A Christmas Gift from Canon D10

Which Costume Are You Wearing This Season?

   Well, the yuletide is upon us.  Time for us to enjoy the spirit of giving.  We can all give a little by being patient with our fellow drivers (especially if they are over 90), making sure our trash goes in the appropriate receptacle and not stepping on the coral.  Just for once, hop down off Mount Crumpet and be the Anti-Grinch.

   Of course, if you are like me, its just as much fun to receive as to give.  Yesterday at K Bay it was both Yuletide and low tide, making the entry a bit painful on the feetsies.   But the water was still well this side of freezing, which was a pretty good gift in and of itself.  It was a little cloudy until one got over by the breakwater and the number of fish was hideously low.  So few butterflyfish were seen that I thought that the Grinch might have snuck into the bay the night before and taken them back to his

 Black Sided Hawkfish   Paracirrhites forsteri, Kahalu'u  12/12

aquarium supply shop to, er, fix the lights.  I fear, though, that no matter how many evil fisherman and aquarists lurk, some other nefarious force is at work...see Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth.

   I worked my way out towards surfer rock and was rewarded with a big, fat Freckle-Faced Hawkfish.  I know, I know, its called Black-sided now, but if anyone took the trouble to look at the fish, they would see how ludicrous that name change was.  Right, Mr. Freckle?  Anyway, this guy was indeed big and fat.  You only need to hang around the Big Island Grill for an hour or so to realize that from the days of the Alii right up to the present, big and fat is a compliment in these very Sandwich Islands.  This guy was very cooperative and rewarded me with my best picture of a Freckle-faced Hawkfish ever. 

Is it a Two Spot Wrasse?

     A gift like that is nice, but on the other side of Surfer's Rock lurked the 60 inch Plasma with surround
sound.  As I turned into that shallow patch of clear water I was presented with a fish I knew I had never seen before.  He was schooling with immature parrotfish, and bird and saddle wrasses.  Irregular fins and shiny patches, as if some 10 year old girl had glued on miniature sequins, this three inch wrasse was jinking around much like a small elegant coris.  Odd body positions and sudden movement in unexpected directions.  (It is not for nothing that I do not have a super picture of Elegant Coris.  Its a common fish, but a spooky devil.)  I followed this little guy around in the still but shallow water for a few minutes, getting a number of pictures.  I wasn't sure he was ever in great position relative to the camera, so I just kept following and shooting.  I could tell he was a bit darker posteriorly and ventrally, but the irregular fins and the shiny spotted coat was what held my attention.  By the time I was done, I had convinced myself that this was a fish I had never seen before.  And I ask you,  "What better gift can Kris Kringle put in my flipper than a life fish?"

Shortnose Wrasse, imm, Macropharyngodon geoffroy  Kahalu'u 

     The rest of my swim was uneventful and I soon found myself on the beach, looking at the books provided by the Kahalu'u Reef Social Club.  Just after I had decided that my fish was a Two Spot Wrasse, a young lady from the Social Club approached and inquired politely, "Do you have any questions, Sir?"  She was in her mid-thirties, a decade or three younger than many of the Social Clubbies, and substantially less chubby than our hawkfish.  She had a sincere approach and just a hint of a West Virginia twang.  Was she channeling Clarice Starling?  I should have been nicer, but so full of hubris was I, that I said, "No.  But I have some answers."  Who the hell did I think I was, Paul Krendler?  Our relationship took a frosty turn, but I told her of my Two Spot Wrasse, what a great fish it was and how, if she hurried she might find it doing the Watusi behind Surfer's Rock.

    At this point we need to scoot ahead a few hours, the water camera has been soaked, Paul Krendler has had his nap and we are plugging the SD card into the old, but trusty, laptop.  And what we see, after a bit of

Shortnose and Saddle immatures 12/13/12

 photo shopping, is what you see above.  I'm calling it an immature Shortnose Wrasse.  The Canon D10 does not lie.  No wonder amazing sightings need to be corroborated by real evidence.  This individual is intermediate between the two pics that my friend John Hoover has in the Ultimate Guide.  In my copy of Randall, no immature is pictured.

    This was not a life fish...I saw my very first shortnose less than a year ago at Beach 69 and one since on Paul Allen's reef.  How does the appearance of this previously very rare fish jibe with the diasappearance of all the butterflyfish in K Bay?  Good question, no?

     So...am I forgiven?   Stat page for Officer Starling and the entire Social Club.  I'm sorry, already.  We have recently received a commission from Dr. Randall to look for the Silhouette Soldierfish right around the pier.  It might not be Hannibal's dining room on the shore of Chesapeake Bay, but a propeller in the skull may trump a craniotome.  In the meantime, I'll try to be better behaved, the better to avoid the looming lump of coal. Like the T-shirt says at K-mart, "I've been pretty good for the last two weeks."  Or not.

jeff

Christmas is coming, Mr. Freckle's getting fat.

 Won't you please put a flounder in the poke vat.
If you haven't got a flounder, a Saddle Wrasse will do.
If you haven't got a Saddle Wrasse then God bless you.
God Bless You, Pufferfish, God Bless You!
If you haven't got a Saddle Wrasse then
God Bless You.