Longfin Anthias, and other marvels

 Imagine how stoked I was last week when I heard reports of Longfin Anthias surfacing again after a long while.  These beautiful little fish are exotic and rare; they live at moderate depth and are very wild and will dive into the lattice-work reef holes at the slightest hint of cameras in the area.

Today we went on purpose to a spot that one of our friends had got one in a video a few days ago.  We descended to about 60 feet and slowly angled down the dropoff.  Suddenly our guide, Rob, began waving his arm and pointing.  That could only mean one thing: That he found one, and he had.

 Shortly after, I stumbled onto a fairly rare and extremely cool endemic Black Longnose Butterfly.  They only take on this black shade due to the food they eat, while the normal coloration is shown on the one below.  But this black longnose is still transitioning; another very cool thing to see.

The antler coral this year seems to be flourishing, after the bleaching events of seven years ago and before, and this is good for fish populations.  Lots of fish live in the branches out of danger from predators, and some predators hang out on the branches to use as launching pads.  Here's one: Blackside Hawkfish.  These are so common but their coloration, posture and contrast with the coral branches makes them very photogenic.  And they sit motionless until you swim up to them.  I sneak up from below, pop up, shoot, and watch them flit at warp speed to another universe.  The Blueline Surgeonfish is one I don't see a lot, so I was happy to find this one not running away from me.

Sometimes another diver motions me over to get a shot that they've just taken.  Sometimes I sit there and look hard to see what they were pointing at, but they've already moved on leaving me to just wonder what it is I'm not seeing.  This is one of those cases.  When that happens I just point the camera in the general area and get off a couple of frames.  If there's something there maybe I'll see it in processing.  So this tiny Stout Moray was poking out of a hole at the edge of the frame.  I zoomed in, glad to have the resolution of my FX sensor, and presented the shot as if I knew what I was doing.  #confession

Continuing the theme of getting fish that usually elude me, here is a Bird Wrasse.  Not rare, but just hard to shoot.  They are so fast and don't like people.  I caught this one turning to run away.

Back to shots that are easier to get.  Here is a lovely Four Spot Butterfly.  They are almost always with their mates, but this one strayed a bit far from it's partner so I only got the one.  By the time I get to the Octopus it's either flown the coop or retreated to a hole. This one was giving me stink-eye from its hidey-hole.  The Ornate Butterfly is another very common fish, but its coloration is so beautiful that I can't resist.  This one was also checking me out before veering off behind a rock outcropping.

It was definitely a day for me to get shots of fish I usually just waste film on since they're so either small, fast or clever.  The Ewa Fang Blenny is very small, maybe three inches long and very thin.  They are so fast, it's hard to focus on them because of this.  I hung out with this one because it stayed in the same area and let me waste about three minutes to get one in-focus shot.  Great.  Now where has my group of divers gone?

If you stick your head into small caves and under overhangs you might see a Spotted Puffer.  And so I did.  After that, in the same overhang here was a nice stationary White Mouth Eel.  He finally just cracked open his mouth, which makes them look way more menacing for the pictures.

Not three but Four Frogfish!

 So today we went back to the spot where I found the Flying Gurnard two days ago.  I always love to dive this spot because the reef is so healthy and there are so many animals. We even sometimes see dolphins.  And we'd also seen three big, yellow frogfish sitting out on big rocks just waiting for lunch to wander by.

Today there were four of them, all within about 50 meters diameter from the mooring in the direction of the dropoff.  Here they are pretty much in the order in which I found them.  As far as I can tell, they are all Commerson's Frogfish, one of the most common and largest species in Hawaii.

While I was hunting down the frogfish, which to be fair isn't hard since they sit out on the rocks motionless in full view, I glimpsed a fairly cool and not that common fish, the Potter's Angel.  They, like all Hawaiian angelfish are skittish, and its hard to get a bead on them with a camera in time before they flit away.  

This One was like that; I chased it all over the reef, burning through my breathing gas, before he stuck his head out of a hole and I got at lease part of him.  Why its so hard to get these pics is that the reefs are built up in a kind of latticework of interconnected coral branches with big interior areas where fish can hide.  Often we will see a fish, raise the camera, and before you know it they dart into the depths of the reef never to be seen again.

Other fish, like the Threadfin Butterfly, cruise the reef looking for snacks and care less what the camera-toting bubble blowers are up to.

You have to keep your head on a swivel out on the reefs; there are definitely animals that will defend their territories.  One of these is the Undulated Eel.  Here one is signaling me to leave the area.

More docile are the White mouth Morays like this one.  They just sit with their heads poking out of their holes hoping for a morsel to chance by, or maybe just to admire the beautiful reef.

I found all these eels within about a ten minute span.  This one, a Yellowmargin Eel, was the deepest, hanging out in a pile of rocks on the sandy bottom at about 80 feet depth.  Interesting that in the hole with him was a Whiteline Cleaner Shrimp.  These often live with yellowmargins and clean them up when they need a spa treatment.  Bonus sighting here was the juvenile Bicolor Anthias.  Another impossibly skittish fish that will disappear at the slightest hint of human presence.  Naturally, since I'm usually the last diver to get to them, I rarely see any.

 

 

 Another fish getting cleaneds was this male Bullethead Parrotfish.  He's being cleaned by a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse, a very common and well regarded fish out on the reefs.  

Further below and from the first dive is the resident Porcupine Pufferfish in one of the large arches formed when lava tubes collapsed long ago.  He's being sideswiped by a young Bigeye.

I cant seem to resist photographing the Raccoon Butterflies,  Their coloration is so stunning.  Nearby to the Raccoon one of our divers found this beautiful Red Spot Nudibranch.  I've seen about four of them in my entire time diving in Kona.

