We went to Poipu for the weekend so we could snorkel and take a moonlight hike, thus making getting older easier on Sharon! There was an unusual swell out of the west and it was really strange in the water. As the wind picked up, it got choppier and the fish seemed more agitated. The tiny fish remained hidden in the coral. The water would seem vacant one second and then everything was there at once!
This video is less than 20 seconds and gives a clue of the activity.
I tried to film a rockmover wrasse flipping rocks but so many other fish zoomed across I gave up! We saw a large male pearl wrasse, a supermale stareye parrot, and Gil got a nice pic of a supermale surge wrasse where we usually only see the initial or female versions of these.
What is a supermale or terminal stage fish? When there is a need, one of the females, or initial phase males becomes a supermale often accompanied with radical color changes.
What is a supermale or terminal stage fish? When there is a need, one of the females, or initial phase males becomes a supermale often accompanied with radical color changes.
Gil's supermale surge wrasse probably 15"
The initial stage surge wrasse has similar markings in a different color range. John P. Hoover claims these fast fish are very difficult to photograph. Like I said, it was strange out there.
The initial phase stareye is gray-brown with some of the large scales on the back light colored, approaching white.
Bird wrasse
This bird wrasse is a supermale too, but he is common. The female version is half black, half gray with an orange snout and much smaller. The butterflyfish don't seem to have those radical changes. Male or female, they are all cute!
I love the striped stringer that gives this little guy his name:
Threadfin butterflyfish
The other weird thing was hitting a wall of salt. While it is common to swim through pockets of higher salinity in the ocean this was like swimming into a room of it. It distorts what you see and makes you want to rub your eyes. We quit at an hour, went to find our bungalo and to get ready for the hike.
The craggy coast of the south side
We met up with other folks to facilitate a shuttle so we could hike one way basically. While we waited at Shipwrecks beach, we watched at least 10 different whales spout and slap around on the surface. We can only imagine the activity from under the water. One male hoisted himself vertically and slapped his back two thirds up and out 12 times. At over 40 tons, the weight he shot repeatedly into the air and then smacked the water with was phenomenal. About 10 minutes later he (or another) did it again. Humans have so very little understanding of these creatures, but it is guessed for now that he was in the company of a female and letting everyone else know that. He may not even be full reproductive age yet, but working on it!
We continued to watch evidence of whales all the way along the three miles of coastline. The erosion at the edge was interesting since it has been several years since we did this hike. Some parts of it are gone entirely and we had to traverse through a slice of the golf course.
We turned inland to visit the sink hole/cave that is a major geological site being worked by David Burney. (Please find and read his book, Back to the Future in the Caves of Kauai.) It is rich in helping us understand what plants and animals were here prior to humans.
Makauwahi Cave
The cliff sides here and the cave itself are not old lava as most of a volcanic island would be, but rather calcified sand dunes. The sink hole contains layers from every age, including pollins, larger plantlife evidence, bones, etc.
Duck weed on the surface of "pristine fresh water"
note the scientist's ladder into the duck soup
I am truly becoming a bird brain, this head just popped out for me on the cave's ceiling
We were fascinated and were encouraged to come back, any Sunday from 10am to 2pm for further tours. The nearly full moon had risen while we were in the cave.
We crawled back out the tiny hole we entered by (the only access - the view from above had no trail) and resumed our hike.
Cave entry to right, offscreen
We finished up by sitting at various tidepools before heading back to our cars
We tried to repeat our snorkel the next day but it was too squirrely. The west swell was meeting the normal NE trades and the water was a mess. We noted some guys we hadn't seen the day before but cut it short and headed back toward home, a year older and content with life.
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