Kahalu'u Gold on Kathy's Last Day. Hawaii Snorkeling at its best!

      Earlier this week we bid a fond adieu to our friends from the PNW.  But before the goodbyes, there was one more morning to look at fish.

Diodon hystrix, Kahalu'u December 2025

  For her aloha snorkel, our friend Kathy chose a morning swim at Kahalu'u.  The snorkeling conditions had been great all week; despite it being high tide, with the Menehune Breakwater all but submerged. there was little wave action in the bay.  Things were looking good. 

     The day before, Wendy had decided that she had had enough of hanging around picnic tables waiting for her man to return from the sea.  She never would have made it as the wife of a Nantucket whaling captain  (I'm sure there's a good limerick in there somewhere.)  So, it was going to be up to Sandra and Vernon to hold down the fort while Kathy and I explored for fish.

   Before that could happen, there was business ashore.  First, we gave Yasuko her Christmas present, a Pink tail Triggerfish ornament for her tree.  Domo arigato Mr. Fish-mato.  

Another look at the Barred Spiny Puffer

   And then I spied these two young ladies freshly emerged from the early morning sea.  I asked them about the conditions (always a good ice breaker) and they replied that it was too bumpy.  Then I asked where they were from.  "Saskatchewan." they replied.  

    "Saskatoon?" I asked.  "Regina." they replied.  It was all I could do to keep from referencing one of Jerry Seinfeld's best episodes.  the one where he can't remember his new love interest's name, but it rhymes with a lady's body part.  Heard to believe I have that much discretion...right?  

     Following this I had an interesting conversation with their dad, who appeared much younger that I expected.  Which caused me to suspect that the young lovelies, despite plenty of well-proportioned avoir du pois, were younger, as well.  Anyway, I recalled every Canadian who I had ever encountered in Hawaii, and he told me they were going back in two days.   Apparently, you don't fly direct to Regina (or any other city in Cananda that rhymes with a female body part).  So he had arranged to fly direct back to Calgary (which rhymes with that organization that got George Custer, et al. in a bit of trouble) and from there the foursome was going to drive back to Regina.  And that night it was going to snow 20 cm in Calgary.  Don't you love the metric system?  That's nuef pouces de neige if you live in Montral and don't like the metric system.  Apparently if you reside in the frozen north, you think nothing of driving nine hours in the dark, in the snow, if it is part of the going to Hawaii deal.  Aloha snowy loa!

Ringtail Wrasse dead ahead,  Kahalu'u 12/24

    Well, about that time our friends arrived and soon Ekaterina and yours truly were sliding over the rocks into the bay.  Almost immediately we saw a great fish.  Attempting to hide in the lee of a chunk of deceased coral was a chunky puffer fish.  Diodon hysrix, the barred spiny puffer.  It has been a while since I have seen this fish in these Very Sandwich Islands, but I did see it Bali within recent memory. Memory in this instance is aided by my voluminous lists and so I can tell you for certain that we saw D. hystrix in Pemuteran in December of 2009.  Just looking at those Bali lists, which run for six pages is enough to get the old fishwatchin' blood running.  

    This guy was only about four feet down.  In addition to the spines, he had a number of small white stringy things connected to his skin round his head.  These show up in my unfortunately less than perfect pictures.  John Hoover tells us these are short barbels, sensory organs.  Pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

Intermediate YTC Kahalu'u 12/24

    A bit further on we chased a blue stripe snapper, and I tried to coax a Cone shell Hermit Crab from his shell (with no success) and we were beginning to wonder if the puffer was going to be it for the day.  But as we headed up the gut all hell broke loose.  First we saw a Ringtail Wrasse.  He stayed about ten feet ahead of us affording some photographic attempts.   

   Off to the left an intermediate Yellowtail Coris appeared.  I don't see one of these fascinating intermediates very often.  Heaven knows, the adult male and female are common almost everywhere and the babies, the Red Labrid Wrasse is common enough.  So, one must conclude that the red labrid passes through the intermediate form fairly quickly.  This fellow was about three and a half to four inches long (9 cm).  I saw a small YTC of the same size in completed adult coloration as I chased this guy around trying for a good shot.  I'm including my inadequate picture, and this is what you should look for:  He had a yellow tail.  He was basically red with white tapered bands, but the trailing third of the fish was blue with a constellation of white spots surrounding the last two tapered white bands.  All in all, a hell of a fish.

Kathy, Kent and your humble correspondent at Kahalu'u.

    Aas I was chasing him around I spied a tiny Dragon Wrasse.  He was light colored, brownish green with mottled off white.  He was about an inch in length.  As our hero, John Lennon, would put it, "Gotta be good lookin' cause he's so hard to see."  

    This was the super good stuff.  Out on the flats we got a very good look at a colorful adult Christmas Wrasse.   It was a great Aloha Snorkel for Kathy, and me, too.   We are rapidly approaching the day on which we will hunt for the Christmas Wrasse in all seriousness.  In the meantime, we can shop 'til we drop, concentrate on healing up our feet and whistle Mele Kailiki Maka as we recline in the shade with an ice tea.

Aloha, jeff