Small Thoughts for Small Minds

<Note: all pix can be viewed in their full, unreduced, glory just by a mere click…>

Yes, in case you were wondering, I can be a bit compulsive on occasion. But I won’t post more than a tiny fraction of the pictures that I took, so that should be a comfort…

Anyway, here are some more underwater pix from our trip to O’ahu over Thanksgiving (see the previous post, Thanksgiving Turtles, for the why & how…)

The first two photos will be, despite the post title, taken above water. While Heidi, Kel & I were walking along the shore line looking for sea turtles, I spotted one of the odder creatures I’ve ever seen. It had sea urchin like characteristics, but it didn’t have any spines (other than a soft-looking fringe).

I spent a lot of time online trying to find out what this thing was, with no success. Then, while waiting for a room to be ready at a hotel in London, I wandered to the Natural History Museum (a couple of blocks away) and happened to see a similar critter. Armed with the name, I was able to quickly find the right species. (There is a dearth of good pictures and descriptions on the web, though…)

Here are a few shingle urchins (AKA helmet urchin, Colobocentrotus atratus):

And a closeup:

On to the underwater attractions…

A collector urchin (Tripneustes gratilla).

Just to prove that I was there (although, it isn’t terribly obvious that this is me, huh?)

Some convict tang with a black triggerfish (Melichthys niger) in the background at the top…

Not sure about this one. Looks like maybe a surgeonfish (tang)…

I think it is interesting how the pale rock boring urchin (Echinometra mathaei) can bore such deep holes in the coral…

A slightly blurry (like all my fish photos) picture of a cleaner wrasse (Labroides phthirophagus).

A random bit of cauliflower coral (Pocillopora meandrina). Just liked the shot…

A few "bad boys" - the convict tang (AKA convict surgeonfish, Acanthurus triostegus):

Luis kept extolling the snorkeling by the power plant effluent. Unfortunately we kept doing family togetherness stuff and the end of our visit approached without rock[ing] down to Electric Avenue (cheesy 80’s reference). But, after Kel & Keira headed back to Roanoke, Luis, Eric & I drove down to the power plant.

Here’s Luis with the power plant in the background…

Apparently, the fish are attracted to the wee bitty critters that grow profusely in the warm wastewater from the cooling section of the power plant. I didn’t see any fish with three (or more) eyes…

This is a popular destination for the tourist snorkeling boats. Obviously, the aforementioned boats (meaning the people within, of course) typically feed the fish to give the tourists more to look at. These fish were quite insistent that we feed them. By using their protective fins, Eric & Luis manage to keep all of their flesh…

A paletail unicornfish (AKA spotted unicornfish, Naso brevirostris):

Eric liked to show that he was much more fit than I, by free-diving for twice as long as I could.

Bastard…

I ALSO managed to get down to the bottom - I just couldn’t stay down as long. With all of my "natural buoyancy" (read "fat"), I had to blow out a lot of air just to sink down. (No, the air is NOT coming out of my butt…) (At least in THAT photo…)

A saddle wrasse (Thalassoma duperrey) hanging out…

…and another pretending to be a koi in a Japanese painting…

In this picture, you can see four scrawled filefish (AKA broomtail filefish, Aluterus scriptus). They’re two to three feet in length. I took several pictures, but couldn’t get close enough for a quality shot. Sigh…

I’ll include a closeup of the scrawled filefish (despite its unworthiness) just so you can see the interesting pattern…

I know I should’ve included this with the turtle post, but it just seemed to fit better here…

This Hawaiian sargeant major (AKA Green damselfish, Abudefduf abdominalis) thought I might be holding back on the fish bits - he wanted to check me out up close and personal…

A few blue strip snapper (Lutjanus kasmira) were always hanging out looking for handouts…

I wonder if this is a blue-lined surgeonfish (Acanthurus nigroris). The mouth doesn’t seem to match the photos online, though.  Seems to be in that family at least…

I didn’t pick it up to see if there was any internal bits left, but this one looks pretty much picked over…

The ball in the middle of this double-spined sea urchin (Echinothrix calamaris) is the "anal sack"…

Just some coral that caught my eye…b

A common sight in our snorkel excursions was the slate pencil urchin (Heterocentrotus mammillatus).

