Ocean
Watch
Monday, May 12, 1997
Exploring the wonders
of Waikiki's wildlife
I'll never understand some people's aversion to
Waikiki. Its wide walkways make for pleasant strolls, people-watching is
great there, and those ocean sunsets are the picture of Pacific romance.
Also, although most people don't realize it, some of Hawaii's best
wildlife appears in Waikiki.
Last week, I had a meeting at the Diamond Head end of
Waikiki and decided to walk there from the Ala Wai Boat Harbor. Before my
feet even touched sand, I was stopped by a flash of brilliant orange and
blue among the rocks near a boat.
I stopped and waited. Soon a tiny orange fish face
peered from its hiding place. Then a second bright fish darted from one
hole to another. The fish didn't give me much time to identify them, but I
know these beauties: They're Potter's angelfish, one of Hawaii's six
"pygmy angel" species.
Angelfish in other parts of the world are often big and
bold, providing divers with memorable close encounters. Not Hawaii's pygmy
angels. Ours are shy little things, spending most of their time close to
cover, venturing out only to graze warily on nearby algae.
My presence spooked these angels of the Ala Wai, and
they remained mostly hidden while I stood there. That was OK, though. I
now had their address.
I moved on. As I rounded the lagoon of the Hawaiian
Hilton Village, I was stopped by the sight of a sea bird diving for fish
just feet offshore, near the breakwater. The big bird would fly in a wide
circle around the area inside the reef, then tuck its wings and drop like
a sleek torpedo head first into the water. A second later, the bird would
pop up, swallow its fish meal, then take off and do it again.
I walked to the edge of the water and squinted at the
soaring bird, noting its brown body and its white breast, beak and feet:
It was a brown booby, one of three booby bird species found in Hawaii.
(The others are masked and red-footed boobies.)
Brown boobies love to sit on navigation buoys. I often
see them from my kayak sitting like sentinels on the big red and green
seaward markers of the Ala Wai channel. And just yesterday, a friend told
me that several of these birds were balancing on the buoy off the Haleiwa
Boat Harbor.
It was hard to leave this bird during its fishing
frenzy, but I had places to go. I stayed as long as I dared, then
continued down the beach.
When I reached my destination at Kuhio Beach, I found
Rob Miller, the lifeguard I was meeting, showing a captured box jellyfish
to a crowd of beach-goers. He held the creature by its bell, the safe part
to touch, and explained the dangers of the trailing tentacles.
Visitors were fascinated. We all talked at length about
how these animals sting people by accident when the creatures get caught
inshore. Also, that the sting is not lethal, as it is with some species of
box jellyfish in Australia.
After my meeting with Miller, I hurried back to the
boat to get some writing done. But back at the Hilton, I was stopped yet
again. The brown booby, more than an hour later, was still fishing up a
storm.
OK, I had to see what the bird found so delicious this
close to shore amid all these people. I ran to my boat, changed into my
swimsuit and hurried back with mask and snorkel.
The bird was gone. But what the heck. I went snorkeling
anyway. And there I saw something new to me: A goatfish, so large I first
mistook it for a mullet, was excavating an enormous hole in the sand, its
chin whiskers (called barbels) digging like mad. Apparently, the fish
sensed some goody deep in the sand and was determined to get it.
I watched for a while, then visited a school of
needlefish I know. By the time I got back to the boat, my workday was
pretty much shot.
People come from all over the world to while away time
in Waikiki. I have only to walk to a meeting.
