Abbott and Costello come to Ho'okena

Marilyn the Mermaid heralded a Bodacious Swim.

    In the process of moving permanently to Hawaii, certain things were written in stone.  One of these stone tablets is about to descend upon our unprotected heads;  our most prized pieces of  furniture and 34 boxes of necessary stuff (or at least it seemed so at the time) are going to be delivered in three days.  Needless to say, the receiving and handling of said stuff is going to put a crimp in our fish watching.   With that in mind. the Redoubtable SKG decreed that we spend today, Sunday, at Ho'okena.  Not only would we get in a superior swim, but we'd meet some new friends at our favorite beach.

     We arrived about 9:30 and enjoyed  a slice of banana bread before heading for the water.  It was a gorgeous day, with a bright blue sky and mild surf.  On our way down the black sand beach we encountered a little girl whose grandmother had fashioned her a mermaid tail from the warm black sand.  Cute as a bug,  she was Marilyn the Mermaid and a harbinger of good things to come.

Immature Kole and Johnson Island Damselfish

      We waded in through the small surf, donned our fins and headed right,  over the inshore coral.  Immediately, we found a new fish.  As you see here, this was a petite fish with a yellow tail, a bright yellow eyebrow and a body with fine purple and gold stripes.  Go Huskies, dude!  When one sees a new fish, the initial inclination is to say, " It s a waif!  New fish for Hawaii. Snorkelkids Rule!"   You can see that it was associating with immature Blue Eye Damsels, so for a brief instant I thought we had a new species from the genus Plectogyphidodon. 

Goldring Surgeon (Kole...Ctenochaetus strigosus) imm.,  Ho'okena, 2012

   Had there not been three of these guys, that is exactly what we would have said.  However, only one waif at a time is permitted.  We spent a few minutes photographing this beauty. Using the hang on to the bottom method taught by the Great Oz (and guaranteed to rip your rotator cuff to painful shreds),  we captured the fine photos you see here.  Eventually Sandra said, "Try not to drown." and we swam away. 

     Fifty yards further out we encountered three little fish as yellow as could be.  Tally ho.  We got a couple nice pictures of the little yellow fish.  There were a couple Yellow Tangs hanging around, but these guys were not the right shape.  Check out any book and see that immature Yellow Tangs have  fixed raised fins, appearing even more sailfin than their parents.   At about the same time we saw two more of the miniature yellow tailed fish.

A Yellow Tang Shepherds Three Yellow Kole immatures

    Later, when we had a chance to study these fish, we would find that immature Kole,  Ctenochaetus strigosus, are common in the summer.  Hoover says they come in two flavors, the little yellow fellows and miniature replicas of adult pattern, of which we saw a few.  Randall says immatures vary from yellow to brown.  A search of Google images, which is a pretty useful tool if you know what you are looking for,  reveals two images similar to our fish...striped brown side and yellow tail.  One is from Reefwatch Hawaii and the other is from the aquarium trade.  Boo!  With all due modesty I must say that our picture is better.

Hawaiian Hogfish imm,  Ho'okena Sept 2012

    But the best was yet to come.  We swam out among  the coral pillars beyond end of the old boat landing.  In a lower coral head south of the pillars, where we  saw the Flame and Potter's Angel a year ago, I spotted a gorgeous fish.  Nosing in and out of the coral, he had a bright yellow dorsum, a solid black side and and a white tail.  This was a handsome little fish about thirty five five feet below us.  So crisp were the colors, that my first inclination  was that this was an angelfish.  However, the nose was a bit long and the longer we watched the more he seemed to have an odd shape.

    I was muttering in my snorkel  about it being an angelfish, so much did I like the distinctive color pattern.  Sandra asked, "Do you think its a hogfish?"  I replied, "It doesn't swim like a hawkfish."  (I had noticed the yellow dorsum similar to the immature Freckle face Hawkfish, Paracirrhites forsteri.  This is such a lovely immature that for our family records we give it a special place, Forster's Hawkfish.  The Dragon and Red Labrid Wrasses get their own places, distinct from the adults, as well.)

   At some point I asked, "You don't think this is a wrasse, do you?"  Such is the high level of ichthyology in our family that Sandra replied, "No.  Do you think its a hogfish?"  ( I guess she doesn't know her wrasse from a cold fish.)  Sadly, I'm sure you know what my response was.  I dove the fish six times for pictures, my twelve foot dives bringing me about twenty feet above our tiny quarry.  If the pictures aren't superb, that's my excuse.  Isn't it amazing that the water was so clear?

Hawaiian Hogfish  Bodianus bilunulatus

    Abbott and Costello made it back to the beach a while later.   We had a delightful meal of tuna salad sandwiches made from tombo barbecued the previous evening.  There were plenty of friendly people and we enjoyed the company at least as much as the tombo.  Soon we were back home.  I still hadn't cottoned to the hogfish part and ended up looking at every angelfish, damselfish, bream and sea bass in the tropical pacific to no avail.  Finally I looked at wrasses and found our fish.  John Hoover has an excellent picture in the Ultimate Guide.  He also notes that the immature is more common in the summer.  Randall only shows the older phase immature, which is intermediate between this guy, with his distinctive black coat, and the female with a pinkish white flank.  No wonder I was having such trouble. 

    Well, thanks for sticking with me on this fish story.  We hope all your fish are friendly and that goes double for your dining companions.

jeff