The Cauliflower Coral Caper

 A couple days after returning to Hawaii, I received a group email from a local biologist, Lindsey Kramer.  Lindsey works for the Department of Aquatic Resources, based in a trailer hard by the fuel dock at Honokohau harbour.  She is also the coordinator for a loose knit organization called Eyes of the Reef.  I suppose that my presence on the mailing list, makes me an EOR observer.

   The email I received heralded the moment when cauliflower coral, Pocilipora meandrina, would be, or

A Healthy Cauliflower Coral, Kailua Bay 2017

should be, spawning on the leeward side of the Big Island.  I'm sure many of you recall that the cauliflower coral took one hell of a hit n the summer of 2015, when the inshore ocean temperature went up above 90 degrees and stayed there for over a month.  Much of the coral, not just the cauliflower coral, expelled its symbiotic algae in response to the heat stress, bleached and died.  Lindsey's email suggested that 3 to 5% of the cauliflower corals survived this event.  My feeling is that this number is outlandishly high, at least in the Kona area.  In some locations (e.g. Paul Allen's Reef and the bay south of Magic Sands)  it was closer to 100%!  This is based on my observations in early 2016. Last year, a small amount of spawning was reported from City of Refuge.  In other areas in Kona there was none.  It was Ms. Kramer's hope that the EOR would spot multiple spawnings along our coast. 

   Cauliflower coral was so common that we took it for granted.  However, those of us in the business of

Lots of Fish , Lots of Dead Coral    Kailua Bay 2016

finding unusual fish and critters, have always been aware that this branching coral serves as a valuable hiding place.  It serves an important nursery function for some juvenile species of fish, it is home to some small and secretive species (e.g. coral croucher, speckled scorpionfish and fourstripe wrasse) and it serves as a protective home for a variety of hermit crabs.  Not only that, but about six months ago, while listening to Hawaii Public Radio, I learned that P. meandrina protects exposed shoreline, such as we have at Paul Allen's reef and Alii Villas by buffering the surf.  Suffice it to say, we are not taking cauliflower coral for granted any longer. 

   Since the summer of 2015, in some spots the cauliflowers and some other corals have been making a bit of a comeback, although the areas I mentioned above remain decimated.  One essential component of coral recovery is their ability to propagate.  It is possible to break off a piece of coral and attach it to a suitable spot in the sand or by physical means to a rock or piece of metal and it may grow.   But  hopefully recovery will be accomplished by spawning.

   Each species of coral spawns at a certain moment, based on the lunar cycle and water temperature.  At the

What Ant Doesn't Want to Eat a Bale of That?

genetically programmed moment all the coral of a species release their sperm and eggs.  There is a lipid component to these gametes, so they float to the surface, where they seek out a partner, joining to form an embryo.  In the case of coral, this embryo is called a planula. As our friends at NOAA explain:  Planulae float in the ocean, some for days and some for weeks, before dropping to the ocean floor. Then, depending on seafloor conditions, the planulae may attach to the substrate and grow into a new coral colony at the slow rate of about.4 inches a year.

   Most coral species spawn at night, but P. meandrina spawns just after sunrise. We have known about this for about ten years, going so far as to contact a coral biologist at UH Hilo to the find correct day.  But we have never taken the opportunity to get up early and be in the water at sunrise to observe the cauliflower coral spawning.

This Lovely Snapper Greeted Us Early Sunday Morning

     I have a friend at the Kona Public Library, Jennifer Lossalio, who is going to help us put together a display of paper mache Hawaiian dascyllus, to demonstrate the plight of the cauliflowers.  I was telling her this story and when I got to this part about not getting out to see the spawning in previous years I invoked Willie Nelson.  Willie has been quoted, referring to his colleague Waylon Jennings, that Waylon is too lazy to walk across the street to watch a piss ant eat a bale of hay.  It made Jen smile, but I'm sad to say that I may have been that lazy. 

    So last Sunday, we skipped church and  entered the water at the foot of the pier at about 6:45.  Knowing the water was cool, I encouraged Sandra to wear her wet suit.  We identified a few likely looking corals, paddling from one to another for about an hour, not seeing any spawning and getting progressively more chilled.  We waited till about 8 AM before getting out. It should be noted that there were a surprising number of reef fish swimming about, so it wasn't boring, just cold.

Lots of Stocky Hawkfish But No Planulae

   The following morning, Sandra had a doctors appointment so I went by myself.  On my walk to the pier, I crossed Alii Drive and spoke to one of the many anglers who were fishing from the sea wall.  While we were chatting,  the adjacent fisherman landed a fine scale triggerfish, perhaps the one Sandra and I were following the day before.

   The water wasn't any warmer, but I did meet, ever so briefly, a lady named Barbara, who was doing the same thing I was, swimming from coral to coral to basically no avail.  And there was still some fish watching to do.

   There is a certain genre of ladies around here who come to the beach to get in the water and paddle around and gossip.  On this morning two such were floating near the first swim buoy and I heard one exclaim to her friend, "I think he's looking at me!"   There was no way that I could resist that, so I swam over hoping for an octopus.  As it turned out, they had a scorpionfish and immediately started warning me to stay away.  Muy peligrosso!  So I dove down and held onto a nearby rock and got his picture.  I guess I'm a bit like the

I Swear he Was Looking At Me.  Devil Scorpionfish,  Kailua Bay  2017

barber in Penney Lane, with a picture of every stonefish I have known. (And the fishes that come and go, stop to say hello.)  This was my first Devil Scoriponfish for 2017, so I was very pleased.  In addition to being very cold.

  Sandra made her doctors appointment and the following day I saw my dermatologist who excised another skin cancer.  The healing wound kept me out of the water for the rest of the week.  On Friday we were perusing the paper at Jennifer's library and discovered that Kailua Bay had just reopened.  It had been closed to swimming starting Monday morning when a sewage leak was spotted near the King Kam Hotel.  I doubt that had anything to do with the coral spawning (or not) and I didn't get sick, but like so many things in life, I found it a curious coincidence.  If someone had checked the water sample a few hours earlier I wouldn't have met Barbara, or seen the stonefish and we would all be wondering whether or not the coral spawned.

   At the end of the day, we didn't see any coral blooming.  And neither did any of the other EOR watchers along the coast.  I suppose it is possible that a few planulae will float in and start infant coral heads in Kailua Bay.  Luckily, as you can see from my pictures, some of the surviving cauliflower coral is looking pretty good, so we have reason to hope that the normal life cycle will reassert itself next year. 

Spawn, Dammit!