Diving the Kona Coast

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Baby Eagle Ray at Honaunau

These are some recent photos of a juvenile Spotted Eagle Ray (Aetobatus narinari) that has been frequenting Honaunau Bay for the last several weeks. This first photo was taken late last month when I was on a solo dive.

Betty and I saw it again two weeks ago. We were on our second dive of the day when we saw it out in the distance. We were pre-occupied with looking for the male Whitley's Boxfish we had seen in the area on our earlier dive. As a result we mostly ignored the ray. A few minutes later it came up right alongside us and started digging in the sand for food.

The ray stayed nearby for around two minutes before winging away. It was a pleasant little encounter affording us a nice look and the "baby".

Monday, May 9, 2011

A Rare Sighting!

Last weekend Betty and I were diving at Honaunau when we happened upon a male
Whitley's Boxfish. These are seldom seen in Hawai'i although the females are quite common.

Photo Copyright 2011 by Barry Fackler

According to the book The Ultimate Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fishes, the large, blue males are most abundant in the Marquesa Islands. Females of this species are golden brown with cream-colored markings and have none of the vibrant blue coloration of the males.

We found this fish on a small coral head on the sand bottom beyond the reef drop-off at a depth of around 80'. We returned to the coral head on our next dive but he was gone. I made another dive to the coral head this past weekend but, again, no male Whitley's was there. This is only the third instance in eleven years and around 1200 dives on the Big Island that I have seen a male Whitley's Boxfish.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

The Manta's Shadow: Part II The War of the Worlds

Aloha, and welcome to the second installment in a series of posts that examine the influence of manta ray shape, design or function in science and culture.

The image of a manta ray evokes a variety of responses from people. Many SCUBA divers appreciate the graceful fluidity of its movements as it seems to soar through the water. Technically inclined persons can admire the manta's hydrodynamic efficiency with a shape that minimizes turbulence and drag. To others, a manta seems to embody the mysterious and sinister, a dark and almost mythological creature of dread.

Today's subject is the 1953 film The War of the Worlds. This movie, an adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic novel, is considered a sci-fi classic and introduced what were (at the time) ground-breaking special effects. A central component of these effects were the Martian war machines designed by artistic director Albert Nozaki. In updating the story for a modern audience, Nozaki discarded Wells' mechanical tripods and re-imagined them as sleek, stealthy and sinister appearing...

...MANTA RAYS !

Just look at the thing! Even as a little kid watching this on Saturday Night at the Movies I could tell these were manta rays transformed into really cool-looking alien craft. For die-hard sci-fi purists, note that in the photo above, the faint green columns of "sparks" under the craft. Nozaki, faithful to the novel, had his machines walking on "tripods" of force rather than mechanical legs.

The Internet Movie Data Base states in its "Trivia" for War of the Worlds "Albert Nozaki based his designs of the Martian machines on the shape and movement of manta rays". While the shape may have sprung from an appreciation of aerodynamics, it is probably just as likely that the form was chosen because it evoked feelings of fear, foreboding and the unknown. To quote the website Roger's Rocketships "Their appearance was halfway between the current mysterious Flying Saucers that everyone was talking about and manta rays. Neither association was good. Flying saucers frightened people and manta rays were something people avoided because of their sting. And well they should!"

Divers out there will immediately protest that mantas have no stinger, but that's not the point (ha!). Even today, the majority of people think manta ray and stingray are synonymous. All the more so in the pre-Animal Planet early 1950's. Roger's observations accurately reflect the conventional wisdom of the time as well as the film-maker's intentions. In the 50's mantas were scary.

The down-turned wing-tips add to the manta-like appearance as does the central green light positioned where a manta's mouth would be. Disrupting the manta-effect is the long "gooseneck" projection from whence came the "death ray" which reduced anything it touched to cinders (a stinger, if you like).

If you enjoy sci-fi (as I do) check out Roger's website at www.rogersrockets.com. He has a lot of info on spacecraft from classic science fiction films and you can even purchase schematics of the Martian war machine.

Mr. Nozaki's imaginary craft continues on even today. Sci-fi fans purchase and build models of what they like to call "manta ships" from that long-ago movie. And you can count on other sci-fi references coming up in future posts on The Manta's Shadow.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Manta's Shadow: Part I The Chevrolet Manta Ray

I have been out of the water for almost a month due to a busy schedule, holidays, travel, some minor health issues and now, big surf.
During this period I've been spending time on the internet and I've discovered that the topic "Manta Ray" triggers search engine responses to all sorts of things that have nothing to do with the actual Manta birostris. Indeed, Kona's foremost fish has been the inspiration for numerous technological, architectural, cultural and media manifestations. So today I am going to start a "blog within a blog" I'm calling The Manta's Shadow to highlight some of the interesting creations out there that have some basis, however tenuous, in some aspect of manta ray characteristics.

We'll start things with a look at the 1969 Chevrolet Manta Ray concept car. In the early sixties, Chevrolet decided to radically redesign the popular Corvette sports car, changing it from a very compact roadster into a testosterone-oozing muscle car of ludicrous horsepower.

