20150506 Hawaii Vacation Lanikai snorkel- Caution: Strong swimmer alert

panoramic view of Lanikai Beach on the Windward coast

The second snorkel location we took was the Lanikai beach at the Windward coast (Southeastern) shore of Oahu. As you can see from the photo above, this is a much less visited public beach than Waikiki due to its slight remote location, accessibility, lack of public parking and no public shower or changing room. Also, there are no lifeguards on duty so you are on your own.

Lanikai Beach looking Northeast

 There is about 500 meter (1/3 mile) of shallow reef along the entire stretch of this beach. But do not let the crystal clear turquoise water color fool you- the Though the rooftop of most area seem shallow,  unlike the Waikiki beach, once you venture 100ft out, most adults will not be able to stand straight and touch the bottom. Additionally, located in the windward coast, while the water is still relatively calm, it can be more unpredictable. And the water does come in waves of warm patches mixed with cooler patches. For all of the reasons above, you should only consider snorkeling or diving in this location when you are experienced and are a strong swimmer as the current can easily take you off course. There are a few times when I surfaced to find myself way off course from where I thought I was heading- very dangerous situation if I was a weaker swimmer.

Two Islands southeast of Lanikai are bird sanctuaries with strict rules for visitation

The two islands Southeast of the beast are about 1.5 miles off shore. These two islands are bird sanctuaries that has very strict rules for visitation. You may rent a kayak to reach it, rest on the beach then return. But you are not allow to touch anything or venture beyond the beach there. Also, please never attempt to swim there, the current is rough and strong it will carry you off course.

Unfortunately due to the depth of this reef, I was hesitant to bring my camera along with in fear of loosing my grip and to never able to retrieve it should it skips into a tight crack (there are numerous crevices). Based on my observation, the species here are diverse and abundant. Also because of the depth of some of the drop offs, most of the herbivores seen here are reaching good size- sailfin tang at at least 18" diameter, adult yellow tangs at no less than 8" long, adult Achilles tang at 10" long, variety of wrasses so large I almost thought they were parrotfish! The coral system however isn't growing as strongly as it can be due to invasive macro algae species. It also seems that the reef must have been devastated by big waves from storms in recent year as many of the giant pillar pieces of the reef base (at least 10ft tall and each can weight a few tons) were torn off its main structure and were laying on their sides on the sand bed.

20150428 Hawaii Vacation- Waikiki Snorkel

Two weeks ago I revisited my dream destination- Hawaii. And once again we decided to only stay in Oahu as we have not enough time to explore all we wanted to see in our previous visit. But we did recall the wonderful snorkeling experience so we have specifically carved out time to snorkel in various coast lines this time.

The beautify, relaxing white sand of the Waikiki beach at Honolulu, Hawaii

First and foremost we went to the most accessible- Waikiki. It is amazing that with all the tourists, surfing, kids playing, and motorized boats in the near vicinity the Waikiki reef ecosystem remained in a very strong state. The amount and variety of fish in the near shore reef actually had significant increase since our last visit 9 months ago. We were able to see most of all the common species of tangs and wrasse along with a few that would have only appeared in the deeper water previously, but now are also living among the shallow reef. I used only an iPhone 5S with an otter case to shoot these underwater photos.

A goatfish and a two spot surgeonfish patrolling the shallow reef of Waikiki

Really healthy reef system with active growing sps coral such as this porcillapora colony here near shore Waikiki

Moorish idol feeding among the coral reef. Interesting observation: I visited the same area a few days in a row and found that the same group of moorish idol stays within a specific area, no larger than 1000 square feet and feeds only in that area.

Beautiful spotted box fish along the reef edge in Waikiki

A semi adult nano tang, what a magnificent creature and graceful swimmer in the wild.

Water clarity wasn't the best as the waves were quite high that day sweeping up lots of dust from the bottom. 

20141227 Hawaiian Monk Seal in Waikiki Aquarium

This was a video we took when we traveled to Hawaii's Waikiki Aquarium. I just have to share because this monk seal is so cute just rotating at the spot!

20140817 Waikiki Aquarium- Species tank exhibitions

Species tank, by definition- means the exhibition features, and often times, only contains one species of creature. Obviously often times you'd also see some supporting casts such as plants, cleaning crew, etc. But the best illustration is some of the standard public aquarium displays. Often times when you approach the tank you can tell that this is focused on only one animal.

 Above is the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle display. As a research institute, Waikiki aquarium is able to house a pair of baby sea turtles. Outside of that, unless you have a license as researcher, you will face either cash penalty, jail time, or both, for not only housing them in your own aquarium but even to touch them in nature. By the way, they can touch you, but not the other way around. Sea Turtles are one of the most vulnerable part of the marine ecology. It plays an important role but many are now critically endangered due to human overfishing, pollution, and long-ling fishing accidental kills. They are thus deserve the strict laws to protect them. You can find Sea Turtle Law and Guidelines here.

Keeping Jelly fish seems to be on the rise in saltwater hobby. I have never kept them myself but I have done a lot of reading, and observed public aquariums' systems and maintenance processes. If kept successful, they can be very pleasing to observe. However, keeping jelly fish poses tremendous challenge- first, you must design and build special tank for the water to move in a circular motion. The current must be strong enough, but not too strong to wash them into the overflow. Now, speaking of overflow- because jellyfish has no "hard" body part, they are basically a sac of water. They can simply slip through opening of any size you might have. So it's very important to design the overflow to accommodate for this need. Lastly, they need food, lots of food almost on a constant basis - at least that's in the wild. At home aquarium, you must feed them several times a day with highly nutritious plankton matter. This means you must have a good filtration system to avoid water spoilage. Here is one of the many resources you can find for Jelly fish care online. You may also find some "kits" available for sale, my advise is to gear away from these. As the picture already is misleading- keeping other fish with Jelly fish, who are predators and are extremely toxic is a recipe for disaster. This vendor is obviously only out to get money without responsibly educating the care and needs of Jellyfish. They are not goldfish, one does not simply throw them into a circular tank with a pump to keep it alive (I mean seriously, the kit doesn't even come with a heater to regulate the water temperature?). Before you go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a Jellyfish kit like this one, please do enough research before you flush your money down the drain.

20140803 Waikiki Aquarium- Hawaiian Island Fish

The next exhibition after the show piece clams is the local species from the Hawaiian Islands tank. This tank also features natural sunlight with corals- the corals aren't as abundant, large, and colorful as the South Pacific display, but the fish in the tank is no less vibrant than that of the previous tank.

 In the photo above you can spot some of the more common fish in the N.American aquarium trade such as banner fish, anthias, cleaner wrass (should not be sold to individual owners), convict tangs, etc. But also many rare, expensive species- the masked angel, the Yellow pyramid butterflyfish, and the super expensive Bandit Angelfish (click on the link to see how much you should expect it to be)

 In this trip, the one fish that captured my attention is the blue line tang. To be honest, no responsible aquarium retail store should sell this fish to an average hobbyist. Because they can grow to an enormous size, as I have witnessed while snorkeling. But their beauty is truly unrivaled. This is the one fish I will not keep in my tank, but hoping to someday surround myself with when I move out to Hawaii.

Another look at the $1000 fish- the bandit angel.

Hawaii vacation

Wet and wild recently had a vacation in Hawaii- and yes, we did some snorkeling and visited the world famous waikiki aquarium. And yes, there will be posts to share these experiences!