A Night Snorkel at Kahalu'u

    Our friends Bob and Kim Hillis are leaving the island at the end of the week, moving to the mountains of  Arizona far away from the ocean.  With that in mind, Bob has been running down a last minute wishlist,

K Bay was as dark as a cow's tuckus on a moonless night.

doing some things that he had hoped to do on the island and saying goodbye, after a fashion, to some of his favorite places and activities.  Upon his list was a night snorkel at K Bay with your humble correspondent.  I was flattered to be on his short list, and so earlier this week we made it happen.

    Somehow I was reminded of a little story by Thomas Mann:  Antonio Krüger verliß seinen heim und bekundet kein grossen schmertz dabei.   Antonio is leaving home and goes around saying goodbye to all things familiar, but doesn't feel any pain.

 I dropped Sandra off at the sometimes Chateau Hillis, where she and Kim sat around with a dram of Gilbey's while Bob and I motored down to K Bay.  When we got there it was just about as dark as a cow's tuckus on a moonless night (courtesy of The Stranger in The Big Lebowski).  The lights in the parking lot had not yet come on, according to a friend we
met in the lot, they are timed according to sunset in the summer.  The only lights available emanated from the restrooms and with that bit of lost light we made it to a table in the shelter.

Short Arm Sand Octopus thanks to  dmcleish.com

    Before we could get changed and into the bay, we were accosted by an attractive twenty something who had misplaced her cell phone in the dark.  Bob, the sometimes Don Quixote of Kailua Kona, sprang to her aid with his dive light.  this failing, he ran back to the car for his cell so they could call her phone which, she being a damsel, was buried deep in her picnic basket. 

   Problem solved, we left the sweet young thing and her keiki to their barbecue in the dark and made our way into the chilly water of K Bay.  On this night snorkel, I had chosen not to bring my camera.  a multitude of reasons framed this decision.  First, it is difficult for an old trout like myself to swim with a flashlight in one hand and operate a camera with the other.  Additionally, we had seen little on our previous night snorkels to push me in the direction of repeated near drowning experiences. And lastly, my attempts at photography on those occasions had been, well,  miserable.  Luckily, as it turned out,

Kellogg's Scorpionfish  photo Bob Hillis

Bob brought his camera along and although my photo processor hates his camera with a passion, I have managed over a few hours to render a few of his pictures acceptable for the blog.

   We had been out in the bay for only a few minutes when I saw Bob stalled by the shore.  He had found a very small octopus.  The head was about as big as one of those tiny tangerines that they sell at Costco.  At times the tentacles were drawn up under the body, while at others they dangled below, they appeared about as long as my fingers.  Bob dove down and took a couple pictures while I illuminated the critter with my light.

   Although this technique would yield a few good images later on, he did not get an acceptable picture of this fascinating animal.  Aside from it being cute as, and only slightly larger than, a bug, the octopus was remarkable in one other respect: it did not flee.  We watched it for several minutes and at extremely close range.  Bob dove twice for

Peppered Squirrelfish, S. punctatissimum  December 2015

 pictures that were  taken at about 18 inches.  John Hoover suggests that this is the short arm sand octopus.  I'm including a picture from the internet, with thanks to dmcleish.   Bob was concerned that  because of the way this animal changed color and textures, he might have been a very small day octopus.  I'm giving you a link to a page from D. McLeish which shows the short arm sand octopus doing all the things that we witnessed.  It was a very cool experience with an animal I doubt I wlll see again.  .http://dmcleish.com/Maui2013/Short-arm-Octopus/index.html

    We had been away from the octopus for only a short while when I spotted a small scorpionfish sitting on a rock in the shallows.  By virtue of being atop the rock, he was only two feet below the surface.  This fellow was equally patient and here you see Bob's picture with my processing.  I'm calling this fish Kellogg's

Banded Coral Shrimp, Kahalu'u, December 2015

Scorpionfish.  Sadly for me, I have seen this species one time previously, during the day, in essentially the same spot, the larger stones just outside the entrance at Kahalu'u. On that occasion he sheltered at the bottom of a rock, but I was able to dive down and get an excellent picture which is very similar to this one.

    We saw the expected cardinalfish (bandfin and irridescent) and spotfin soldierfish, which we see by day, and peppered squirrelfish, which is primarily nocturnal.  I found a cracker jack undulated moray with his handsome gold head threatening us from beneath a coral.

    As we swam along we got some excellent looks at a variety of shrimp, which are difficult to photograph and identify.  This was different from our previous night snorkels where the shrimp were much more difficult to see.  My guess is that we saw four species well, but it is difficult to put a name on them.  The exception was a handsome banded coral shrimp, only about 4 cm from claw to claw.

   Luckily as we looked at the various shrimps, the lights came on in the parking lot.  It was much easier to find our way in with those lights to guide us.  Ashore,  we were greeted by

Henderson's Hingebeak Shrimp Kahalu'u December 2015

several families of islanders who had come to the shelter to enjoy the evening.  One clever fellow knew how to turn on a couple lights.  Switches were located on the posts...what a surprise.  On a our previous night snorkel at Kahalu'u,  many fluorescent lights were on, but that was not the case this evening.  At any rate, we were able to enjoy all the children racing around inside the shelter and find our car, in the now well illuminated parking lot.

   Back at Chateau Hillis there was plenty of schmerz to go around. We bid farewell to our friends and I bundled Sandra into the Honda for the sad trip up the hill.  Fair winds and good fish, amigos.


jeff