As a change from our usual pattern, we put in at Honokohau Harbor, which is just north of Kona town, rather than from the southern marina, Keauhou. We were hoping to find a whale shark, as they often appear in this area in December. I bet you didn't know whale sharks were harbingers of Santa, did you? There were reports of some sightings north of the harbor. For us, though, it remained just that: a rumor.
We took some pix of the lighthouse and the deep sea water pipes at Keahole Point. These pipes suck up cold sea water from a few thousand feet deep and pump it to over 30 enterprises in the National Energy Laboratory of Hawaii (NELHA). Some companies use the cold, clear sea water for aquaculture, including the raising of main lobster, abalone, Japanese flounder, seahorses, algae, and more. Other companies produce mineral-rich drinking water, such as MaHaLo Hawaii Deep Sea Water. This water is exported to Japan, where it commands a nice price. We recently read in the local newspaper, West Hawaii Today, that the pipe had some damage to it and would require extensive repairs.We cruised past the open water fish farm operated by Kona Blue. They have huge net enclosures out in this area where the current rips past. The amberjack they raise is called Kona Kampachi. Paradoxically, farm raised amberjack is arguably healthier than the natural variety. The fish farming operation produces fish that are free from ciguatera, the reef toxin that is common to this species when they live in the natural environment. The fish are fed pellets, so they don't ingest any reef toxins. An article from West Hawaii Today told of a recent fish breakout that occurred here. Apparently, a lot of the escaped fish just hung out in the area of the net, as they had no inclination to strike out for better things.
We took some photos of airplanes landing at Kona airport, and because it was pretty clear, we had a great view of snow-capped Mauna Kea, and got some pix of that, too. Then we hung around with the "swim with dolphins" excursion boats for a while. About 3 or 4 boats were there, and all the tourists were trying to get close to the spinner dolphins that were milling about in this area. The dolphins did their spins they're so famous for, and everyone got a nice show. A dog barking on one of the boats drove us a little nuts. I love dogs, but I wonder how the paying customers felt to have that yapping going on all day. The ocean off the Kona coast is a quiet place, unless you bring noise like that with you.After the boats left, Masa got in for some great pix. There must have been a hundred spinner dolphins there; a real sight to behold!
We headed out to ZZ buoy, where the water was particularly rough. We tried XX buoy next, but there was nothing there either, so we continued on. We did some fishing out at OTEC buoy and caught a couple of bigeye tunas for dinner. We almost had a nice one of about 40 lbs, but the hook came off at the surface. It was getting late and we were about 15 miles offshore and about to call it a day, when we noticed something going on in the water. We first thought they were bottlenose dolphins, but as we got closer, we noticed their blacker, larger bodies and discovered they were something more rare and exciting: false killer whales - Pseudorca crassidens! Two or three of them! As their latin name shows, they share characteristics with the more popular orca or killer whale. False killer whales are large marine mammals that grow to about 20 feet in length with a body shape somewhat like the killer whale, but more slender and without the distinctive black and white pattern. Like the orca, they are known to attack and kill other cetaceans such as dolphins and whales.
False killer whales live around the Hawaiian Islands, but range widely. They are generally difficult to see up close, as they are rare to find in the first place and tend to shy away from boats. This time, they seemed preoccupied with something at the OTEC buoy. They appeared to be blowing bubbles toward the buoy again and again. It would certainly be dangerous to photograph such "Killer Whales" up close, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for wildlife photographer, Masa, to capture the moment.
As we slowly approached the buoy, we noticed the ocean current was ripping, so Masa dropped in the water up current of the buoy, and drifted toward it and two of the whales. According to Masa, it turned out the whales were trying to hunt a lone bigeye tuna which was using the buoy as a shield against the whales! Masa was kicking hard and trying to stay parallel with the buoy and whales in the strong current. He was barely able to keep himself positioned far enough from the buoy to not affect the activity of the animals, but close enough to watch and photograph this rare event. Masa said the false killers occasionally looked straight at him, but they seemed unconcerned about his presence. Apparently the tuna looked a lot more appetizing to them than Masa. Lucky for him!Besides these killer whales, there was another rare species in the vicinity, a lone silky shark. These are fairly rare in Hawaiian waters, but they're one of the most beautiful shark species. Masa was able to snap some good shots of the shark, because unlike the false killer whales, it seemed more interested in him than anything else, and it circled nearby.
As the whales continued to focus on the tuna, they blew big bubbles underwater with a loud noise. It seemed like they were trying to startle the tuna away from the buoy and snatch it as it tried to escape. Two relatively smaller whales tried this technique again and again, but at the last moment, the tuna was able to swim to the other side of the buoy, escaping the sharp teeth of killer whales. As this behavior kept on, a large false killer of about 19 feet came out of nowhere and swam right by Masa's legs and joined the rest of the whales. Now three whales with open mouths blowing bubbles ganged up on this poor, frightened tuna. Can you imagine if you were that tuna dodging these huge black monsters? Three whales persistently attacked the tuna in vain, and finally the false killer whales faded into the blue one by one. Yes, the tuna prevailed and went on to live another day! What a day! Masa was able to get some fantastic photos of two rare species. It was really a behavior we don't normally get to see, and Masa nailed the images nicely!
As the sun was setting, we thought we saw the false killers again in the distance, but they turned out to be short-finned pilot whales. It was a large pod - maybe hundreds of them - spread out for miles. We all traveled together riding large offshore swells for a while, and tried to photograph the pilot whales rocketing out of large swells like in the emergency surfacing scene of the Navy submarine from the movie, Red October. Believe me, it was very hard to capture the scene in the near-sunset because the whales were quick and totally unpredictable as to where they were going to appear. Besides, the boat was rocking pretty bad, and in the end, neither of us got a decent shot. Despite that, it was a great day for marine photography; 3 false killers, spinner dolphins & a silky shark! We'll catch the pilot whales and the whale sharks another day!Kona Sue
http://www.SeaPics.com
Links to stock photos of species mentioned in this blog. Please be patient! 10 seconds to load:
spinner dolphin
false killer whale
yellowfin tuna
silky shark
pilot whale
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