Lucky Linda

   Over the last couple of weeks we have had visitors from the mainland.  This means we have been enjoying elaborate communal meals and going out to restaurants.  The downside of this is that your humble reporter

Linda and Sandra on Paul Allen's Reef

may have to skip a few meals to get back into snorkeling trim.  Alternatively, I can buy a bigger swimsuit, a purchase I would prefer to avoid if at all possible.

   In addition to dining with our guests, we have had them accompany us on our snorkeling trips.  Most recently, this involved our friend Linda, who arrived with her husband Larry from Portland.  Linda and Larry have been Sandra's friends like forever and mine, therefore , for the last 19 years.  My, my, how time passes by.   Being both adventuresome and inquisitive, Linda was eager to go out with us and look at the fish.   We were a little wary as she is far from a regular snorkeler and it is a big, unpredictable ocean.

    Our first outing was to Paul Allen's Reef.  As you may recall, the Inner Harbour in front of the King Kam Hotel is our first choice for introducing uncertain snorkelers to the deep blue sea.  It is very protected with
 virtually no shoreline waves and there is a soft, sandy entry where anyone can stand and bond with the salt water.  Best of all, at this time of year, the water is not especially cold.  Linda had practiced  with her equipment in the pool and seemed to do fine, so off we went.

    As we rounded the little jetty by the  Heiau, it was obvious to me that she was putting more effort into swimming than was necessary.  Its difficult for those of us that do it every day to remember that ocean swimming is different from swimming in a pool.  There are the physical differences, like current.  And psychic differences like changing depths.  Why should hitting a golf ball 50 yards over a pond be any different than hitting it over a patch of grass.  In the words of John Lennon, "Its all in your mind, you know."   And so it is that many people when they need time to adapt before they are truly comfortable swimming to the ocean. 

Reticulated Butterflyfish  Paul Allen's Reef 2016

   The ocean was calm and Sandra and I were able to coax Linda across the bay, past the entrance to Paul
Allen's Lagoon and out onto the reef.  In the short time allowed, we saw a nice smattering of the usual stuff.  By the time Sandra spotted a handsome pair of reticulated butterflyfish, our guest had already made the club house turn and was headed for the barn.  I let Sandra swim back with Linda while I took a couple pictures of the irresistible retics.

    I figured that I would catch up with them, but as I started my swim I was stopped short.  On the inner edge of the reef, quite near Paul Allen's Canal, I spotted an aspricaudus about eight feet below me.  The yellowtail filefish is uncommon, but I now see at least one a year.  The trick to keeping aspricaudus on the list is to recognize that they are local;  the bar at the Dog Beach is a pretty good spot for this uncommon fish and the small bay at Mahukona is virtually a sure thing if you are persistent.  Having said that, I have never before seen this species in the vicinity of the pier.   From that standpoint, it was  a really big deal.  Time to repair to the 2016 Kona Fishlist and put a 1b (my designation for the Paul Allen's Reef) next to Pervagor aspricaudus.

    Part of the problem with this fish, like many fish that one doesn't see very often, is that they are secretive,  spending a lot of time inside the coral.  For this reason, we are probably swimming over a variety of stone

Yellowtail Filefish  Pervagor aspricaudus  PAR  2016

fish every time we snorkel.  In addition, the yellowtail filefish is skittish; when you see it, it seems to be aware of your attention and is immediately swimming for a hideaway in the rocks or coral.  This guy permitted me a few looks over about five minutes until he disappeared for good into the reef only four feet down.

    In Bali, the yellowtail filefish is more common and it tends to swim up in the water, as opposed to darting in and out of crevices.  But it is every bit as skittish, so we see it but we rarely get a picture

    Pervagor aspricaudus is indeed present on Paul Allen's Reef.

I apologize for the picture and present it primarily for documentation.

    On the way in,  I passed Sandra and Linda enjoying the fish of the Inner Harbour, which although  its a bit cooler than the outside, is home to about twenty species of reef fish.

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    Two days ago, we scooped up our visitors bright and early and headed down to Ho'okena.  We drove through a fine mist as we traversed the highlands of Honaunau, but by the time we descended the 1500 feet

And So Does Linda!

to Ho'okena it was warm and dry, if a bit overcast.  We got Larry situated with a spectacular view of the bay and then the threesome headed down the beach.

    The wave predictor had suggested that Ho'okena should be completely flat, ideal for our novice.  This was not entirely true, as there were occasional sets breaking with one foot faces, the tail outs racing fifteen feet up the beach.

   Linda is very game, but she is also three years status post total hip replacement.  Like a 70 something Bo Jackson, who I saw hit a major league home run on a total hip prosthesis, she continues to be very active.  However, in these conditions, we were concerned that everyone make a good quick entry beyond the surf

Ambon Toby  Ho'okena 2012  Beautiful but Easily Overlooked

line.  I just don't know what one would do on this medically deficient isle if he or she suffered a dislocated total hip.  Flying to Honolulu seems the most likely.

