Winter Water

Yippee! Winter water has arrived.
For those of you who aren't lucky enough to live on Kauai (I will soon be one!), in the winter, the water on the south shore loses much of its surf. The North and West shores start to go off. I am happy when the surf disappears. Shocking, I know!

I am much more a snorkeler than a surfer. I recently saw Riding Giants again. Great Surf Movie! And enough to definitely put the fear of God in ya. They ride incredibly big waves. No thanks. I'll leave that to the Laird Hamiltons of this world.

But I am fortunate enough to see octopuses and other cool animals when I go under. And today, I just gave 2 talks to people about walking on the bottom: one lady heard not to walk on the bottom and laughed and then continued to walk on the bottom. I do hope when she has kids that she doesn't mind that the reef is totally ugly! But I digress.

4 octo-sightings today! I'm going to mash the best pix in; some aren't good, so I'll ignore my failure on those octopuses. ha.

 OK, just for continuity, here's octopus #1 hiding in its den. I could barely see the siphon, but you can't really see it in the photo. Frustrating, right?!

 Just across to the right from the fish's cheek, you can see another octopus, adhering to the rock.

 And the Rock Mover in this one is going over the octopus, which is just below the white stripe on its tail. REALLY. And below, the octopus is above the fish, in a cleft in the rock.

You can see the eye...white lines radiating out from the center.

Nobody said it's easy to see 'em.

And now we come to #4, which had all kinds of nice lighting on it. 

 Even purple on its eye!

 Not the same nice light, but you can see the siphon and eyes. And suckers.

I do so enjoy the little dears!

 As I do Pinktail Durgon fish...

 And Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasses going about their work.

 The Cornet below was as small as a pencil. So cute.

And then the bigger version.

 A Cowry shell hidden on the bottom.

 Female Box or Trunk Fish.

 Indo Pacific Damsel came up to see why I was there. Or perhaps looking for food.

 Kihikihi Trio

And the bigger adult

 Tiny Humu about to dart into a hole.

 Lizard Fish moved to escape me. But I did "catch" it.

Another Humu, showing its tiny size.

 Orange Shoulder surgeon. Love the colors

Peacock Grouper

 More pencils

 And more pinktails, this one younger. Doesn't have the pink on its tail yet...

Snowflake Moray for my sis-in-law, Sue!

 This is a partridge Tun shell, which had been taken over by a crab (see the one pink leg below) and some anemones.

 Whitemouth Moray eel. 

I really enjoyed the nice water. It wasn't totally clear, but was totally wonderful.

I hope sad isn't going to be a thing...

Two swims in a row, there was something sad that happened while I was swimming: last time, the demise of an eel. And today, two things: one a little trevally trapped in a net and an Ambon puffer not doing well. Gee. Makes one think. But, on the good side, there were 2 octopuses, so after a few days of no sightings, that's all good.

 This poor Ambon puffer definitely looked the worse for wear. It had wedged itself in between two rocks, perhaps feeling more protected that way. Not sure what made its skin do that, but definitely not healthy.

 And the full on fishing net over an area bigger than my friend's kitchen; and the trevally that got caught in it.

It surprised me that this was allowed. I could easily have not seen it and swum into the net and gotten caught too. Fortunately, the fishermen picked up the net and took it out of the water. The trevally was underweight for fishing, too, so bad all around. And this was in the Keiki Pond! That is, the shallower water where everybody takes their kids.

But, as I said, there were two octopus sightings to take my mind off the sad:

 These are shots of my "regular" octopus, which I couldn't find the last few days. Glad to "catch" it today.

 And this one was hiding out near the reef break. It turned that dark brown a second later.

So, very happy to be back in the swim of finding octo-fishes.

 Two Peacock Groupers, out in the deeper side.

 Two things of note here: the crab hiding in the hole and a Snakeshead Cowry. Both were still there when I left.

 And I very nearly put my hand down on this flounder! Two eyes and a bit of skin showing.

 You can see how well hidden it was.

And the Hebrew Cone shell had some white stuff on it, but I do believe the animal was still in it, so I didn't do anything but take a photo or two.

 This Humu was protecting something! It charged me a couple of times. Since this type of fish once charged me and actually bit me, I swam away. 

 Money Cowry shell

 Moorish Idol

 And mystery things attached to a rock. Really don't know what they are, but they appeared empty. Could be some kind of egg casing.

 The guy and the net. 

 Pencil urchins

 Following is a pinktail Durgon, but also, a surprise to me, in the background on the right, a potential Scorpion Fish with its mouth slightly ajar. .......................................................................right below the ri of right.

 Another Pinktail.

 Saddleback butterfly fish.

 Snowflake and Christmas wrasse.

 Trunk standing on its head. ha.

So apart from some folks doing things I didn't approve of, a very nice swim and glad to see octo-pals again.