Ocean Watch

A few days ago, as my hairdresser cut my hair, I mentioned that I recently saw a pair of reef sharks at Hanauma Bay. She stopped cutting and stared at me in the mirror.

"Sharks in Hanauma Bay?"

"Don't worry," I said. "They weren't the dangerous kind."

"That's ridiculous," she said. "They're all dangerous."

She shook her head. "And here I thought Hanauma Bay was safe."

This brief conversation highlighted two of Hawaii's enduring myths: Sharks are always dangerous and Hanauma Bay is always safe. These notions aren't true, but convincing people of that can be tough.

Two new books, in stores this week, will help shed some light on these subjects. One is "Sharks and Rays of Hawaii," by Gerald (Jerry) Crow and Jennifer Crites.

Jerry is a biologist at the Waikiki Aquarium, and Jennifer is a free-lance writer and photographer. Together, they've put out a book they also could have titled "Everything Anyone Has Ever Known About the Sharks and Rays of Hawaii."

From senses to sex to science, this shark book has it all, including details of each of the 40 shark and nine ray species swimming in Hawaii's waters.

Nine rays? I thought we had fewer but I was wrong. Hawaii hosts several deep-water species (we're talking 1,000 to 2,000 feet deep) which most of us will never see but are fun to read about.

One, the torpedo ray, stuns its prey with an electric shock. Another, with the colorful name of stingaree, creates billowing plumes of sand as it searches for food on the sea floor about 2,000 feet down.

One of the sharks listed in this book is the white-tipped reef shark, the kind I saw in Hanauma Bay. These sharks grow to 5 feet long and hunt octopus, crustaceans and fish at night. During the day they rest in caves and under ledges. The pair I saw in Hanauma Bay rested on the sandy bottom beneath a ledge just inside the reef.

Yep, inside the reef. White-tipped reef sharks have always been in the bay and always will be. This fact will unnerve some people, but remember: More than 3,000 people visit this preserve each day, and no shark attacks have ever been recorded there.

The dangers in Hanauma Bay come not from ocean animals, but from the ocean itself. John Hoover, a local marine animal enthusiast and author of several excellent marine guides, discusses this and countless other things in his new book, "Hanauma Bay, A Marine Life Guide to Hawaii's Most Popular Nature Preserve."

Like Jerry and Jennifer, John covers just about everything anyone knows about his subject, from history to snorkeling zones to marine life.

John's book is by no means a safety manual, but he begins with safety. It's a small but crucial section because, as a lifeguard there said to me recently as we discussed safety in the bay, "You can't enjoy snorkeling if you're drowning."

Among John's 156 fine pictures of marine animals in the bay is the white-tipped reef shark. "If you find a shark," John writes in the caption, "treat it with respect and consider yourself fortunate."

Since knowledge is the key to overcoming fears and to appreciating Hawaii's uniqueness in the natural world, we can also consider ourselves fortunate to have these books.