The resulting stable of Corvette variants were named after cartilaginous fishes. First came the Stingray, which was extremely popular, being one of the first "fastback" cars and boasting such features as hidden headlights and spoilers. Next came an elongated version called the Mako Shark. This was ultimately followed by the Manta Ray pictured here.

As far as I can tell, the Manta Ray was a one-of-a-kind prototype and certainly was not mass-produced. Otherwise, the parking lots of Kona dive shops would be jammed with vintage Chevys. The 60's were a time of animal-centric muscle car names like Mustang, Cougar, Firebird, Barracuda(!) and Thunderbird. Except for their logos, perhaps, these cars had no design features that actually alluded to their namesake creatures. Not so the Manta Ray. The flattened hood gives it a dorso-ventrally compressed appearance and just ahead of the front wheel wells are five little gill slits (which I take to be non-functional "air scoops"). If you are familiar with other Corvettes you'll see that the tail (rear deck) of the Manta Ray is significantly longer than any variant before or since. Topping it all off is an awesome two-tone paint scheme that sure looks like the countershaded camouflage of the Great Winged Ones.

At the very least, a very cool car seemingly inspired by a very cool marine creature. Just by way of "full disclosure" I'm not an enthusiast of any one make of car and the only Chevy I've ever owned was a Vega which was one of the worst models ever.

One more pic of the Chevrolet Manta Ray before I close this post.

Awesome logo on the steering wheel, huh? Ah, what could have been!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Spanish Dancer

For all my years of diving in Kona, I've never seen a Spanish Dancer nudibranch. I don't night dive very often and that's when they're most active. My luck changed, however, on an early morning dive earlier this month when I happened across a juvenile specimen in a small cave at Honaunau.

This was a small individual, only a couple inches in length, but very active. It was making its way to the back of the cave to escape the increasing sunlight.

This little creature allowed me plenty of time to take its photograph and I was happy with the images I got. In the past, this small cave has been the scene for encounters with sea turtles, ulua, a Whitetip Reef Shark and an assortment of interesting mollusks and crustaceans. It's a good place to check out.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Whitetip Sighting

Just wanted to share a couple images of a Whitetip Reef Shark I saw while diving on Nov. 20. She has a large, barbed hook imbedded in her mouth on the left side and not visible in these two photos. As a result she was restless and kind of "pacing" back and forth in a little enclosed area of the reef. I Took several shots but most were obscured by backscatter caused by sand she was stirring up. After a few minutes, she left and swam away along the reef.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Scarlip O'Hara and Me

Just before Thanksgiving, I had the most wonderful experience while diving with the Spinner Dolphins in Honaunau Bay. I had taken up a position in the north end of the bay, hovering at about 40 feet over the sand bottom which was at around 120 feet. There was an unusually large group of dolphins in the bay, easily more than fifty. Every now and then a dolphin would come nearby so, on a whim, I switched the camera setting so my strobes would fire. Usually I don't do this as the subject has to be six feet away or closer for the flash to illuminate it. Wild dolphins rarely come that close to a SCUBA diver but I thought I'd try something differeny.

After a few wasted frames I was approached by the dolphin shown above. She was carrying a leaf on her pectoral fin as she swam near. This is a common behavior among Hawaiian spinners. One will find a leaf and swim with it, deftly passing it from rostrum (nose) to pec or dorsal fin to tail fluke. Often, several individuals will pass a leaf amongst themselves in an activity locally refered to as the "leaf game".

As you can see, she definitely came close enough to be lit up by the flash and I was delighted! I noticed a little abnormality in the coloration around her mouth and presumed it to be the result of a scar. As I was hanging there, I thought of her having a scar on her lip which I extrapolated to "scar-lip" and then somehow came up with "Scarlip O'Hara".

As lucky as I felt to be getting close-up photos of a beautiful wild dolphin, I was soon to get even luckier. Scarlip stopped to drop her leaf directly in front of me. I knew she was playing with me and I wasn't going to disappoint her. Awkward human that I am, I started to swim toward the leaf only to have her cruise by and snatch it just as it came within my reach. She was clearly pleased and so was I.

Scarlip swung around and deposited the leaf even closer to me, providing me with my favorite shot of the dive. Again she snatched the prize from me at the last moment, not with a burst of speed but with serene grace and dexterity. This scenario repeated itself a couple more times. Finally, she went up for air leaving me to possess at last the object of our mutual desire.

When she returned from the surface, she appeared to be genuinely amused to see me holding the leaf aloft and waving it at her. She was probably thinking how foolish I seemed celebrating my false victory. I released the leaf and let it drop. allowing the game to resume.

All good things must come to an end, and in diving that comes when the air supply gets low. When I turned to shore, Scarlip didn't follow and most certainly rejoined her group. The few minutes of inter-species play that we shared is a memory I will treasure always. The possibility of us meeting up again is extremely unlikely. Spinner Dolphins are not as behaviorally structured as other dolphin species with individuals traveling among groups and groups seldom frequenting the same area with any regularity A small part of my heart hopes she'll always remember our encounter.