Hot Water and the Cauliflower Coral

    It's Saturday morning, the last day of August, and the canoes in the Lili'uokalani canoe are paddling down the Kona coast.  We are watching from our lanai, roughly a mile away.  We used to go down to the Keahou Beach Hotel to watch the biggest outrigger canoe race in the world.  Sandra and I would

watch the race from the ocean front lanai/bar.  Those were the days.  This passing year noted the final demolition of that Kona landmark.

    Over the past week we have had some fine snorkeling and ferreted out a life species.  I'll highlight that observation later in the blog.  About nine days ago, the day before we drove up to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, we went north and snorkeled with Peter and Marla at the Mauna Lani.  The hotel is still closed for renovation, but Black Sand Beach 49 remains open for business.

    It was a beautiful morning at the Mauna Lani and water in the bay, surrounded by volcanic cliffs, was warm and fairly clear.  And here is the main point of this blog.  We are now in the late days of summer 2019, the days when hot water will cause the coral to expel its zooanthellae, the symbiotic algae that creates energy for the polyps.  When this happens, the coral "bleaches".  The algae gives the coral its color, much like a dollop of Pappy Van Winkle's gives some color to the branch.  When
the algae is gone, the coral dies in short order.   The water temperature is within the safety range for the coral.

Sandra's Totem, the Scribbled Filefish.  December 2013, Kailua Bay

    I don't know what happens if you take the Pappy Van Winkle's out of Lucian Connally's branch. At the minimum you'll have one pissed off old sheriff.

    2015 was the year the coral died in Hawaii.  If you refer back to the blogs of 2016 you will find that in many of our favorite locations there was universal desolation among the cauliflower coral.  It is the opinion of the editorial staff here at the blog, that this was an unprecedented situation; marine biologists had never seen anything like it.  It is with great joy that I can report that there is dramatically more Pocillopora coral today than we had any right to expect only three short years later.

    As we have said countless times, its hard to overstate the importance of this genus to the Hawaiian environment as a whole and specifically to our reef fish.  Several species of butterflyfish, parrotfish and others rely on coral polyps for their daily bread.  The nursery function of branching coral is obvious.  And then we have species that rely on these corals absolutely.  If you don't have a Pocillopora coral, you will not find a speckled scorpionfish or a coral croucher.  On this day at the

A nice pair of Teardrops in the clear water of BSB 49.

Mauna Lani I spotted a croucher and two pairs of speckled scorpions.  And not a single bleached coral.

   Before moving on, I will mention that Sandra saw the fish of the day, a scribbled filefish that swam away before she could show it to the rest of us. Although I missed Mr. Scribble, I was able to take a few nice pictures of common fish in the clear water.

    A few days ago, I was dropped off at the pier.  It was Wednesday, cruise ship day, and the beach in front of the King Kam Hotel was teeming with tourists and paddlers preparing for the Lili'uokalani
races. Once out past the jetty, the only company I had was the Marian, the glass bottom boat that sails from the pier.  Happily, I reconnoitered the cauliflower in front of Paul Allen's lagoon and on my third dive I spotted the coral croucher.  The legend lives on.

A Hawaiian Swimming Crab harbouring in a P. meandrina

    The Marian was determined to shadow my efforts, so not wishing to end up in the business end of a propeller, I concentrated my efforts in the small bay.  Two years ago, I would have had no Pocillopora coral to play with.  On this day there were several.  In a smaller meandrina I spotted some sort of shell fish.  Closer examination revealed  a crab, much larger than your average guard crab tucked in between the leaves. A cooperative fellow, instead of retreating this guy turned towards me and I was able to get the face on shot you see here.

     Note the pinching fingers: black stripes with white tips. Its one thing to get a playful pinch from a small hermit, but it would be foolish for a snorkeler to stick his fingers next to those serious claws.  Repairing to the critter book back at the ranch, I discovered that this was a Hawaiian swimming crab.  The Great Oz notes that this crab is nocturnal but it can sometimes be seen during the day in the branches of a   Pocillopora coral.  And there you have it.

   The water remains cool, the cauliflower coral lives and I have a life crab.  I say a little prayer every day for cooler water.  So far so good.

Walt Longmire and Lucian Connally.  Keep clear of the Van Winkle's in Absaroka County