Donnelly Oceantics: June 2012

June 11

Gil and I got out for a little water break and we enjoyed looking at coral in addition to the mobile animals of the sea. We went out beyond the shallow reef and played around on the ledge for a while but had to get back in before the tide was too low to swim in.
After two quick classes as intro to coral we had to stop a look. Turns out coral can be animal, plant, and/or mineral. It is quite fascinating and I have to draw the line right now – I can’t do more research until I finish writing the plant part of my book!

Rice Coral

Smooth purple coral left, smooth pink coral right, and rice coral behind pink

Cauliflower coral - the one on the left may have ejected its symbiotic algae making it colorless

Not sure if the middle one is tiny blue octo-coral or if it is smooth

We are just getting used to seeing all over again. When looking for fish, we tend to look past and around the corals. Parrot fish, trigger fish, file fish, and blennies all eat coral. Gil was able to document the kind of coral eating done by a file fish and here he is!

Gil Donnelly

Barred Filefish about 15"

There is a white ring around his mouth but also strong protruding teeth for biting living coral

The little Lavendar Tang on left is about 6"

Gil Donnelly

The tips of the coral have been scraped and eaten,

probably by the File fish above who was nearby.

Who would have thought he'd like cauliflower?

On the way in a few of the Keeltail Needlefish we always see at this reef actually got below me in just a few inches of water. Dozens of them usually hang just below the surface.

How many do you see? The shadows are pretty strong

Gil says they look like pick-up-stix

JUNE 2012

I went fishing! We had high winds and too much surf to go out for a while so I contented myself with revamping my garden pond. It had attracted some ugly black algae that was supposed to cycle itself out but didn’t so I emptied the pot after catching all the platys – tricky little buggers! I repotted the water lilies and rush, got new tape grass, Gil repaired a leak and we refilled.

Platys waiting for the remodel on their pond

Since it takes a while for the new water to release its chemicals and mix with the old pond water, the platys were house guests for about 48 hours.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Here are the guys back in their home a few weeks later:

Everyone seems to be healthy and happy - no more black alage

BACK IN THE OCEAN!

Maybe because summer has come to the north shore and maybe because I'm meeting so many people who really care about the ocean, I'm now involved in contributing to data bases that catalog what is happening on the reef.

Reef surveys:

Reef:org

ReefCheck

Eyes on the Reef

So, June means back in the water on the North Shore, YEAH! I have been submitting "roving" reef surveys to REEF.org for a year now which is all about fish - their survey form for Hawaii has over 200 species listed and I indicate which ones I see at which coordinates during what time span, what depth, etc.
Now I am also the official reef surveyor for my friends’ ocean eco-tour company. The visitors that go out with Malama ke Kai (take care of the ocean) learn to recognize the fish before going out, go see what is there and then come in and discuss what they saw. (see friends and links)

While the data I submit is my eyes only, I get to help the visitors identify what critters they got to see when we come in. It is a sort of game where they describe a fish to me and I try to figure it out, find it in their guide book and they confirm what they saw. My success rate is pretty high so far but a lot depends on how good their descriptive powers are, not to mention their memory. What great fun – many, if not most, have never snorkeled before. Of course seeing a turtle is always a BIG hit.
MKK’s agenda is that people will still be excited about the environment when they get home and make personal life changes toward a better planet from their back yard.

The Princeville reef where these eco tours are taken is one I normally do not swim at so I checked it out prior to my first group encounter. Some fish are abundant and can be seen anytime, anywhere but around every bend in this coastline, some different fish reside; they have their neighborhoods.

For instance I see lots of Ring Tail Surgeonfish on the south side, up close and personal. On the north shore they aren’t as frequent – or hadn’t been. So, I was surprised to run into this whole school of ringtails.

Predominately Ringtails, a few White Bar Surgeonfish

In any big group there are a few clandestine strays that like to travel in the crowd

Part of the deal with Ringtails is distinguishing one from another. They don’t always exhibit their rings, they all have a little yellow at the eye but how much? And is the scalpel near their tail black or white? That's the little blade that makes them "surgeons."

Then there is the pectoral fin, the ones they swim with. Yellow fin Surgeonfish are supposed to be rare here but I see them all the time. If the scalpel is white, it is an Eyestripe Surgeonfish (more yellow at the eye). Just too fun and if I can get a picture it helps me distinguish later.

These are Yellowfin Ringtail Surgeonfish - the yellow pect fin is the give away

This shot is fun because they don't always display that dorsal fin

See how sleek they are in the freeway photo above?

Snowflakes in June

So the other story of the day was on the return to shore I spotted a Snowflake Eel. On closer look I realized there were two. One was trying to enter a hole the other was already occupying. A good sized Christmas Wrasse was hoping they would scare up something he could eat so he fluttered nearby.

Apparently the movie button did not engage on the camera so the whole

eel scuffle with pushing and biting I thought I recorded ended up being this one shot

One eel finally won and I saw the Christmas Wrasse shoot out about ten feet below me, sure enough the loser eel was scooting along the sand looking for a new hidey-hole as well.

June 8

Oceans Day was celebrated this year by reviving ReefCheck, a project started a long time ago but not conducted for the last three years. Training for this process was one evening to learn the system. It included an intro to coral which I know very little about.
The next evening was a training class called “Eyes on the Reef” which encourages reports of damaging algae blooms, excess species that could do harm whether natural or invasive. This too, included an intro to coral types and what coral damage looks like.

The surveys for ReefCheck are done by setting up a transect line in the ocean, actually two – one for snorkelers and one for scuba guys.

Snorkelers have it easy. Scuba guys need suits, tanks, regulators, etc.

We all used the underwater clipboards to list either fish, invertebrates, or substrate

Buoys marked the starting point of the transect lines and their GPS coordinates were taken

Malama na 'Apapa is the sponsoring group - it means caring for the reefs

What a gorgeous Oceans Day

One team swims the line - an area 5 meters in every direction - looking for specific indicator fish and marks them on an underwater clipboard. The next team swims the line marking invertebrates like urchins and crabs. After the next interval, a single surveyor records points along the line for substrate or ocean floor. The joke was last time out the substrate surveyor had sand at each marker! Not this time, this is a great coral reef.

Transect Line for snorkel team

On the way in we all saw this school of convict tangs trying to eat while the lavender tangs and one black spot sergeant try to scare them away from their personal feeding ground. Very entertaining.

Donnelly Oceantics

Pages

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

JUNE - ALL ABOUT CORAL

JUNE - ALL ABOUT FISH