Diving the Kona Coast: Saddle Wrasse

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Triton's Trumpet

Aloha, everyone! I've decided to change the general format of my blogging as the "dive report" model was a little limiting and had to be posted somewhat quickly to be relevant. For now, I'm just going to pick a subject and show some photos of it with a little commentary.

Last week I was off work and did several dives. I managed to find the same Triton's Trumpet on two consecutive days and got lots of photo ops. The shot above is maybe one of my favorite underwater photos I've ever taken. I was just following the snail as it travelled over the bottom. When it crested this little coral "hill", I didn't expect it to stretch so far out of its shell. It resulted in a pretty unique perspective!

This was a medium-sized Triton's Trumpet and not one of the giants which are getting more and more scarce. It glided along the substrate smoothly and at a fairly good clip. Shortly after the above photo was taken, the snail tumbled off the coral and fell to the sand. It quickly righted itself and continued on its way.

The shell was beautiful and the newer portion was very clean and glossy. The large, muscular foot was mottled with brownish-red markings. The black and yellow striped projections are called tentacles and serve as sensory organs. At the base of each tentacle, on the lateral aspect, is a tiny black dot which is one of the creatures eyes.

The wonderful thing about a relatively slow-moving creature that is also aesthetically pleasing is that you can take tons of shots from all the angles you care to choose.

On the last day of my mini-vacation I found another Triton's Trumpet, this one in the process of devouring a Crown-of -Thorns sea star. The snail pins down the sea star and then drills into its skin and starts to dissolve the inner tissue so it can be ingested. There was some organic "fallout" from this process and the Saddle Wrasse in the background was enjoying a free meal.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Dive Report for Sunday 12/20/2009

By no means was this a "Chamber of Commerce" type of day in Kona. When I got up there was a little bit of sun and blue sky over the mountains but very gray and cloudy over the ocean. During the first dive I had a little sunlight but it got progressively darker as time went by. The scene above was taken between dives. As I geared up for my second dive it began to drizzle very lightly. But I was already wet and planning on getting wetter so I went ahead. The second dive was good, but topside it was raining buckets. To the south there was thunder and lightning and north in Kailua-Kona funnel clouds were spotted over the ocean. Pretty wild!

The weather made underwater visibility a bit like night diving. I saw this juvenile Blackside Hawkfish early in the dive. These fish undergo a dramatic change in coloration as they mature. Later in the dive I found an adult specimen. You can see from the photo below how this fish changes as it grows.

A variety of Wrasses were on the reef on the first dive. The beautifully colored fish above is a Yellowtail Coris. All wrasses swim by beating their pectoral fins, holding the tail stiff and using it only for steering. They flit around somewhat erratically and are difficult to photograph.

Above are three female Bird Wrasse darting about the reef. They have a characteristic curved beak that resembles the beak of a Hawaiian bird called a Honeycreeper. The males are similarly shaped but are bigger and colored dark green and blue.

The Saddle Wrasse is one of the more common fish on Hawaiian reefs and is easily identified by its orange "saddle" just behind the head. It has beautiful magenta markings at the base of the anal, dorsal and caudal fins.

Near the end of the first dive I came upon a cloud of stirred up sand. At first I thought it might have been the result of a couple of Square Spot Goatfish feeding in the area. But then I saw a Spotted Eagle Ray glide through the area. These graceful swimmers are becoming more commonly seen around Honaunau.

After an hour's surface interval, I returned for a second dive. This Manybar Goatfish is displaying the chin barbels that give it the family name as they somewhat resemble a goat's beard. This individual tipped me off to the presence of a Day Octopus as the two creatures sometimes hunt cooperatively.

Here are the two hunting partners together.

This particular octopus was a little shy so I only took a couple photos of it, then moved on.

Death is an integral part of nature's plan on the reef as elsewhere. This Pelagic Jellyfish has drifted to its demise in the bay. It's once flowing tentacles have been eaten down to nubs and a big gash runs across it's bell. It was being nibbled on by a Ringtail Wrasse, which fled as I approached. It's bell pulsated weakly and ineffectively, unable to lift it off the sea floor.

My diving day ended with an uncommon sight. A medium-sized Great Barracuda hovered near the surface in shallow water. When we lived in the Florida Keys we saw 'cudas all the time and they were quite bold. Often they would follow you for most of the dive. Here in Hawai'i you don't see them very often and they tend to be shy around divers. The ones I see here are generally a lot smaller than their Western Atlantic and Carribean kin.

No more dives are planned until after Christmas but hopefully I'll get one more day of diving in before the end of the year.