Try as I might, I couldn’t get a good shot of any of the Moorish idols (Zanclus cornutus) that I kept running into. They were usually in pairs and were much faster than I…

Since Dyson is a big fan of SpongeBob SquarePants, I took dozens of pictures of the spotted puffer (AKA Guineafowl puffer, Acanthurus triostegus). Between the light, the surf and the fish moving, this was the best I could get…

(Mrs. Puff, in case you were wondering…)

This sea cucumber seems to have taken an interest in the urchin, which it will probably regret…

I saw several trumpetfish (Aulostomus chinensis), including one in brilliant yellow, but couldn’t get close enough for a good picture. Another fish that saw a LOT, but I couldn’t seem to photograph cleanly was the orangespine unicornfish (Naso lituratus). The two moray eels that I spotted were majorly unhappy with my attempts to get a closeup, but strong surge kept me from success…

By the way, this site: http://www.marinelifephotography.com/fishes/fishes.htm, was a wonderful resource for identifying the fish….

(Note: all pictures are linked to a larger version. Click on the picture to see…)

Well, as usual, I’ve been inconsistent and lazy when it comes to updating this blog (well, and with respect to just about everything in my life) but that hasn’t stopped me from taking pictures.

Lots of pictures.

Actually, that makes it worse. If I only took a dozen or so pictures a week, it’d be easy to sift through them, pick the best, crop & clean them, and write a few words to make it look like I am somewhat literate. When I take over a thousand pictures in one week, the task becomes overwhelming. Until I can "deal" with that one week, how can I post anything else?

Since Heidi (my sister) and Eric (my brother) both live in Hawai’i on the island of O’ahu, we decided to have Thanksgiving in the islands. (I used frequent flier miles to fly my parents out as well as Kel, the kids, and me.)

(It was rough on me, though, because of business travel immediately before Thanksgiving. I spent five nights in Panama, two nights in Manzanillo (Mexico), two nights in Los Angeles, (one night in the plane), two nights in Hong Kong (although the first didn’t really count since I checked in around 1 a.m.), two nights at home, then the trip to Hawai’i. By the time I got to Hawai’i, I had no clue what time zone it was, but I knew I needed sleep.) (I can’t sleep much on airplanes - at least in coach. I’m willing to try international first class, but my company seems reluctant…)

Heidi and her husband, Luis, live very close to the water (100 yards?). The neighborhood has a tiny beach (in the middle of a bunch of heavy duty rocks and 12′ cliffs) which is too rough for kids, but perfect for a snorkeling entry point.

Heidi was showing Kel & I around and we saw quite a few turtles grazing along the shoreline. Like this one:

At that point, I was itching to get into the water. With camera, of course…

Since Heidi & Kel were not terribly interested, I had to wait until Luis got in a day or two after Dyson & I arrived (Kel & Keira arrived a day before the boy & I because of frequent flier availability, etc.)

Luis was ready, though…

At first, it seemed challenging to find the turtles (chelonia mydas, AKA green sea turtles, by the way). After a bit, we started to get the hang of it…

Luis was kind enough to take a picture of me swimming close to one of our reptilian friends. (No, I didn’t touch it…)

The rest are displayed in the order in which I snapped the photo. I tried to ensure that I only showed each turtle once. (I saw a few of the turtles on two or three different days.) Some of the angles make identification difficult, but I also have at least half a dozen pictures for each that I’ve included. I think I have at least 17 unique turtles…

I found that the zoom didn’t work very well under water. Too much sediment.

My best pictures come from swimming within a couple feet of the turtle…

This guy was just trying to take an afternoon nap, when I stick my face in his business…

I know that most people don’t enjoy turtles as much as I do (my common map turtle, Goofy, has been in my possession for almost 22 years…). Anyway, hopefully some of y’all at least enjoyed the photos…

If I can avoid paralysis of choice, I will post some more underwater pix from Hawai’i. I also plan (hope) to put together posts for "scenic shots" and "family fun" from O’ahu…