Back in the rubble near the mooring I can always count on the Yellowtail Coris to be my companion.  Many have learned that divers will turn over rocks for them revealing tasty treats.  Here's on that wanted to be my BFF.

Finally! I chase down a Flying Gurnard

 As each year has passed I notice that there are some ocean critters I have yet to see, and everyone else seems to run into them with ease.  The Oriental Flying Gurnard is one of those.  It's a cool smallish fish that scoots along the bottom of deep sand patches and has wings that it extends for some reason that only the Gurnard knows.  Well, I finally saw one.  It was in retreat from the onslaught of cameras that had already blinded it before I got there, but I swam hard and almost caught up to him/her/they/them.

But I run ahead of myself.  We had done a first dive at a favorite site along the Pine Trees coast and I was really hoping for a good camera day.  I'd been diving without camera for a week or so just to get reacclimated in Kona waters after a six month absence.  But I was stoked on this day to have my camera ready to record whatever I found, with hopes it would be fruitful...and it was.

The tiny Leaf Scorpionfish usually lives way down in the depths of antler corals, where camera flashes can't reach.  But this lavender tinted two-inch long Leafy was sitting right out sunning itself.  

Then, incredibly, a Sailfin Tang swam into view.  This is another critter that has eluded me for over ten or so years of trying to find one.  Backstory is that, days earlier, I'd been out with my dear friend Sarah B, and one swam right in front of me.  But no camera so no pic.  So when this one, below, darted in front of me I was delighted and got this pic.

Always on the lookout for tiny animals, but almost missed this Trembling Nudibranch until one of our divers pointed it out. It's maybe a centimeter long.  Much bigger was the Whitemouth Eel that I glided over.  Hard to miss that white mouth and big teeth.

As the reef slopes downward to the abyss it us full of nooks and crannies where animals live.  Here is a Flamebacked Coral Shrimp, and just next door I found a couple of Four Spot Butterflies hovering under a ledge.

Back out on the sand we are always looking for Dragon Wrasses and peacock Razor wrassses.  This time I found a Peacock Razor Wrasse flitting about and not being shy. What was being shy was the Redbarred Hawkfish with subdued coloration that I happened upon.  I raised my camera and it shot off its perch (ambush hunter) but I got it a microsecond later.

Back in the arches I always find schools of Blue Stripe Snappers, they're also in the video at the bottom of the post.  On the other side, back on the reef I found a Flowery Flounder sitting on a rock. Perfect camoflage.

So many fish posed for me; here are a Raccoon Butterfly and a Threadfin Butterfly.  Other butterflies, like the Ovals ran away and that's why no pics of them despite the cubic feet of breathing gas I wasted chasing them.

A pretty common fish here is the Orange Band Surgeonfish.  This doesn't stop me from taking more pics of them because i love the coloration. 

Every time I see a school of Raccoon Butterflies I think of my friend Tara P,  an original Diva of the Deep, who can summon hundreds of them to her with a wave of the hand.  I have no such powers, so i had to get these before they scattered.

Always be looking up for big things and down for the tiniest things.  Here is a very common but beautiful Strawberry Nudi.  Much bigger was the Yellow Margin Eel that decided to come out of its hole to greet? me.  neither of us were harmed in the exchange.

This eel is probably the reason this Ewa Fang Blenny was so reticent to come out of its hole.  It couldn't have been because a giant black monster blowing bubbles was bearing down on it.

On the boat before the second dive people asked what I wanted to see.  I said, "I wannna see a Flying Gurnard and a Frogfish."  You already know about the Gurnard, but on the way out over the dropoff where the reef is super healthy we found not one but three Frogfish.  Here they are.

Here's the video from the day.

Last Kona dive for a while: epic!

Every year in June I depart Kona for Northern California. This is because it gets hot and crowded and the dive boats fill up making standby slots fairly unavailable. Not that Kona doesn't have summertime charm: The water's warm and the sunsets are awesome, but I think northern California summers are pretty awesome too. Anyway, two days before I was to leave I snagged a spot of the Ohana charter with Kona Honu Divers and away we went out onto the glassy Pacific Ocean, headed north in search of some very rare fish, the Male Flame Wrasse, that we had seen a few days prior.

So right out of the gate I have to confess that I was too slow getting out to the deep rockpile where the Flame Wrasses are, and I missed out. Other, faster kickers than I did see and photograph them, but they don't keep blogs so no Flame Wrasses today.

What I did find was a Devil Scorpion, a Four Spot Butterfly and a SAnd Perch

On the next dive I found a fat Frogfsh perched right under the boat.

But patience and perseverence furthes, so when I got out to the deep buoy anchor block I was rewarded with multiple Hawaiian Green lionfish. These are supposed to be fairly common but I've only ever seen them in one place; the place I was at this moment. I've been out to this particular anchor block looking for these elusive fish and instead found Bicolor Anthias, which are fantastic and probsbly more rare than the green lionfish, but I was looking for the latter, and found them, in spades.

In addition, on the way back to shallower water I found a nice Reef Lizard and a White Stripe Cleaner Shrimp.

I did stop at the small rockpile on the way back in where another group of Bicolor Anthias hang out but they were not around so I kept going and ran into a couple of pretty juvenile fishes: a baby yellowfin Coris and a baby Shortnose Wrasse. The were photobombed by another wrasse that I couldnt identify. a few kicks further I found a beautiful Oval Butterfly, one of my absolute most favorite of the large butterfly family. Back up in the shallows of this site there are so many ledges and crevaces in the rocks and coral. In one of the holes I found a nice Porcupinefish who immediately left me for a more tranquile locale. Finally back under the boat I enjoyed a school of Yellowfin Goatfish that are always there and never disappoint.