We left the boat launch at 10:45 and headed out to the FADs (Fish Aggregation Devices), as we usually do, but we hadn't even left Keauhou Bay when we came across a huge baitball of akule (bigeye scad). Masa jumped into the water to get some photos, as shots of swirling bait can be beautiful in the right light. He was in the water for 10 minutes or so, got some pics and then we continued on.There was a pod of long-snouted spinner dolphins near us for while, but they seemed unwilling to ride our wake, like they often do. No notable pics as a result of their standoffishness.
At one point, two large mahi mahi circled our boat and investigated Masa's lure. One of them grabbed it just underneath the boat, and leaped 15 feet out of the water! It's always exciting when a mahi mahi takes your lure and leaps so high up - the very behavior that led them to be called dolphin fish! That long, green fish ended up breaking off the hook, and making a clean get-away. It's odd that he managed to break off the hook, as it was on a 60lb wire leader, so we speculated on what other toothy fish (wahoo, barracuda or shark) was down there that may have done the job before him. We hung there for a while, but came up empty.About 300 feet or so from VV buoy, we came across some trash in the water. It was a piece of floating styrofoam, and my readers, I know you're thinking, "Of course, you retrieved the trash in the interest of protecting marine life." Well, in this case, you'd be wrong! And since there is little else to talk about for today's blog, I'm going to pontificate on trash.
There is all kinds of trash in the ocean. Floating plastic can be a danger to sea turtles, as they ingest it, thinking it to be edible, like jellyfish or squid. There are discarded fishing nets that can get wrapped around seals, whales and dolphins, and of course, no marine animal will last long with synthetic nylon cords constricting its neck or flippers. On the other hand, there are bits of floating foam or other debris like this, which over time accumulate all manner of algae, plant life, and eventually, marine animals. This bit of styrofoam was now home to all kinds of life, including barnacles, small fish and crabs. At this point, it seemed unlikely to pose a hazard to turtles. On the other hand, ripping it out of the water would immediately cause the destruction of a whole ecosystem, with an unknown number of animals that called this ocean slum a home. A couple of months back, we came across a sargassum fish, which is one strange ranger, floating in debris like this. So for us, every bit of floating garbage is an individual issue, and we may or may not pick it up. Today, for better or worse, we let harmless trash lie.
About two weeks ago, we came across a large plastic bag trailing a long monofilament line in the ocean. I had so much to write about that day (see Oct. 25 blog!), that I couldn't make room to discuss it. Near South Point on the Big Island, where a strong wind blows almost everyday, many shore fishermen use plastic garbage bags in a fishing technique called "kite fishing." They blow the bag up with air, tie it closed, and attach their fishing line to it. They then launch the improvised "kite" in a windy area and let the wind and water currents pull their fishing lines out to sea. In this way, they can get their fishing lines out to much deeper water where they have a chance of catching some offshore species like ahi (yellowfin or bigeye tunas), aku, ono (wahoo), mahi mahi and even marlin. For people who can't afford a boat, this may be their best chance of landing those excellent eating fish. On the other hand, predictably enough, plastic bags end up getting lost at sea. It's deplorable, but it happens.On that day, we retrieved the plastic bag from the ocean. We looked around for what kinds of marine life might have called it home, and found only two tiny crabs. Sorry crabs, but in the interest of the greater good, we appropriated the trash. So you see, folks, in our world, some trash gets picked up and some remains where it was found.
Now I'll mention one last trashy item, but of the natural variety. Today we saw a large patch of weird yellowish-brown stuff floating in the water. It may have been an algal bloom of some kind. I have photos, but let's just say they lack sufficient impact to post here.
Next, we meandered about, trying to find "F" buoy. This is one hard buoy to find; it seems to drift 3 miles in either direction. We finally gave up and headed over to "C" buoy about 15 miles away. We had a short run with at least a hundred pantropical spotted dolphins there, but like the spinner dolphins we saw earlier, these didn't want to play in our wake. They were active and doing some nice leaps, but they were a bit too far away for any good shots, and soooo unpredictable!
At about 4:15, we saw a school of 'opelu (mackerel scad) or other small fish feeding at the surface. There was a good chance some larger predatory fish like wahoo, mahi mahi or tuna were gathered around those bait fish. Masa tried to jig for them, but had no luck. We continued out beyond VV buoy, and the 'opelu as well as some small tuna, such as aku (skipjack tuna), were jumping there, too, with a flock of birds swooping down around them. We thought the birds were brown noddies, and they gave me my best photos of the day.
By the end of the day, we had managed to catch a couple of good sized aku for our dinner out at UU buoy, and we headed home. It wasn't a great day for photography, so I'll just post a nice sunset, which is what we saw as we ended our day on the water off the Kona coast! Mahalo for checking out the blog!Kona Sue
http://www.SeaPics.com
Links to stock photos of species mentioned in today's blog (please be patient!-10 seconds to load):
akule (bigeye scad)
spinner dolphins
mahi mahi
pantropical spotted dolphins
aku (skipjack tuna)
brown noddies
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