Category Archives: In The Water

Bluespine unicornfish

When I’m out snorkeling, some fish don’t seem at all bothered by my presence, continuing to go about their business. Others will dart away the moment I appear (nothing personal I hope). Bluespine unicornfish fall somewhere in between. Mostly when I see them they appear unconcerned, but the distance between us inexorably grows.

No prizes for deducing how they get their name.

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.

Hawaiian whitespotted toby

Hawaiian whitespotted tobies are small pufferfish, under 4 inches long. The one in the top photo is a female, probably looking for a spot to deposit her eggs. The toby following her (second photo) is a male. After she’s deposited her eggs he’ll fertilize them. Neither will stay with the eggs.

A couple of days after taking this photo, I was in a different location when another pair of these tobies zipped up to me and went by a foot away. In that case, it was two males, the one vigorously defending its territory from the interloper.

Hawaiian monk seals getting together

Last month, I posted here about how unusual it was to see two Hawaiian monk seals in the same tide pool. Those two, identified as IO5 and BOO, were stretched out, resting.

A couple of weeks later, I came across the same two seals in a different tide pool, but definitely not resting. Bouts of circling and interaction were interspersed with them just lying together or in close proximity. Mostly IO5, the male seal, seemed to be the pursuer, but when he stopped, BOO, the female, was just as likely to reinitiate the activity.

Eventually BOO left the water and IO5 followed. He made another attempt to initiate some action, but she seemed to have tired of the game. Eventually, he eased off to the side not far away, and by the time I left, the two of them seemed to have settled in for some rest.

To me, IO5 looked like he was interested in mating, and half the time, she seemed amenable, but I’m not sure they’d do that in a tide pool. None of the barking, slapping, or nipping seemed to have any malevolence behind it; after such exchanges they mostly settled down again next to each other.

IO5 is on the left in the top photo, the right in the middle photo, and the foreground in the bottom photo. He’s the seal I see most often and his expression in the middle photo is quite representative of him.

For more information about Hawaiian monk seals, see here or here.

Happy gray chub

I watched a small shoal of gray chubs going back and forth in shallow water and was pleased to get a photo of this happy fish. To me, it looks like it might be about to break into a song and dance routine.

Spotted eagle ray

During the summer months, the west coast of the Big Island sees more southwest or westerly swells. These tend to roil the waters and reduce visibility. So it was a pleasant surprise recently, to dip into the water and find good visibility for the first time in a while.

The good visibility wasn’t matched by the appearance of rarely seen, exotic fish. Only the ‘usual suspects’ were to be found, which is no bad thing. I enjoy watching even the most common of fish. However, I confess I was feeling a tad disappointed at having my camera and good conditions, but not seeing anything that especially fired my enthusiasm.

As if on cue, I looked up to see three spotted eagle rays coming toward me. One quickly slipped away and a second came and went. The third (second photo) cruised back and forth nearby, keeping an eye on me as I kept an eye on it. It had clearly lost its tail at some point. I’m not sure if a new one will grow back. In the bottom photo, the venomous spines at the base of the tail can be seen, though the venom is not nearly as toxic as that of some ocean dwellers.

After a while, the two remaining rays headed out toward deeper water and disappeared taking with them any disappointment I’d been feeling.

For more information about eagle rays, go to bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2014/hayward_paig/index.htm

Hawaiian flagtails

Hawaiian flagtails are night feeders, but by day they congregate in shallow areas with a lot of surge as a protection against predators. This shoal was swooshing back and forth in the company of several achilles tang.

Ember parrotfish

As parrotfish grow, they go through two phases, initial and terminal. Initial phase parrotfish can be male or female, but in some species are always female. I ran a photo of an initial phase ember parrotfish here.

This ember parrotfish is in its terminal phase and is what is known as a supermale. Terminal phase parrotfish are always male and, as John Hoover notes, ‘supermales are almost always reversed-sex females.’ Supermales also tend to brightly colored, like this one.

The smaller, following fish is a Christmas wrasse. Parrotfish are often trailed by one or other of the wrasses, looking to latch onto things to eat, dislodged by the larger fish grazing for algae on the coral.

Hawaiian monk seals

This photo is somewhat unusual, particularly for the Big Island. Outside of mothers with pups, it’s uncommon to see two monk seals together, much less relaxing in the same tide pool. One reason is the scarcity of seals. There are 1,000 or so in the remote northwest islands, but only about 200 around the main Hawaiian islands. Of those 200, there may be as few as 5 living around the Big Island.

One of those is IO5, a 7-year-old male, who I’ve posted about before (here, here, and here). He’s the seal I see most. In this photo, IO5 is in the foreground in what I can only describe as a characteristic pose. He’s resting, which is what monk seals do when they haul out on land.

The other seal was new to me so I was keen to identify it. There are two main means of identification. Many seals have a code bleached onto their sides. Such a mark is good for about a year until the seal molts when it sheds it’s skin. This new seal was not bleached.

The other prime method is red tags attached to the seal’s tail flippers. I moved around, trying to get a good view of the tail, but couldn’t see any tags. (I should mention here that the goal is never to disturb seals when they’re resting, so while they reclined in the tide pool, I was sneaking around on the cliff 30 feet away and another 10 to 20 feet up.) I watched for a while but this seal showed even less inclination to move than IO5. It was so still, I wondered if it was dead, but I did see a couple of twitches.

Over the next few days I saw the new seal three more times. The first time it was in a position where I couldn’t see the tail. The second time, I caught a tantalizing glimpse of red, but that told me nothing more than that the seal had been tagged. (IO5 has also been tagged, but has lost them over the years and now bears only a nubbin of one tag.) The third time I saw the new seal it was out in an open spot where I could get a great view without disturbing it. Again I could see part of the tag, but not enough to identify it. So I hung around for the best part of an hour. I got good photos both sides, of the head and tail, but still only a glimpse of a tag. During that time the seal’s only movement was a twitch of the tail, which covered the bit of tag I could see. The only good news about all this was that the seal looked in excellent shape. I didn’t see any wounds or other marks that might indicate a problem.

Finally, a full week after the first sighting, I went down to the same area again. At first, I didn’t see any seals, but I thought I’d check a low spot on the cliff for another view. About 15 feet away, stretched out on the rock, was the new seal. It was facing me but, eyes closed, remained unaware of my presence. I took a couple of photos, then climbed back up the cliff and around to where I could see the tail flippers. Eureka! The flippers were splayed in such a way that I could clearly see two tags, one in each flipper.

I sent the photos in to the NOAA Fisheries Marine Mammal Response Coordinator and a couple of days later I learned that the new seal is B00 (not sure why the other tag says B01). The seal is a 9-year-old female that was born on Kauai. In recent years she has also been seen on Molokai and Maui. I think is the first sighting for her on the Big Island. She had her first pup this year on Maui, but unfortunately it was stillborn. Perhaps her sojourn on the Big Island with IO5 will presage another pup sometime next year.

For more information about Hawaiian monk seals, go to www.pifsc.noaa.gov/hawaiian_monk_seal/ or www.marinemammalcenter.org/hawaii.

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii