APRIL BY SEA

I got in five snorkels this month which is really good considering April still has winter waves that create no-snorkel zones.  With friend Marion, we couldn't resist going in the water at this shallow reef area we hiked down to – it was so silly to be in water a few inches deep but I was at least rewarded with a yellow margin eel.  

Yellow margin eel

            On the way back we stopped in to see how much this albatross chick has grown – feathers are getting full under the down.

This is the same little guy that had his wings out in a previous post.


The same day we played around at Lumahai beach while the guys went paddling

Lumahai - always misty here


Not a monk seal, this is Marion at her favorite beach


Three canoes upper left, Gil and the Namo guys at practice off Lumahai

            I went snorkeling with Steve Cole and Jane Dulaney that run Malama Ke Kai and I will also be doing reef surveys for their eco-tours this summer.  What a hoot, the group they took out were mostly Canadians that had never snorkeled before.  We were in 4 foot surf and they were game!  I’m not used to watching humans in the water – I took photos using the MKK camera and my mask camera was acting up – none to share. 
Of all the exciting things going on in the water, however, the best was seeing a rather large Blue Goatfish impersonating two medium sized Jacks, or Bluefin Trevally – all about 18-20”.  They were exhibiting mutualism – that is travelling together for mutual benefit.  Just another quirky habit fish have.  It required a double-take and then a triple-take to identify the impersonator – I’d never seen one that large, in fact the jacks I see in there are usually 8-10" juveniles.
Please see Susan Scott’s 4/2 Ocean Watch article and then follow up with her 4/16 article.  This is why we love her – not afraid to keep learning.  (susanscott.net/ocean watch).  I hadn’t read her articles until after I submitted my survey to Reef.org – doubly excited to be on the same page or in the same ocean with someone I so very much admire.

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