Tako at Honolua Bay

endemic Hawaiian Day Octopus

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Late this morning, BJ and I drove up north to snorkel Honolua Bay.  We parked along the side of the road and hiked in towards the bay.

The trail plunges down through the jungle towards the water.  The trees swayed in the wind above us, and as their trunks and branches rubbed against each other they squeaked.  "Like dolphins," said BJ.

Roosters of all shapes and colors ran along and across the trail as we walked.  There were even roosters down at the bay's entrance.  They scrambled across the rocky shore and crowed much to the delight or annoyance to the tourists.

BJ and I kicked our flip flops off on the rocks, snapped on our goggles and sat down on a rock by the water's edge to slip into our fins.  We gently tipped forward and swam out over the rocky shallows into slightly deeper water.

As we kicked out into the bay, we came up against a big cluster that I first thought was a big rock.  As I swam closer, I realized that the rock was actually a huge ball of fish.  The school had gathered together into a tightly wound "bait ball" as an Omilu or Bluefin Trevally prowled underneath them, waiting to snap up a weak or injured fish.

Omilu 

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I watched BJ dive into the school of fish.  As he cut through the center of them, the fish parted in two big waves, circled behind him and knitted back together again after he was gone.

After some youtube research, I found this video taken at Honolua Bay of Omilu stalking a school of fish.  Isn't the internet a wonderful thing?



My friend Alfredo has told me that BJ is a "tako" or octopus whisperer, and today I got to see BJ's skills firsthand.

After we left the bait ball behind, I saw BJ motioning to me from under the water.  He pointed down towards the sandy bottom at a rock.  I looked.  I strained my eyes...but I didn't see what he was seeing.  BJ popped his head out of the water.

"You see the tako?"

I put my head back in and looked around.  I came back to the surface.  "No," I told him.  "Where are you looking?"

BJ told me that the two sea urchins I was looking at was actually one sea urchin and an octopus.  I looked again, but could not distinguish the octopus.

"I'm going to dive down," he told me.  "When I dive for it, the tako will move and you'll see it."

That's what you hope, I said in my head as BJ prepared himself and took a huge breath of air and plunged downwards.

As he swam down, I saw the octopus roll backwards into its hole in the rock.  After a few attempts to coax the octopus out of its hiding place and only getting a few wagging tentacles in his face, BJ gave up and we cruised to look at more fish.

The water at Honolua was chilly, and I never really warmed up as I swam around.  I just got colder.  After about forty minutes into our swim I was ready to head back out.  BJ and I started to swim back over to the shore.  Half way back, BJ pointed at the bottom.  A moray eel laid across a rock like a thick ribbon.  It's small head was turned up towards us, and his mouth opened and shut.  BJ dove down a little ways to him so the eel turned and swam away from us.  Along its way, it ran right into another moray.  BJ and I watched the two eels face one another.  I could imagine them hissing their great displeasure to one another as they continued their tiff over their underwater territory.  The second eel was the first to back off, and it swam away.

We left the eels behind and swam on.  Just a few yards away from the eels, BJ had spotted another tako.  He pointed it out to me, and I saw nothing but rock.

BJ dove down again, and all of a sudden I saw a small octopus shoot off like a torpedo, shooting small clouds of ink behind him.  BJ caught up to him and brought the octopus up to me.  As he swam up with the octopus, it continued to release billows of a dark brown ink.  And then it began to change colors and textures.  Huge splotches of deep, dark colors danced across his body while spikes seemingly thrust up from his skin although he still remained soft to touch.

The He'e Tako or Day Octopus is endemic to Hawaii.  It's natural coloration is a dark brown, and it's known as the "day" octopus, because it prowls the ocean floors during daylight hours for food.

The octopus that BJ found was very young, so he was still small.  His body was about the size of my small, balled up fist.  His tentacles were thin and tapered into small, looping ribbons.  After a moment, he calmed himself and hunkered down onto BJ's fist.  His whole body was soft and slippery, but the suckers on the underside of his tentacles were powerfully strong.  BJ draped one of the octopus' tentacles along my arm so I could see what it felt like.  Later, when I pried his tentacle away from my skin, the release of suction sounded like someone undoing very strong velcro.  On the car ride home, BJ told me that sometimes the octopus suckers leave little "hickies."

After a few more moments of examining the tako, we let him go and watched him torpedo back down to the rocks.

I found this short video of the He'e Tako in action.  This one is much larger than the one that BJ and I found:



After a successful snorkel at Honolua Bay, BJ and I hiked out shivering.  My teeth were chattering I was so cold!  We hopped back into the truck and drove to one of my favorite old haunts, the Honokowai Farmer's Market.

The Honokowai Farmer's Market is actually a brick and mortar store that sells all sorts of fresh and good for you foodstuffs.  On Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 7 to 11, the store does have a more traditional "market" with people setting up stalls in the parking lot to hawk their locally grown produce.

I hadn't been to the store in many, many months, so I'm glad that BJ suggested it.  We both got a cup of soup and a slice of the vegetarian "burrito bake."  Both were delicious, warm and filling.

I got home by 2 in the afternoon and had plenty of time to enjoy a deliciously hot shower and some reading time before having to head to work.

I have all day off tomorrow!  I'm planning on having a beach day at Black Rock.  I've got a LOT of reading to do!!