equally politely, I thanked him for his advice (no sense in confronting the locals, who routinely leap from the pier into that very briny spot)  and continued my perusal.  Now, don't be confused and don't avoid this fish heaven  (assuming there are no boats around, of course).  The  only concern of my youthful adviser was that I was interfering with his fishing!
     Just off the proximal portion of the tender dock, feeding in the cleft of a rock, I spotted a larger hermit crab.  It was about a six foot dive down to this handsome fellow, a Blood Hermit Crab.  Included here are a couple pictures of this beauty.  We have seen this species only three times before, always at Kahalu'u, a remarkably sheltered spot for watching fish in the Kailua Kona area.This crab was living in a shell sporting a heavy growth of algae.  Previously we have found this guy in Triton shells; if you use just a little imagination, I believe you will agree that this crab is also wearing a triton.

This beautiful Blood Crab was a few feet from the pier!

     I find these two spottings instructive and they reinforce what I have thought for a few years.  The Kailua pier is a great pace to watch marine life.  The entries are safe and easy.   And if you go on both sides, you cover the two major habitats for shoreline marine life in Hawaii.  On the downtown / Ironman side, you have the shallow coral and rubble, similar to Kahalu'u, with an easier entry and much less current.  If you swim out from the King Kam you get the open ocean lava rock without the danger of a lava rock entry.  The coral on both sides are better preserved than elsewhere around Kailua and now we know that the very best crabs are there as well.

Keep Clam,
jeff