A Five Stripe Morning on the PAR

   We had lots to do yesterday, as we were hosting a party for Sandra's service club, Las Borachas.  Thus, I had to squeeze in my swim a bit earlier than usual.  On the beach in front of the King Kam, I watched a fit

Rock and roll on the PAR

 young lady instucting a couple of a certain age in the art of paddle boarding  It was a lovely morning for a
paddle or a swim and I was putting on my fins in the Inner Harbour about 9:30. 
   
The water was clear and not nearly as cold as I remeber from this time last year.  Everything was going so well that I swam all the way out to the lighthouse.  Out there a modest swell was hitting the reef, making close approach a little dicey.  But as i watched the coral on this wave swept lava, I saw a beautiful, mature Fivestripe Wrasse.

    Getting close was no longer a question but an imperative.  Working in close I got three pictures, one of them in delightful focus.  Can you believe how pretty this fish is?  At the same time, a school of bicolor chub swam by and I caught a couple pictures of them them for good measure.

A Pair of Bicolor Chubs

     The Fivestripe Wrasse is a beautiful fish that lives in the most turbulent shallows.  I have seen a couple in front of Kona Makai.  Most memeorably, John Hoover and i saw one on that stormy day when he took the picture of the Phoenix Island Damsel that appears in his book.  And I saw at least one on the shallow reef near the entrance to Paul Allen's lagoon.  Unlike all those fish, this guy was not living on top of a shallow reef, but appeared to live among the coral on the face of the reef, just below the surface.  When a wave came in, he would slide over the top and the back out as it receded.  What a daring fish.

    Back on the beach, I shared the shower with the couple who had returned from theor paddle boarding experience.  In their own way, they were daring fish. too.

jeff     

The Fivestripe Wrasse, Kailua Kona, Jan 17, 2014.  3 ft. A Fish as Beautiful as it is Rare.