Category Archives: In The Water

Green turtle feeding

Green turtle and tidepool

Green turtle feedingGreen turtle feedsToward the end of a hike along the coast, I came across this turtle feeding in a shallow tidal area. There was good grazing to be had, but the problem was that the ledge was continually swept by incoming waves.

The turtle would swim in and access the ledge from the shore side (on the right in the top photo). Then he lumped forward to where the good grazing was and buried his head in it.

Waves would surge in and sluice over him (below). Sometimes, the receding wave had enough oomph that it would wash the turtle over the front edge of the ledge. Then he’d swim around and start over again.

Green turtle surge

Big-eye emperor

Big-Eye Emperor

This big-eye emperor fish gave me the big eye, which is very unusual. Big-eye emperors are the kings of hanging in the water and imperceptibly drifting away. It’s an act of extreme futility to try and get close. The more you try, the farther away they get.

Kawaihae dirt storm

Kawaihae dirt storm

The winds were blowing here last week, 30+ mph on a consistent basis. But one afternoon the winds picked up even more and triggered dirt storms off the hills above Kawaihae.

The wind whistled down the slope from Kohala Mountain and dry dirt was gathered up, whirled around, and blasted down the slope toward the ocean. This happened for an hour or so. Sometimes, white sand from the beach in Kawaihae harbor was similarly stirred up.

The unfortunate aspect of this display was that it visibly demonstrated the problems with erosion when the ground is dry. If it’s not the wind, then any rainfall washes the soil down gullies and into the ocean. All this dirt being deposited in the relatively shallow waters off the coast degrades the water quality and can have a seriously adverse effect on corals in the area.

Orangespine unicornfish

Orangespine Unicornfish

Orangespine unicornfish, like most unicornfish, tend to look a little grumpy. If they actually get grumpy, they have sharp orange spines at the base of the tail fin that they can use to express their displeasure. This doesn’t mean they’re a dangerous fish, just one not to provoke, which is a good attitude to have to any creature.

Milletseed butterflyfish

Milletseed butterflyfish and whitebar surgeonfish

Milletseed butterflyfishMilletseed butterflyfish get their name from their markings, a series of dark dots along their sides. Of course, the markings could be morse code and they could be trying to communicate something to us, if only we’d listen.

I was quite pleased to get a shot of this fish looking my way, for the fish’s expression and for how it shows how slender these fish are. When people approach, most fish, wisely, turn away.