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.
A spear fisherman eyes breaking waves as he makes his way toward the shore on the rocky North Kohala coast.
I’m the the world’s worst fisherman with total catches counted on one hand and the price for those fish, in terms of lost tackle, etc., coming in around $100 a pound. However, a lot of people on the Big Island fish, especially when the moon is right, whenever that is.
This man was fishing on a calm, warm early-evening. It’s an idyllic-looking scene, but I wasn’t tempted to join him.
Walking the coast a couple of days ago, I saw a splash of color which turned out to be the umbrellas of a fishing party. Not bad, I thought. But then a puff of spray from a humpback whale just offshore from the group. Photo opportunity, I thought. Just a matter of lining up the camp and the whale.
This much I have learnt about humpbacks: they don’t feel obligated to accommodate photographers. I hurried along to line up the whale with the fishing party. The whale kept moving. I scurried about. And then when I finally got into a decent position, the whale disappeared. No breach. No slapping and splashing. Not so much as a blow. The best I got was this photo where a sliver of the whale’s back can be seen at the center top, where there’s a tiny blip of white.
What it was supposed to do was something along the lines of the humpback in the photo below, taken yesterday. Ah well, it’s always a joy to see the whales, good photos or not.
Graham's Island 