Waikiki Beach

Waikiki Beach, showing that famous turquoise water and powder-white sand.

New White Sand for Waikiki Beach

Waikiki Sand Replenishment Barge. The Department of Land and Natural Resources was operating a barge off of Waikiki's Kuhio Beach to dredge deeper water sand deposits to replenish the sand along Kuhio/Waikiki Beach, eroded over the years, to 1985 levels. I will note, however, that the water was rather silty, even all the way down at Queen's Surf and it seemed to me anyhow, to be silting over the coral, causing coral death except in areas protected from the direct deposit of silt. I further suspect that the silty dredged sand will continue to release silt onto the coral for years to come, through ongoing wave action and erosion. It seems a bit sad to introduce a new source of silt just as the coral was starting to grow back after years of damaging runnoff. Thus, even though there is much less open site construction in Honolulu these days, leading to reduced levels of silt, the dredging may have more than compensated.

Nenue (Hawaiian), Kyphosus vaigiensis or Lowfin Chub

Nenue (Hawaiian), Kyphosus vaigiensis or Lowfin Chub, outside of the reef at Queen's Surf, Hawaii. This sizeable fish reaches about 27 inches in length. It typically is found in schools of around 20+ individuals in reef/surge zones where it feeds on marine algae. These pictures were shot at about 3 ft. distance forcing me to zoom out the camera to capture more than one fish, given the large size of each individual fish. Luckily, a sizeable school of Nenue continued to swim past me for a few minutes, long enough to take multiple shots at different zoom settings.

Giant Dome off of Waikiki: Sea-based X-Band Radar

Sea-based X-Band Radar off of Waikiki Beach. Wow, this radar dome is absolutely huge! It's based on a Norweigian/Russian-built, double-hulled, mobile oil platform that cost over $900M to build. It provides radar tracking for advanced missile defense. It's a pretty amazing sight to see.

The Hawaiian Monk Seal Strikes Again

Hawaiian Monk Seal, Monachus schauinslandi, on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu. Now what's the chance of running into an endagered Hawaiian Monk seal, not just once in a lifetime, but twice in a week? This time it was a few miles to the East on Waikiki Beach. The seal apparently arrived at 10am and lounged around the beach until around 4:30pm whereupon it waddled slowly into the sea, perhaps to catch a quick meal of fish from within the marine preserve before sunset.

The Homeland

Surfboards on Waikiki Beach, Hawaii.

Waikiki by Night

A warm and pleasant evening along Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii as the lights of the hotels reflect off of the ocean.

Passing Showers

The crowd hiding under one of the huge, 50+ year old banyan trees on Waikiki beach as a passing torrential shower stopped in for about 15 minutes.

Fleeting Glimpses

Passing Swimmer, Waikiki Beach. So what's a photographer to do. Here I am floating with my trusty underwater camera when, to the sound of huge splashes, this man swims by chasing all my fish away? When confronted by lemons, make lemonade, right? There was only one "fish" left to take a picture of so.....here ya go! Biggest fish I saw all day!

Trigger This

Rectangular Triggerfish, Humuhumu nuku nuku a'pua'a, Balistapus rectagulus, Waikiki Beach. This one came right up to my camera. I was not sure if it would focus that close but, if you snap enough pictures, every now and then one comes out. Thank goodness for digital! These used to be the state fish of Hawaii. There has been some argument since then and I suspect the poor thing was deposed. However, they are the state fish I grew up with which is good enough for me (keep politics out of fish and wildlife).