    Suffice it to say, that with a little coaching we got our guest into the water and beyond the surf line without anything bad happening.  Soon we were all  swimming happily in the Kona crystal.  It is always fun to look at the fish in clear water as they swim around healthy coral.  Although the coral at Ho'okena is dying just like everywhere else, it is in much better shape than the PAR, which is perhaps the most damaged of anywhere on the Kona Coast.

   Sandra found Linda a nice pair of red labrid wrasses and an ambon toby, which Linda was able to enjoy as we had studied it the night before.  I was able to contribute a stunning zebra moray poking his head out of a coral, which like so many around here, was half healthy and half dead.

   After the eel, it was time for Linda and Sandra to return to the beach.  I swam in to make sure that Sandra

Zebra Moray Ho'okena 2016

and Linda cleared the surf zone with appropriate dispatch and then I headed back out for another look.

   About forty meters from shore, in about fifteen feet of water, I saw a small pinkish fish.  diving down, I got a superb look at an eightline wrasse. He was swimming above and through a coral head with some smaller juveniles, bird and saddle wrasses, koles and parrotfish.  Boy was I happy!  According to my lists, the last time I saw one of these was in November of 2011 at Kahalu'u.  There has been a fair amount of coral death at K Bay and I wonder if that is the reason that I have not seen eightstripe and four stripe wrasses there for so many years.  It seems like we would get one or both on most two week vacations twenty years ago.  The eightstripe was more difficult even then.

    I dove this fish five times.  Being a wuss, these twelve foot dives were as deep as I go. Three times I was lucky to get a picture and here you see the results.  John Hoover has an excellent picture in his book and one

Eightstripe Wrasse    Ho'okena 2016

has to suppose that if I had been diving,  I would have captured a better image.  Of course I don't dive,  so this will have to suffice.  Additionally, it is very possible that knowledgeable fish finding divers see this fish frequently. Global warming doesn't seem to have harmed the deeper coral to the same extent we see in the shallows and better habitat may mean the preservation of less common species.

    At the end of the day, for me, this was quite a triumph.

     The overcast had persisted, so it was a nice cool afternoon.  We had a wonderful lunch under the shelter.  Linda had made egg salad, which is my favorite.  A family of locals with about ten children occupied the tables around us, so we were continuously entertained as the kids raced back and forth. 

Sandra, Larry and Linda.   Three Amigos at Ho'okena

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    Which brings us to yesterday.  I wanted to go back to Paul Allen's Canal to see if I could find the aspricaudus.  Or maybe I just wanted to sing Paul my new song.  (Sung to the tune of The Erie Canal.)

Paul Allen Flies his Helicopter over Kealakekua Bay

I've got a helicopter and her name is Sal
Fifteen yards on Paul Allen's Canal. 
I fly her like a bat and the natives quail!
Fifteen yards on Paul Allen's Canal.

We see some fish most every day
For the struggling coral we have to pray
And we zip right down at a terrible rate
From Keahole Airport to the Thurston Estate. 

    Well, I guess that's enough Hawaiian folk songs for this blog.

    The tide was really high, the beach full of tourists form the cruise ship.  The parasail boats were at full occupancy, and the water was full of board paddlers and kayaks.  Through the circus I swam until I reached the spot by the canal of which you have just been serenaded.  Out by the canal I saw three large eels, a yellowmargin and two whitemouths, all in a small

Eagle Ray  Paul Allen's Reef 2016

area, protruding from the coral and waving their heads back and forth.  I didn't know what that was about, but I took their pictures and began my patrol.  

    Ten minutes of looking here and there did not reveal an aspricaudus, but I did have a moderately close encounter with the glass bottom boat.  The yellowtail filefish tend to stay in one area, so I really thought I had a chance.  While searching for the filefish, I was enjoying the large number of black sea urchins, E. calamaris.  So many had crawled into prominent positions that I thought perhaps they were getting ready to spawn.  Or perhaps the rapture was imminent.   That, by the way, is our new family position. We are available to help, but in the event of the rapture we will have to beg out.
   
     Luckily for all of us, something even better than the rapture occurred.  Right below me an eagle ray

swooped in and began foraging on the shallow reef.  He was only a couple feet below me, so even on this dark afternoon I was able to get some killer pictures.  I took a few stills and then a movie in which he pivots, showing himself from all angles.  I swam with him for several more minutes as he slowly headed back into the

the Ornate Lining of the Eagle Ray's Fin

depths, which were also the waterway used by the parasailing boats.  This was only my third eagle ray of all time.   

    I can't say with any degree of certainty how many eagle rays Paul Allen has seen.  Nor do I know his position on the list for the rapture.  I suppose it is possible that he doesn't even want to be called to heaven.  For the rest of us, snorkeling in Kona might be close enough.

jeff

One more look at the eightstripe wrasse