Kawaihae

Kawaihae in December.

       For our first swim together, Sandra and I chose to venture north to Kawaihae.  I have an upcoming gig with the Keiki Museum to recreate a portion of a cement pillar in the harbor, covered with various yucky fouling organisms, sponges in a variety of authentic colors, nudibranchs, shrimp, etc.  And we have sort of arranged a communal swim with our liaison to the museum, the effervescent Anne Van Brunt, so that she can get a better vision of the project that she is designing.  Hence, Sandra and I had a compelling reason to generate an up to date report on all that fancy muck.

    We got an early start and arrived at Kawaihe around 9:00 AM.  It was a strikingly beautiful morning, bright blue sky with only a few fluffy clouds, Mauna Loa snaking its way into the sea and only a few like minded, harbor loving individuals in the vicinity.  Soon enough we were in the gear we had chosen for the excursion, Sandra in a dive skin and your faithful correspondent in his neoprene vest sans leggings.  

The Banded Coral Shrimp Plays the Coquette

     As we sat on the LST landing platform, adjusting our fins and mask, we were greeted by a large dog.  He was patiently waiting while his owner paddled around the platforms.  There was a piece of rebar protruding from the sand and a submerged leash, but the hound was unattached and able to saunter over and get his ears scratched.  What a good boy!  

   I beat Sandra into the water by a minute or two and by the time she joined me at the first platform, I had already found a banded coral shrimp.  Previously, these handsome crustaceans were easy to spot inside the platform, requiring a bit of hydrobatics for a good look.  This fellow was on the outside, but tucked under a coral ledge.  His flamboyant antennae gave him away and every now and then he would extend a  claw in an attempt to get me to do something stupid in order to get a better good look.  At this point I just put the camera under the ledge and attempted to get the on board computer to do the heavy lifting.  I got a poor picture that showed a blurry, if identifiable, banded coral shrimp. 

The keiki scribble aligns against the pillar.

      We circled the first platform and then headed out to the second.  Here we found the pillars covered with raggy fouling vegetation, but relatively few sponges and no visible feather duster worms or hydroids.  And despite a careful search, no nudibranchs.  As I was completing my circuit, Sandra called me urgently.  She had unearthed (or is it unwatered?) a juvenile Scribbled Filefish.  We had watched one of these keikis in this very location a couple years ago, and it is a real treat.  Aluterus scriptus is a funny looking fish even in the adult form, but the baby is especially ungainly. In the past a smaller fish had attempted to fool us by aligning with a bit of submerged rope.  This guy, as you can see, thought that lining up with a pillar would throw us off the chase.

 
       Still under the threat of a nudibranch skunking, we headed out to platform three.  Here, on the shady west side, I found a fine Gloomy Nudibranch.  I have been making nudibranchs for the museum display.   In spite of the fact that this is among the three most common at Kawaihae, I have yet to attempt a gloomy.  This is a very handsome animal, and the flamboyant gills are perhaps the best part.  Flat and branching, with a two tone cream and black coloration, gloomy gills would look simply smashing on a royal chapeau at Ascot. My skill with the clay is such that rendering these gills would be impossible.  Stay tuned to see my next effort at creating gloomy gills on a clay model. 

Gloomy gills, a milliner's dream.

   As we finished up on the third platform, I was plagued with equipment issues.  On my first swim back, at Kahalu'u, I had experienced unsustainable mask fogging.  I thought that if I applied more and better sea drops, this would not be an issue.  But now it was.  Seeing is believing and not seeing is unacceptaable, especially if you are swimming around a complicated structure.

    Spitting in the mask helped a little, but in the preocess I dislodged my hat.  Attempting to get everything rearranged, I ended up losing my glove.  No amount of searching would reveal it.  This is more of an issue at Kawaihae than at most places.  And having suffered one significant finger infection, I am unhappy without some protection at any site.  Here we had no choice but to soldier on, but I needed to be a lot more careful when positioning against the pillars and the coral.  Bummer. 

Blacktail Snapper in the shade of the third platform.

    Between the third platform and the finger jetty, we encountered a large school of Blacktail Snappers.  These beautiful fish were introduced to Hawaii as a potential food source.  However both the blacktail and the Bluestripe Snapper have proved to be ciguatoxic in Hawaii.   The bluestripe is often seen in large schools, but in most circumstances one sees the blacktail singly or in small groups.  Here a large school provided an interesting visual.  In the shade of the third platform, with their bright pectoral fins showed brilliantly in the dark water.  

   Well, we had our nudibranch and Sandra was getting cold, so it was time to head in.  As we approached the first platform, I sent her ahead and took one more try at the Banded Coral Shrimp.  The little darling hadn't moved, so it was just a matter of diving down a few feet, hanging on, twisting and looking up, focusing and get the shot.  Easy, right? 

The Irresistable Shrimp in his Lair.

    Well, I got my shot, but in the process I found myself in an intimate embrace with the adjacent pillar.  In the event, my picture wasn't quite as nice as I hoped, but Kanaloa awarded me a fine little laceration on my thigh for my troubles.  And that is why the gods created betadine.

 Swim safe and prosper,

jeff