Under the Sea – Part II of II…by Brad Marks

Yesterday we reached the second stopover on our current adventure. Quite the surprise I already have 5 more adds to the Average Year (bring me to 245). Three of them were standard fare that had managed to eluded me back home, one is an absolute asshat (link here) that pains me to give even the slightest attention, but the 5th was a nice pickup from a miss this year at Conroe, Texas (link here) – every time I hear their “squeak toy” call it puts a smile on my face…even better when they make it into the tin. We break camp tomorrow and move onward. Not knowing what the connectivity is going to be like, wanted to cut the suspense, as they say, and bring you the second part of Brad’s underwater adventure.

Take it away Brad…

Welcome back.  When we left off last time in Part 1, our intrepid underwater photographer was sorting through stacks of negatives in envelopes and piles of printed photographs. (Did you like the alliteration?)

Since the mishap with the leaky seal in our underwater camera, I had been trying to find a replacement camera to fit the housing.  It had been several years since we bought the Sealife film camera.  In that time, Sealife quit making underwater film cameras in favor of digital versions.  However, since they were very proud of their new products (they really do make a good camera), and digital cameras were still very expensive in general, the prices had increased accordingly.  Not wanting to pay far too much (IMHO) for a camera we only use every few years, I kept searching.  I wanted to find a housing for my Nikon DSLR.  But when I saw I’d have to give up two appendages to purchase one of those, I thought it best to keep looking.  Ironically, in early 2010, I found a small company that made reasonably good underwater cameras and housings for a reasonable price.  We ended up buying an Intova underwater housing and camera kit.  Intova just happened to be a Hawaiian company, not that it was any influence over our purchase.  Unfortunately, they have since been bought out by a larger photography company who decided to discontinue the product. 

On our next trip to the Big Island of Hawaii during the summer of 2010, I was eager to give the new camera a test run.   One key difference between the digital camera and our old film camera (purely coincidence) is that its hard clear plastic case has TWO silicone seals to keep seawater out.  Plus, now I put a small desiccant packet in the case with the camera, can’t be too careful.  The Intova case has more tiny buttons than you can easily use underwater, but it does a decent job focusing at a distance or close-up.  Unfortunately, the camera takes almost a half-second to actually take the photo once you press the shutter release button (newer ones are nearly instantaneous like a DSLR).  The subject and photographer are always moving.  Just point and pray.  

Hit the jump to learn what this intriguing creature is and a few more of those below the surface inhabitants.

Our first snorkel adventure in 2010 was in Kealakekua Bay.  I, OK it was really Jan, spotted this bluespotted cornetfish (Fistularia commersonii).  Its body is greenish-grey to brown with two thin blue stripes or lines of dots on the back.  This one must have been a teenager because it was only about 3 feet long.  They can grow to be over 5 feet in length, but still not very much girth.  They tend to be solitary animals, feeding on smaller fish or crustaceans.

At Kahalu’u beach Jan was taking a photo of a solitary lined butterflyfish (Chaetodon lineolatus) when the one in front photo-bombed its friend. 

Lined butterflyfish (Chaetodon lineolatus) can grow up to 12” long, but these were about dessert plate sized or about 9” long.  This is one of the five types of butterflyfish we have photographed in Hawaii.  The others were the ornate, threadfin, racoon, and the fourspot butterflyfish.

We figured out this underwater photography is a bit more challenging than anything on land.  Our feet are never on solid ground, nor can we even keep ourselves or the fish from moving with the waves.  Some days the ocean was flat calm.  Other days there can be 10-12” chop on the water.  Smooth days means the water isn’t stirred up and is relatively clear (the deeper you go the clearer the water is).  Choppy water means air is incorporated into the top layer of water, sort of like how meringue is fluffy, but not quite transparent.  Chop also makes it very difficult to get focus lock with the camera.  Our film cameras were fixed focus, if you hit the sweet spot then great!  The digital camera would vary focus and then lock on just as a wave would lift us, or drop us out of sharp focus. 

Let me explain what it feels like in the waves.  A small (or large) wave would come along and push me up and over a couple of feet.  When the wave trough came through, I’d drop and move back in the other direction a couple of feet, depending on how large the waves were.  Normally, the waves were just ripples, so no big movement.  During tide changes the waves can be a couple of feet between the up and down and side to side motions.  Over and over and over and over again.  Need Dramamine yet?

All of that helps explain this next photo.

The only way to get this photo of the tiny blue boxfish (Ostracion meleagris) was to push Jan under the water.  It’s not as sinister as it sounds.  Jan floats very well in fresh water.  She bobs on the surface in salt water.  I do not float very well in fresh water, but can maintain neutral buoyancy in salt water.  I also have over 100 lbs. on her and make a great ballast.  These circumstances conspired to made photographing a single 4” fish in 10 feet of water very challenging.  We worked out a system where we both take a huge breath of air (while snorkeling) and I would push Jan down below the waves so she can get the shot.  She would then frog leg kick in an effort to counter the wave drag and help maintain the camera focus.  We repeat as often as we need to get what we think is a decent photograph. (* see notes below)

The water in the shallow reef areas, somewhat protected from the ocean, can be fairly calm and warm in Hawaii.  This is why we like Kahalu’u Beach Park.  However, outside the protected reef areas (like Kealakekua Bay exposed to the open ocean), the water doesn’t get much above 74F on the Big Island even in the heat of summer.  As we are floating along in a nice warm shallow pool at Kahalu’u Beach, the ocean would toss a cold wave over the reef, every now and then, sending a shiver down our backs, literally.  Once that happened, visibility would be craptastic for a few seconds until the bubbles and thermocline stabilized again.  ‘Nuf said, more excuses made.  Let’s see some more fishies.

