A day octopus settles on a patch of coral. It will change its coloration from moment to moment depending on whether it wants to blend in or, perhaps, display an aggressive warning.
Spotting an octopus is a matter of chance. It helps if it’s on the move, but the presence of goatfish (in this photo, a manybar goatfish), is sometimes a tipoff.
Water sluices over a rock on the North Kohala coast. The dark circles on the rock are helmet urchins, showing they have very good adhesive qualities.
This lonesome individual, scrambling over a tiny islet, searching for food, appears to be the quintessential castaway. But he’s really collecting opihi and the islet is about a hundred-foot swim to the much larger Big Island.
On a different day with windier conditions, the swim wouldn’t be necessary since the surf could pick a person up and slam them against the cliff with no effort required on their part.
This man was multi-tasking on the coast. After setting up his fishing rod, he went down to the shore to pick opihi. Such an undertaking is not for the faint of heart. Misjudge a wave, and he could be swept into the ocean in an instant.
Opihi are a kind of limpet and are a favorite delicacy here in Hawaii, most often eaten raw, straight from the shell.
Red pencil urchins add striking color to the reef, seen here among cauliflower coral and, what I think are, black banded urchins.
To identify this, I used John P. Hoover’s book Hawai‘i’s Sea Creatures: A Guide to Hawai‘i’s Marine Invertebrates. His website is hawaiisfishes.com.
Helmet urchins feed on algae at the water’s edge where they move about on little tube legs. I can’t claim to have witnessed any such activity, but for creatures that apparently just sit there, I find them quite cheerful and entertaining. Perhaps I should get out more.
To identify this, I used John P. Hoover’s book Hawai‘i’s Sea Creatures: A Guide to Hawai‘i’s Marine Invertebrates. His website is hawaiisfishes.com.
It’s exciting to see an octopus. They’re extremely hard to spot. If it’s not moving, chances are I won’t see it at all. The reason for this is that the octopus is a master of changing color and texture to match its background.
I’ve been lucky enough to see quite a few, once three in one swim. But sometimes there are weeks between sightings. As for photos, the good news is that when I spot an octopus it rarely moves, meaning I have time to get a photo. The bad news is that they blend in so well I invariably end up with offerings where I have to say something like, “It’s right there, near that coral. No, that’s not a rock.”
On this occasion, I spotted movement just before the octopus dipped into a crack in the rock and changed color. We then began a little pas de deux. When I drifted away, the octopus eased up onto the rock. If I closed in again, it slipped back into the crack. The nice thing, from my point of view, was that when it was on the rock it stood out about as well as it was ever going to against a fairly plain background.
I believe this is a day octopus. They’re active during the day and one most commonly seen around here. The passing fish are saddle wrasse.
In my attempts to identify what I see in the water, I use John P. Hoover’s book The Ultimate Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fishes, Sea Turtles, Dolphins, Whales, and Seals. His website is hawaiisfishes.com.
A’ama crabs can be seen on any visit to the shore. My appearance is usually met by a host of them scuttling for shelter. These crabs have cells called chromatophores that help camouflage them on the black lava rocks. When they shed their shells, the shell’s chromatophores are no longer alive and their true red color is revealed.
Graham's Island 