Today was the day after the green sea turtle tagging (see 11/28 blog), an event which ended in a cataclysmic rainstorm. Because of the storm, the surf was particularly high today. Big Island is not the top surfing destination of the Hawaii chain, but on this day, the surfers were out taking advantage of the swells.
Right at the mouth of Keauhou Harbor, there were some nice sets coming in. This is kind of unusual for this location – or at least I've never seen it like this. We stopped our boat at the point where the waves were coming in to take some shots of the surfers. There was a guy and a girl out there, and we had a nice angle on them. The guy managed to stand up 5 or 6 times, while the girl, who was probably a novice, just got up once while we were watching. I wanted to get some shots of the girl, because in the stock photo business, pictures of women surfers are kind of rare.We watched the surfers for an hour or so and finally left the harbor. Immediately we found a big patch of sawdust floating on the ocean surface. This was probably due to runoff from the big storm yesterday.
We passed a fishing boat that was using a green stick, which is a technique used in Hawaii, though apparently it originated in Japan. The reason it's "green" is because that's the original color of the equipment used in this technique. One long pole sticks straight up from the boat with a line trailing from the very top of it. It drags along a floating object called a "bird," the purpose of which is to keep the line taut. Attached to the line are other lines hanging straight down with lures dangling into the water, just barely skimming the surface. The lures appear like squirming squid on the water, which is irresistible to tuna and marlin. We didn't stick around to watch if they caught anything, but I took a shot of the boat so I could describe the fishing technique on my SeaPics blog!
A mahi mahi swam past us and Masa tried jigging for it. He also threw out a buoy, as it's common knowledge around there that mahi mahi gravitate toward floating objects. This one failed to live up to expectations, however, and went on its way. Masa retrieved the buoy, and we went on our way as well. Some spinner dolphins accompanied us for a while and swam in our wake.
On this day, Masa caught one small yellowfin tuna – about a 15 pounder. We took a few pics of the waves crashing off the rock cliffs near Kealakekua Bay, and called it a day. Today wasn't exciting for wildlife, but we got a few photos of the surfers, which we don't usually get. Soon the humpback whales will be here, and we'll really have something to write about! Check back for that!Kona Sue
http://www.SeaPics.com
Links to stock photos of species mentioned in this blog. Please be patient! 10 seconds to load:
surfer
mahi mahi
yellowfin tuna
humpback whale
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