A Few Shots from the Pier and Other Delights

     I have been lucky enough to go snorkeling at the pier the last two days.  I haven't seen anything earth shattering, but I'm presenting this blog so you can see a few fairly nice pictures and get a feel for what Sandra and I have been up to.

"What're  you lookin' at?" Hawaiian dascyllus  Kona Pier 2017

   Adult Hawaiian Dascylus may seem plain on first blush, especially in comparison to their keikis, who are so distinctive that that they have been given their own name, "Domino Damsel."  We seem to have a small resident school just seaward of the third swim buoy on the Ironman side of the Kona pier.  Yesterday the water was clear, so I made a few dives and nabbed these photos of this interesting species.

   As an aside, the smaller species of cauliflower coral,  Pocillopora damicornis, seems to be making a comeback in the swim area.  Wouldn't it be a gift from God if, in a few months we had a cloud of baby dascyllus hovering over a coral head in our bay?

 

With his black tail and white sides this guy is totally elegant.

  Don't think that all is a bowl of cherries on the Pocillopora front.  The larger species,  Pocillopora meandrina, is still in a world of hurt here in Kona, at least down to 25 feet.  It is actually this species that is most likely to be the home to that aforementioned cloud of domino keikis.  So I'm not holding my breath.
  








    Two days ago as I was finishing my swim, I made one final loop into the shallows of the swim area.  There, resting in a niche of a semi dead coral head, 18 inches above the lagoon floor, I spied a large miter shell, possibly in excess of three inches long. Well, as you may know, miters like this live in the sand, probably at depths greater than 10 feet.  Naturally I assumed that this shell was housing an ambitious hermit crab.  I dove down, hung on to the dead coral and tried to extricate the shell with my bare fingers, while at

Calcinus elegans, the Elegant Hermit Crab, in a well worn Pontifical Miter

the same time avoiding the sharp needles of the resident sea urchins.   

    Suffice it say, regardless of several attempts and what should have been a sufficient amount of cursing, I could not fiddle the fellow into my aging fingers.  I did, however, manage to push the shell further into the crevice.  So far, as it turned out, that the business end of the miter shell was protruding from the far end of the tube-like crevice. 

    After regaining my professional composure, I am, after all, now hailed in this beachside community as a naturalist and wildlife artist.  (Thanks to Jennifer Losalio, the children's librarian here in Kailua, I have the  brochure to prove it.)   Recomposed, I swam around until I found the miter in the coral.  If you have ever had the experience of seeing some stationary object underwater, turning away and then attempting to relocate it, you will appreciate that finding a three inch miter in one of the many coral niches was not a sure thing.  Finally I found

Our little boy is growing up, Threadfin Butterfly at the Pier

the shell and lo and behold, a large elegant hermit crab was clawing his prize estate into a new position.

    Diving down and hanging on to a bit of dead coral, I nabbed a few pictures of the fine fellow as he attempted to situate his Winnebago in its new, thanks to yours truly, resting place.

    Right beside the pier, about five yards on the wrong side of the swim area, I found this adolescent threadfin.  If I am correct, he has been growing in this location for eight months.  Look back in the blog and I'll bet you can find his baby pictures.

   
    And what about that picture at the top of the page?   Look carefully and you might find a twelve year old paddleboarder on the wrong side of the line that delineates the swim area.  The feckless youth finds himself going mano a chico with the tender to the submarine.  Whoops.

    Last but not least, here is a picture of the quilt in progress that has absorbed much of Sandra's time...time that might have been spent freezing in the ocean looking for fish.

   Last but not least, Sandra and I took the opportunity this morning to catch up with Peter's blog, OnebreathKohala,  https://onebreathkohala.wordpress.com/ 

    I know a lot about blogs.  In fact, I know more about blogs than anyone I know.  Peter writes an amazing blog.  If you have the time, give it a look.   I guarantee it that this will be the most amazing blog experience of your life.

   (If you weren't able to recognize my Trump parody, I apologize.)


Quilt till you wilt,
jeff