(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Daily Bucket - diving Kaua'i and Ni’ihau [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-05 Just returned from a trip to Kaua’i, the northernmost of the Hawaiian islands. We dived five days in nearshore waters and off the outlying island of Ni’ihau, and how different the marine world is there compared to the Caribbean! For one thing, the water is much rougher since it’s basically open ocean, with the islands exposed to swells and wind systems from thousands of miles away. The water is cooler too. It made the diving more challenging. Quite a bit of surface chop and swells, with surge below. In terms of the life there, the fish and invertebrates species found in Hawaiian waters came from the Indo-Pacific region (south and west) or evolved from those animals. Fish and invertebrates arrived drifting as long-lived larvae, a very hit or miss event given how small the islands are and how huge is the Pacific Ocean. The diversity in Hawaii is considerably lower than around Indonesia, Australia etc. Reef fish hatch out of eggs as larvae, and spend between two to twenty weeks drifting with prevailing currents before — they’re very lucky — settling on a reef somewhere to develop into an adult. Some species never arrived, for example there are no anemonefish (“Nemo”) in Hawaii since their larvae are too short-lived to last the journey. In comparison, eel larvae live 30 weeks, and there are a lot of eel species: thirty eight! Surgeonfish larvae are also long-lived, while grouper, snapper and parrotfish larvae have shorter lives, and there aren’t many species of them. Even if larvae can survive two months drifting in the open sea and avoiding predators, those species that do make it only survive to proliferate if the conditions suit their needs as adults. There’s an amazing variety of butterflyfish. Of the 115 species of butterflyfish in the whole world, 25 of them are found in Hawaii. Four of those are endemic. We used the John Hoover field guides, which have a lot of background material as well as IDs (Hawaii's Sea Creatures: A Guide to Hawaii's Marine Invertebrates, Hawaiis Fishes A Guide For Snorkelers, Divers). Raccoon butterflyfish. Brocken Inaglory CC Threadfin butterflyfish. Bernard E. Picton CC Endemic Pebbled butterflyfish “Endemic” means a life form that is only found in a particular region. In Hawaii’s case, the isolation of the island and its conditions caused speciation, often with the original migrant becoming extinct. Considering how recently the islands have emerged from the ocean floor — 5 million years — it’s even more remarkable how many endemics Hawaii has. 23% of all the fish are endemic, and 20% of its invertebrates. Endemic Bandit angelfish. Aquaimages CC We saw a lot of those many Hawaiian endemic invertebrates too, like nudibranchs, mollusks (especially cowries), urchins, crabs, shrimp. I saw this splendid nudibranch snoozing in a niche. Its egg case was nearby. Endemic Yellow-margined Spanish Dancer. Ken-ichi Ueda, CC I didn’t take any of these photos or video (didn’t bring my UW camera) but I saw all of them, and many more. Haven’t even touched on the turtles and mammals we saw — hopefully I can share some observations about them too later, their natural history and status. They were another big difference from the Caribbean: far more large animals in the ocean around the Hawaiian islands. A little bit about them below, as an intro. These couple of videos will give you a sense of what it’s like to dive in Hawaiian waters. We spent one day crossing the 20-mile channel between Kauai and Ni’ihau since the diving over there is simply spectacular. It took an hour one way and and hour and a half of very rough water going back, against the swells. It was worth it. 8½ minute video: (The seals in the video are Monk seals, a rare endemic endangered Hawaiian mammal. They were as chill in real life as in the video) Honu, aka Green turtles, were abundant in nearshore Kauai waters. Particularly fascinating were the “cleaning stations”. 1 minute video: 🐠 THE DAILY BUCKET IS A NATURE REFUGE. WE AMICABLY DISCUSS ANIMALS, WEATHER, CLIMATE, SOIL, PLANTS, WATERS AND NOTE LIFE’S PATTERNS. WE INVITE YOU TO NOTE WHAT YOU ARE SEEING AROUND YOU IN YOUR OWN PART OF THE WORLD, AND TO SHARE YOUR OBSERVATIONS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PURPOSE AND HISTORY OF THE DAILY BUCKET FEATURE, CHECK OUT THIS DIARY: DAILY BUCKET PHENOLOGY: 11 YEARS OF RECORDING EARTH'S VITAL SIGNS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS Foggy, otherwise sunny in the PNW today. Temps in 50s. Calm. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/5/2196993/-The-Daily-Bucket-diving-Kaua-i-and-Ni-ihau?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/