Diving the Kona Coast: crown-of-thorns

Showing posts with label crown-of-thorns. Show all posts

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.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Belated Weekend Dive Report for 5/02/10

This was a busy week and I just didn't have time to post until now. Last week I had a really great pair of dives in Keauhou Bay with lots of big animal contacts that I just hadn't been getting at Honaunau recently.

One thing that is almost a constant in Keauhou Bay is the "baitball". A huge swirling mass of what appears to be thousands of Bigeye Scad or akule. The location of the ball changes but it's always somewhere in the bay. My camera's wide angle lens can't capture the whole "baitball" but I took this photo as I descended through its "eye".

At the bottom of the baitball it's almost as dark as night. Down there, big Greater Amberjacks cruise slowly waiting to make a quick lunge and pick off one of the akule.

Another thing you can almost always count on seeing at Keauhou Bay is Horned Helmet shells. They are usually half-buried in the sand, but I pulled this one out for a quick photo before replacing it in the sand.

I had very nice manta encounters on both dives and got a lot of photos. In these two, a big girl gets a thorough grooming by two Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse. The Cleaning stations are perfect for good close-up photo opportunities.

Any encounter with Mantas is a great experience and in Keauhou Bay they tend to linger in discrete areas for long periods of time.

This Crown-of-Thorns was creeping along the rubble bottom and wasn't threatening any coral at the moment.

This Amberjack came up to me and circled several times. I was far from the baitball and the jack seemed to be heading out to the deeper waters outside the bay. Maybe he had his fill of akule.

I had another jack encounter with this Bluefin Trevally or omilu. This one was on the smallish side and followed me around for a few minutes. Sometimes smaller predators like to follow around bigger predators hoping for a chance to snatch some scraps. Maybe this fish thought I was a big carnivore.

These fish are mostly silver but have really cool-looking, neon-bright blue fins which make them a real treat to see.

That's all the photos I have for now. Hopefully, I'll get in the water this weekend and take some more!

Aloha

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Post-Tsunami Dive Report for 02/28/10

The sun came up over a calm and sparkling Honaunau Bay this morning and I was there to greet it. Everybody and everything is still intact. The forecasters and government agencies all across the island chain did a great job responding to the tsunami threat. It was hard to believe that Honolulu/Waikiki could be cleared out that effectively!

Here on the Big Island today is just a day like any other day. Diving conditions were excellent although I noticed a couple things that seemed a little unusual. First, there was a lot of cold, fresh water percolating up through the water column. At one point my computer was indicating 73 deg. F. That's a little chilly! Also, I wouldn't exactly call it a current but there was a slight southward pull inside the bay today. Nothing major but perceptible, nevertheless.

I started my first dive as the sun was rising. A lot of fish were just coming out onto the reef after a night's rest. I saw this Day Octopus gliding along the reef top with a large Peacock Grouper escorting it. Like the goatfish in last week's post, the grouper follows the octopus, hoping to gobble up any little creatures the octopus may scare off the reef as it travels. This is the closest I've ever gotten to a grouper exhibiting this behavior. Usually they separate from the octopus until I move on.

Groupers can lunge at their prey very rapidly and engulf it by quickly opening their large mouths, creating a strong suction force. It would seem that the octopus is living dangerously here, however the interaction seems casual and non-threatening.

I got lots of good photos of the octopus as it let me follow it around the reef for some time. I saw two other octos on this dive.

This Green Linckia starfish has had a rough go of it! Two of its five arms are in the process of regenerating after some type of trauma. This is the type of sea star I see most often at Honaunau.

I photographed the Bullethead Parrotfish shown above just after it had finished what appeared to be a confrontation with another fish of the same species. They were aggressively swirling around each other and appeared to be snapping their jaws. Then this one swam in front of me with its fins flared while the other one swam away.

This Crocodile Needlefish is often mistaken for a Barracuda by snorkelers unfamiliar with the local marine life. There are similarities - both are good-sized silvery fish with intimidating teeth. These fish often jump clear of the water in their pursuit of small prey. Incredibly, there are documented cases of fatalities where fishermen were stabbed by the sharp beak of a leaping Needlefish.

As I returned to the Two-Step, I swam over this handsome Green Sea Turtle resting in a cozy sand patch. The shell on this one is almost completely clean. Often they can have a mossy coating of algae.

On my second dive, I headed north and happened upon this large school of Yellowfin Goatfish cascading down the face of the reef.

This Crown-of-Thorns sea star was stretched between the tops of two coral heads like a hammock between two palm trees. It would have been neat to see how this ended but it would have taken too long.

Threadfin Butterflyfish are not only nice-looking fish but they're also fairly curious about divers and, therefore, easy to photograph. As delicate as that dorsal thread appears, I've never seen a Threadfin that was missing it.

This trio of Blue Goatfish was prowling the reef in apparent search of a meal. These are young individuals which will get a bit beefier looking as they mature.

This little guy is an Ambon Toby that I found all tucked up under a ledge. Tobies like this are actually tiny pufferfishes measuring around 5" maximum. They are often seen in pairs but this one appeared to be all alone.

Slate Pencil Sea Urchins can be found on almost all Hawaiian reefs. They are fairly big but, during the daytime, they are quite capable of tucking themselves tightly into nooks and crannies on the reef. At night they come out and wander about the reef.

Thus ended my post-tsunami dive excursion. I don't work for the Chamber of Commerce but I do want people to know that the reefs are in good shape here and the tsunami was of no consequence. If you're planning a trip to Hawai'i, there's no reason to change your mind.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Belated Weekend Dive Report for 10/10/09

This weekend we had the Ford Ironman Triathalon going on in Kona, so it was good to be diving far away from the crowd down south in Honaunau. I don't find the Triathalon to be a particularly thrilling event to witness and I've managed to avoid it every year so far. Water conditions at Honaunau were calm on the surface throughout the morning hours. Visibility was so-so with a lot of "marine snow" particulate matter hanging in the water column.

The goofy face above belongs to a Burrfish that has been holed up in a small cave for a couple of months now. This is a kind of fish often referred to as "blowfish". It can gulp large amounts of water when threatened, distending its body into a globe shape and erecting its spines. This effectively deters sharks and other predators from making a meal of the Burrfish.

This was a nice close-up I was able to get of a Crown-of-Thorns sea star. Without the flash these appear dull brown but the strobe brings out the blood-red coloration.

The spiny creature above is a Collector Urchin. These are very common in Hawai'i and are unique because they pick up pieces of algae, shell and other bottom litter to cover themselves with. This particular one is interesting because it has covered itself with the bluish-purple skeletal remains of its brethren. A little ghoulish marine behavior for this Halloween season.

This is a female Spotted Boxfish I found in a crevice. It has a rigid, armored body from which the fins and mouth protrude. It appears awkward, seemingly wiggling its fins frantically to swim. In fact, it is surprisingly fast and very agile. The males of this species are vivid blue with gold trim.

After my dives I was joined by my wife, Betty, and my grandson, Jacques, for a little playtime in the tidepools. We saw a couple of different eels, baby Raccoon Butterflyfish, a small Moorish Idol, and some shrimp. Here, my family is joined by Aquaman.

I didn't get to blog yesterday because our family made the long trip to the "big city" of Hilo to do some shopping. Specifically, we went to buy Hallmark Christmas ornaments. One of our purchases was this Finding Nemo ornament featuring Mr. Ray who is clearly based on the form of a Spotted Eagle Ray like the one in my prior post. Pretty cool!