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8. Sharks, Dolphins and a Barracuda

Hawaii 2021

Day 8

We all slept in. Marie and I till 6:30am and Kate till 7am. Marie got some coffees from Starbucks (no line she said) and we drank them on the balcony. So nice to hear the ocean and the many birds here. 

Closer to 9 we grabbed our stuff and headed to the beach where another snorkeling tour awaited us. We had to board the catamaran with our flip flops taken off as we had to climb stairs that were lowered on the beach. That went eventless. As we were the last to board all the benches were taken at the front. Everyone was told to stay in the front until the captain was able to get the boat off the sand. When that happened I went to the back and conquered a bench for us with two little tables. 

We were going to visit two spots: first Mala Beach, followed by Honolua Bay. They said that there are always turtles at Mala Beach. Part of a collapsed pier has created an artificial reef and turtles go there to have themselves cleaned by surgeon fish. While the captain was giving a Snorkel 101 lecture at the bow I looked back and saw five turtles at the surface! 

It is this beach that inspired me to create "Mala Pier Reef", a composite of 27 photos that I took here.

Kate stayed behind to read so Marie and I entered the water. Immediately there were turtles everywhere. Either floating at the surface, suspending mid water, or hanging out at the bottom. Four or five turtles were sitting on a collapsed part of the pier with fishes eating stuff off their shells. I couldn’t believe it: I took lots of photos and videos. Kate joined us a little later.

When we were about to head back to the boat, a snorkeling lady told me that there was a reef shark sitting on the bottom. I saw it too. I tried to get some shots but its front was under a concrete slab. I started swimming back to the boat when I saw two moving reef sharks! One seemed to follow the other. They swam from one concrete slab to the next. At some point I was following only one, that’s when I heard the captain calling back everyone.

Now we were heading for Honolua Bay, which was going to take about an hour. We were fed lunch and drinks and it was good. One of the boat crew members spotted spinner dolphins and we followed them for a while. I saw a few jumping out of the water and spinning along their long axes (hence their names), but wasn’t able to capture them on camera while doing that. I did get some footage of them swimming along with us. 

When we arrived at the bay there were only two other boats there. From the boat you could already clearly see the corals underwater. All three of us got in the water. The corals were beautiful; all kinds of colors and shapes. Lots of different fishes too. We saw a large school of fish hanging out near the bottom. Even when I got closer they hardly moved. Marie said they were the laziest fish she’s ever seen. 

Next we saw a school of Manini Convict Tangs and Humuhumu-Eleele Black Durgon Triggerfish eating off the bottom. Other fishes we saw were yellow tangs, Uhu Bullethead Parrotfish, Pennant Butterflyfish, Humuhumu-Nukunuku-Apuaa reef triggerfish, Hinalea-Iiwi bird wrasse, Kala Unicornfish, and many more.

I drifted away from Marie and got closer to the rocks. I turned around and saw something big and was startled. It was an over three feet long fish. I had no idea what it was and went a little closer to get some shots of it and a video. It started to swim away and I followed it for a while. Later I found out that it was a Kaku Barracuda! (Most other fish names I also looked up later BTW, in case you may think I’m a Hawaii fish expert).

I searched for Marie and told her about the big fish. She then told me that below us a crab is eating a sea urchin (a Punohu Slate Pencil Urchin that is and the crab was a 7-11 crab). A fish was also trying to eat the urchin where the crab had damaged it. 

The captain was calling us back now. Because it was windy the boat crew raised the sail and for a while we sailed with the engine off, heading towards Molokai and then turning towards our hotel beach. It was a great snorkeling trip, perhaps one of the best so far? Dolphins, turtles, sharks and a barracuda. Kate still likes to make fun of me claiming that I researched if I was in mortal danger during my barracuda encounter.

Read about the next day here

Read about the day before here