St. Nick Comes Through on Christmas Eve or the Wrasse is in the Bag

Event greeting courtesy of Don Batkins

     It had rained the night before, breaking a month-long drought here in Kona, so Christmas Eve morning dawned clear and blue.  With Sandra's help I was down to the pier by 9 AM.  We were ready to begin the quest for the Christmas Wrasse on Christmas day, which seems over the years to have morphed into Christmas Eve, in as much as Christmas Day has a variety of social obligations.

   The surf has been way up in all the islands for many days, so high on Oahu that they ran the Eddie (a world-famous surfing event) two days ago.  Thousands of enthusiasts flocked to Pipeline (literally hundreds of non-surfers were treated for injuries just from getting too close to the raging ocean), and a young man named McNamara from Honolulu emerged as the survivor, that is, he won the surfing competition.  

   Here in Kona, high surf had closed Kahalu'u Beach Park for three days.  So, the only place here where we could swim yesterday was the Paul Allen side of the pier.  In addition to high surf, commensurate with the Christmas holiday, we have had a cruise ship every day.   The pier was busy, but I was able to get unloaded and positioned in front of the Kona Boys shack on the bay side of the King Kamehameha Hotel.

How to lure a Christmas Wrasse!

    While I was changing, I chatted with a couple off the ship, extolling the virtue of this beach for snorkeling, safe and free of charge being high on the list of virtues.  The couple was from Bodega Bay, California, where people snorkel to harvest abalones.  The 78-degree water in the Inner Harbour would seem like a bath compared to the ocean off Northern California!

   Soon I was swimming out through the tourists that, even at this early hour, were splashing and screeching in the cold water.  In fact, the water wasn't as cold as I had feared, and it wasn't quite as cloudy as several days of high surf might warrant. 

    As I reached the heiau, just opposite the boat launch, I spied this little fishing lure.  He was well hooked on a chunk of rip rap.  Like our incoming president I was attracted by the shiny object which seemed, in his wide-eyed way, to wish me good luck on the quest.  

A Zebra Moray disappears into the coral.

   In fact, this wish was granted wiki wiki as a juvenile Christmas Wrasse swam by.  In the past I've been conflicted when I see a juvenile before glimpsing an adult.  The immature wrasse counts, but it's the brightly colored adult that we hope for.  Not to worry, on this day I saw two adults, one trout sized and one larger before I left the Inner Harbour. 

      Out in the bay the water warmed up.  I swam across to the late Paul Allen's estate, where I saw a nice pair of Teardrop Butterflies and then encountered a large Zebra Moray.  This was my first eel that was not a Whitemouth for this trip. There must be baby zebras, but I can't recall ever seeing one that wasn't large. This guy was hunting in the coral about six feet beneath the waves.  I watched as he slithered into a coral and disappeared.

    The water was quite turbulent, just right for fast moving wrasses, and I saw two more adult Christmas Wrasses as I negotiated the waves and currents.  By now, that Mexican nemesis, El Guapo, would definitely agree that we had a plethora of Christmas Wrasses. 

  This was a great day for new species for the list.  In a large purple P. meandrina I spotted a guard crab down between the leaves.  Aiming the camera into the crevice, I was able to get this photograph.  It's not a great picture, but I think we can agree that this a Yellow Spotted Gurd Crab.  there are several species of guard crabs that live within the leaves of branching coral in Hawaii.  They feed on mucus and produced by the polys especially for the guard crabs.  In return, if a crown of thorns starfish or other coral predator settles on the coral, the guard crab will attack it with his powerful, albeit small, pincers.  Sadly, gurd crabs have no effect on global warming and polution.  

Yellow Spotted Guard Crab

    We're lucky that the large cauliflower coral, meandrina, is thriving in Kailua Bay.  The smaller cauliflowers are present in very small numbers.  In this instance, we had a home for an interesting crab.

    It was time to get back.  I saw another Christmas Wrasse as I crossed the rip rap and a Red Bar Hawkfish in a crevice.  St. Nicholas had indeed presented us with a Fishmas gift this year.  

    On shore, the cruisers had finished breakfast on the ship, transferred to the shore, and were now running wild.  Canoes to launch, children to chase, paddle boards imitating bumper cars.  You name it.  

    Sandra arrived to retrieve her schmoopie, and we made it home for a fine winter's nap...which is something us geriatric fishwatchers specialize in.

jeff

We wish you a Merry Fishmas and a Wrasse of a Year.