Shooting Photos on the Reef

I never get tired of watching the huge schools of fish grazing on algae and flowing with the waves.  I snapped over a hundred pictures before I was forced to head back to shore as the cold and shivering started to take its toll on those normally steady camera hands. The water had a fair amount of particulates, probably due to the recent rainstorms and, perhaps, due to  people feeding the fish nearby so not all of the pictures were clear enough to keep.  However, here are a few to give you an idea of the amazing variety of fish.

Convict tangs (Manini in Hawaiian) and Blue-lined Surgeon 

 Blue Parrotfish and Convict tangs

 Moorish Idol

 Rockmover Wrasse

 Snowflake Moray

 Threadfin Butterfly fish

White bar Surgeon and Convict Tang

On the Breakwater

On the breakwater at Queen's Surf, Waikiki, Hawaii.

Citron Butterflyfish

Chaetodon citrinellus, the Citron Butterfly, is somewhat common throughout the Indo-Pacific but is rare in Hawaii.  I consider myself fortunate to have seen one of these and, of course, it's always an event when I spot a new fish, bird, or critter.  It's even more exciting when I manage to take a clean picture of it as well!  This was at Queen's Surf at about 4 feet depth.

Stout Moray -- Waka utsubo

A small Stout Moray, Waka utsubo, hiding in a crevice in the reef outside Queen's Surf at Waikiki on the Island of Oahu. This little moray will evenually grow to be about 3 feet long but, for the moment is just a tiny 6-8 inches.

White Mouthed Moray

White Mouthed Moray, Gymnothorax melealgris, or Puhi in Hawaiian, at Queen's Surf Beach Park on Oahu. The water was a bit cold and a little bit cloudy with particulates from the recent rains so I had to get a little closer to take pictures of the fish. The bigger morays, such as this one, have a nasty habit of lunging out of their hole if they feel threatened. Add in the waves sloshing me back and forth over his hole and it made for a little excitement. There is a little bit of a balance between getting a decent picture and staying far enough away so as to not get bitten. The closest land analogy would be that of trying to get a closeup of a snake that would periodically coil up and rattle at you.

Would You Move Rocks for Love?

A Rockmover Wrasse or Dragon Wrasse, Novaculichthys taeniourus, putting on a display for the photographer (a.k.a. me). These wrasses move stones to reveal and, ultimately, eat the prey beneath the rock. Adult rockmovers are known to work in (mated) pairs, the first wrasse lifting the rock and the second wrasse darting in to eat the revealed morsels before they scurry under another rock. Clearly, it behooves the potential prey to find a big, heavy rock to hide under!

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.

The Family That Surfs Together Stays Together

Family Surfing, (the) Queen's Surf, Honolulu, Hawaii. Posing for a surf pic!