Category Archives: Marine Invertebrates

The Numbers Game #70

The beach at Honoka’ope Bay.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 191. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

Green Anoles lined up in a window.
Flies on a horse.
Late afternoon in a macadamia nut orchard.
A Jeweled Anemone Crab.
A juvenile Commerson’s Frogfish.
Four spotted eagle rays in the waters off the Big Island of Hawaii
Spotted Eagle Rays circling next to the parking area at Mahukona.

A small world

Tiny fish shelter in a tangle of lines in the waters off Hawaii
Tiny fish shelter in a tangle of lines in the waters off Hawaii

During a recent swim, I saw a small tangle of lines floating in the water. While I’m not a fan of debris ending up in the ocean, I know these kinds of thing can have a positive side, so I headed over to check it out.

While I liked the color and reflections of the scene, what I was looking for was whether this floating raft sheltered anything. I had to look closely, but saw a few tiny fish hiding in the lines. As I approached from one side, they disappeared to the other. We played this game for a while and I was able to get a few photos.

I don’t know what the fish were, but they were likely juveniles of one of the pelagic species. They were very small, a half to three quarters of an inch long. The clump of line itself was only 6 to 9 inches across. But such environments provide valuable shelter for a variety of tiny creatures. It was only when I looked at the photos that I noticed another one, the small orange crab on one of the lines.

Going green

The view from Waipio Valley overlook offers many shades of green and a good deal of blue.

This week’s Sunday Stills color challenge theme is ‘Shades of Green.’ Captions are on the photos. See more responses here.

Two horse in a pasture near Pololu.
A Northern Cardinal against a green background.
Lush vegetation in one of the many gullies along the Hamakua Coast.
Found this on the shore one early morning. A fisherman’s lure perhaps.
A green crab on the beach.
You know the U.S. has guns, but we have tanks too!

Looking back at 2024 – Part 1

A Feather-legged fly on a Tree Heliotrope in Hawaii
January: A Feather-legged Fly (Trichopoda pennipes) on a Tree Heliotrope (link).

Sunday Stills challenge theme this week and next week is ‘Your 2024 Year-in-Review.’ See more responses here. As usual, I’m going with a favorite photo from each month of 2024, with a caption and link to the post the photo first appeared in. This week’s post is for January through June. See the rest of the year next week.

A Ring-billed gull in Hawaii
February: A Ring-billed Gull struts at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay (link).
A woman walks on the beach at Kohanaiki Park in Hawaii
March: A woman walks the beach at Kohanaiki Beach Park (link).
Tiki torches burn against a backdrop of palm trees in Hawaii
April: Tiki torches at Mauna Kea Resort (link).
A Dwarf Moray Eel in the waters off Hawaii
May: A Dwarf Moray Eel (link).
Long-spined Urchins in Hawaii
June: A pair of Long-spined Urchins in Kawaihae Harbor (link).

A’ama Crab molt

A fresh A'ama crab molt in Hawaii

I spotted this A’ama Crab molt on a rock when I was about to get in the water. The molts are so complete they look like live crabs. The blank eyes are the giveaway. This one was notable for its color. As the molts sit in the sun, they turn an orange-red, so this one was likely very recent.