Swimming Nudibranch

Nudibranchs are the marine equivalent of a garden slug. However, unlike terrestrial slugs, nudibranchs can often be quite colorful and attractive. The largest of the Hawaiian nudibranchs is the Spanish dancer (Hexabranchus sanguineus) which can sometimes achieve a length of over one foot.

While most nudibranchs crawl across the substrate, the Spanish dancer, when alarmed, can swim through the water column by flexing and extending its body in an undulating fashion. In doing so, its extended mantle waves rhythmically much like a flamenco dancer's skirt!

A Visit to Where the Lava Meets the Sea

This weekend was our 23rd wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we decided to travel to the other side of the island to do a little lava viewing. We chartered a boat to take us close to the lava where we could see it flowing into the sea.

Photo Copyright 2013 by Barry Fackler

Due to "technical difficulties" with the boat, our sunset charter didn't start until after sundown. We also had a bit of rain on the trip. Nevertheless, these small hardships were worth enduring as our boat got really close to the lava entry. The glowing magma, the billowing steam, and the hissing and popping sounds were all very spectacular and astonishing. We've seen lava flowing in the past, but seeing it enter the sea from the vantage point of a 
boat was really special.

Photo Copyright 2013 by Barry Fackler

If you visit the Big Island, this is something you really need to put on your "must do" list. We had a great great time and will remember this short trip forever.

Photo Copyright 2013 by Barry Fackler

A lava entry into the sea is one of those things that could end at any instant and possibly not recur in a lifetime. Also, there may come a time when authorities shut down trips like this due to the multiple hazards involved. We felt very fortunate to have had this great experience. 

All the way back, we were treated to the sight of marine bioluminescence flying in the prop wash behind our boat. A bonus for having started late. We then went back to our room at Volcano House, a hotel that sits on the rim of the active Kilauea caldera called Halemaumau. Our stay there will be the subject of a future post!

Undersea Memorial

In a sand patch in the coral reef at Honaunau Bay lies this memorial to a free-diver and spear-fisher who went out diving one day and never returned.

Photo Copyright 2013 by Barry Fackler

I had seen him several times down at the bay but didn't really know him. He seemed like a nice guy and obviously had friends and family who love him and miss him very much as evidenced by this tribute. I hope they find comfort in knowing that he died doing something he enjoyed greatly.

We who play in the sea - whether free or SCUBA diving, boating, surfing, or even fishing from the shore - accept a certain amount of risk. Usually we live to tell our stories but there are no guarantees. Experience and skill can never prepare us for the infinite possibilities in the sea, good or bad.

Echinoderm Love

So there I was swimming along and minding my own business when I noticed what appeared to be a sea urchin, perched high on a coral head, that appeared to be smoking. Billows of white smoke rose from among its many spines. But, alas, the only fire was in the little creature's libido as this was the awesome act of echinoderm lovemaking!

Photo Copyright 2013 by Barry Fackler

The lusty devil was a collector urchin (Tripneustes gratilla)  and the "smoke " was a milky fluid containing either eggs or sperm that it was broadcasting into the water in hopes that it would meet up with the genetic material of another collector urchin and produce a new crop of prickly little invertebrates!

Photo Copyright 2013 by Barry Fackler

The yellowish thing atop the urchin is a piece of marine detritus that it "collected" during its travels. Anyway, interesting to note that, unlike humans, sea urchins smoke during sex and not after! Ha!

The Three-Named Fish

Photo Copyright 2013 by Barry Fackler

This past Saturday I saw this odd-shaped fish at a cleaning station at Honaunau Bay. It has at least three common names that I know of: scrawled filefish, scribbled filefish, and broomtail filefish. The binomial nomenclature for this fish is Aleuterus scriptus. It is a bizarre looking creature that is incredibly flattened, covered with electric blue dots and squiggles and has a tail that accounts for a third or more of its total length. I see these fish more frequently in the winter months here in Hawai'i. They occur singly, in pairs and sometimes in loose groups.  Happy Diving!

Good Things in Small Packages

This past Saturday there was a n outrigger canoe race launching from my favorite dive spot, Honaunau Bay. This was the first weekend in quite a while where the surf was fairly calm and I felt I needed to get in the water. I decided to go to Keauhou Bay, hoping to photograph the big manta rays that frequent the area. Alas, that was not to be, the mantas apparently being elsewhere engaged. On the return leg of my second dive I glimpsed a bright yellow blob on a piece of coral rubble. The blob turned out to be a tiny, juvenile Commerson's frogfish (Antennarius commerson).

All Photos Copyright 2013 by Barry Fackler

While it doesn't look camouflaged, this little fish is closely mimicking a local sponge species. Eventually, this inch-long individual will grow to about a foot in length and resemble an algae, sponge and coral-encrusted rock on the sea floor.

Death on the Beach!

Not all the fascinating stuff at the beach is underwater. Last weekend, during my surface interval, I got to watch a black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) stalking in the surf for prey. Before too long, it lunged its bill into the water and came up with a lavender tang (Acanthurus nigrofuscus).

Photo Copyright 2013 by Barry Fackler

It spent the following few minutes orienting the fish so it would go head first down its throat (otherwise the spines would catch) and then the hapless tang made it's last swim down the bird's alimentary canal.

Photo Copyright 2013 by Barry Fackler

Not a happy ending for our finny friend but birds have to eat, too!

Aloha!

Turtle Bedtime

Photo Copyright 2013 by Barry Fackler

This green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) is entering an underwater cave for a nap. When sleeping or resting, a green sea turtle can stay submerged for several hours on a single breath. However, when active or stressed, time submerged is greatly reduced. Greens can reach up to five feet in length and weigh up to 700 pounds. So now you know!