During our prior visit, Allyson had a humu attacking her fins.  In 2015, I had a stripebelly puffer (Arothron hispidus) in my face. 

In roughly the same place at Kahalu’u Beach Park (as Allyson’s fin-attacking humu), a puffer would get in front of me and stare.  Its pectoral fins were working like crazy, holding it at station keeping.  If I moved a little bit, it moved with me.  Maybe it liked to see itself reflected in my face mask, I’m not sure.  Eventually it got bored and moved on.  A few days later while we were snorkeling at the same beach, a puffer did the same thing again.  I like to think it was the same fish.  It ignored everyone else and sought me out of the group.

OK, try not to laugh at the next one.  We have seen these on each of our trips, but never really knew what was going on.  At first, we thought humans were decorating them. 

Come to find out, by more than one source, the “collector” sea urchins (Tripneustes gratilla) decorate themselves to blend into their surroundings.  I’m not sure how they can “see” their surroundings.  Maybe they just grab whatever is loose and available and stick it on their . . . head?  Or maybe they are packing a snack for later.  Though with the symmetry of this one, it looks like it had human help.

During each of our snorkel trips from a boat, the guides ALWAYS tell the snorkelers not to touch anything and DO NOT step on the coral.  Not only does it destroy the coral which take dozens or hundreds of years to recover, but it is a very easy way to cut your hands or feet.  Coral scrapes, like lava scrapes, take a long time to heal.  And you might not only be stepping on coral.

During our 2022 trip we saw more long-spined sea urchins (Echinothrix diadema).  They are billiard ball to softball sized.  Hawaiians call them “wana”.  Probably because if you get stung by one you are going to “wana” shot of morphine.  These spines are several inches long and will easily penetrate skin, or a rash guard shirt.  They hurt like hell, or so I’ve heard. (I’ve only ever been scraped by coral and, while nearly painless, it bled for days)

The scourge of coral reefs is the monster below.

These ugly and dangerous crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) are several inches to about 2 feet across and will eat anything and everything in their path.  They are one of the reasons why the coral in Kealakekua Bay is becoming completely bare.  It used to be rare to see one.  But on our last trip, they were all over.  There were programs in place to reward divers that removed these beasts from the water before they can reproduce.  Market rates have since dropped and they are somewhat dangerous to handle, so removal activity has slowed dramatically.  Researchers at James Cook University discovered that a simple dose of vinegar has a 100% kill rate once the starfish is out of the water.  There’s hope yet.

The interesting undersea critter below is a relative of one from Part I of this story.

 

This snowflake moray eel (Echidna nebulosa) is a smaller cousin of the whitemouth moray eel.  A snowflake can grow up to three feet in length.  Jan spotted this one on our last day at Kahalu’u Beach Park.  It was swimming along the bottom among the rocks.  It did pause for a moment for a close-up.

Just one more photo.  This is a reminder that I was in their domain.  And I was unaware that I may have been intruding in someone’s personal fish space.

This humu was swimming directly at the camera and would veer off at the last second.  Only to retreat to its safe place and repeat the behavior.  The humu is about as face-on as it can get, letting me know I’m not welcome.  Its clown-like coloring and appearance certainly demand attention and respect.  After this photo, I moved away with the camera to let it be in peace.  It did not attack my fins on the way out.

These are just a few of the 85+ creatures we have seen and/or photographed in the waters around Hawaii.

Thank you for reading.  If you want to see more underwater photos from our Hawaii adventures, please visit here.

Credits

Thanks again to Jan and Allyson for proofreading and editing.  Thanks to Jan for many of the photos in this article. 

Notes

*Digital underwater cameras, at least ours, eat batteries.  The optical viewfinder is useless underwater IMHO.  It’s extremely difficult to see through the mask and then through the clear underwater housing to use the tiny optical offset viewfinder.  We’ve adapted by keeping the LCD screen on all the time and use it as the viewfinder.  That practice, and the cold water, tends to drain a set of batteries very quickly.  Plus, everything reflects off the housing underwater which makes seeing the LCD clearly a challenge at best.  (Low batteries equal much slower shutter response and a higher percentage of blurry photos.)  We always kept at least one extra set of extra batteries with us.  It was not uncommon to replace the batteries more than once during a long snorkel photography session. 

But be careful opening the underwater housing on the beach for two reasons.  First is sand.  One grain of sand in the seals can cause them to leak.  Second is condensation.  Once the cold lens of the camera hits the warm Hawaiian air, it can cause condensation on the inside of the camera.  There’s nothing you can do at this point except wait for the camera to warm up completely.  Not bad duty, though, on a beach in Hawaii on vacation, eh?