Enjoying Hawaii's Sharks

I enjoy going out on the ocean, especially since we live in Hawaii but sometimes life just makes it a bit hard to get out - especially around April 15th. Well, taxes are all filed on time and I am taking a well deserved day on the ocean.

We head out of Honokohau Harbor around 11 a.m. - having a few boat issues slowed us down. I think everyone knows that having a boat sit around for 3 weeks is almost like automatically signing the credit card bills for the repairs - rust just never seems to take a day off.

We headed out of the harbor and immediately saw Hawaiian spinner dolphins, Stenella longirostris, leaping by the green buoy. The spinner dolphins are almost always here - hanging out and sleeping during the day and then going out at night to hunt. They were in resting mode so we just left them be and continued on. We passed a NOAA research vessel and then head over to neaby FAD (Fish Aggregation Device) - absolutely nothing was happening there so we decided to go out to an offshore FAD lacated 10 nautical miles from there.

The ocean looked so calm from my house - but even though there were no wind waves the swell was actually quite large. A large swell makes it hard to find animals - really hard - but I'm actually really good at finding creatures! I thought I saw a splash - and sure enough we spotted a pod of pantropical spotted dolphins, Stenella attenuata. It was a large school and the sport fishing boats were all in it hoping to latch onto a big tuna. We were hoping to get a shot of those spectacular leaps that pantropical dolphins do - they can leap so high it seems unreal. However - the pantropical dolphins were in feeding mode - this means they were all over the place - zig zagging all around and definitely not interested in playing with us. It was frustrating - dolphins leaping all over the place but in totally unpredictable locations - you simply couldn't track them! It is not always about photography - dolphins sure can make you smile! After awhile we came to the realization that we had been there for quite some time - and only taken three shots! Not exactly productive for wildlife photographers!

We decided on an alternative plan and turned the boat in search of that offshore FAD buoy - the most elusive buoy of all. This buoy swings a lot - it can be off by a couple of miles from the position you marked the previous week - and if it is off and the swell is high it is almost impossible to find it unless you have luck. Well no luck for us today (or at least not yet!) and no FAD to be found. Time to head on to another buoy down south.

When we found the next buoy we knew the fish were biting - lots of boats around is always a good sign. We tried jigging and caught a bigeye tuna almost immediately. The current was really kicking so we drifted quite fast. We would try to drop where the fish were - and according to our Garmin fish finder this place was loaded - but the current drifted us back so quickly that we ended up past the fish before we started jigging. A bit of maneuvering finally got us into a good position and both Masa & I got a hit on our lines. A few minutes later our deck had two convenient sized bigeye tunas on it. I like the 20-30 pounder range - bigger than that and I just can't fillet it myself. However today my fish was being given away as a gift - thanks Gerald & Ann - my carpool couldn't survive without you - hope you like the fish!

Masa decided to get in the water and try out his new fins - he had gotten huge fins and was itching to see how they worked. He got in and I handed him his camera so he could get the feel of things. He was swimming around, diving down and checking things out when all of a sudden he comes up and shouts SHARK! I saw the shadow underwater and then the fin started cutting the surface heading straight to Masa. Now we run a stock photo agency that specializes in sharks - we LOVE sharks, have experience with them and respect them. Living in Hawaii and going out where other people don't we encounter sharks. The most common shark that we encounter is the oceanic whitetip shark, Carcharhinus longimanus. Oceanic whitetip sharks are not a common shark elsewhere - but in Hawaii these ocean cruisers are around - not near the shore but far out in the blue water.

Oceanic whitetip sharks are beautiful, but very aggressive and have been known to attack humans. The shark went straight at Masa (this is normal), bumped into his camera housing that was held in front of him (totally normal), then bumped it a second time - this is not so normal - then threw his tail - kind of like a peduncle throw - straight at Masa (this never happens). By now I am shouting at Masa to get out of the water - this was a big shark - a ten footer and it wasn't scared, or cautious or anything. It was powerful and supremely aware of its status as an apex predator. Then Masa pops his head up and says - "WOW - it's so beautiful! Sue you have to get in here to see this - it is fantastic!" I'm thinking a ten foot aggressive shark can be as beautiful as the Michelangelo's David and I'm not getting off this boat to see it - thank you very much!

Then Masa shouted "There's another one!" Sure enough another shadow began to approach Masa - but no fin cutting the water - this one looked smaller and I was able to see it was loaded with pilot fish, Naucrates ductor. Pilot fish are often found with oceanic whitetip sharks - theirs is considered to be a symbiotic relationship, mutualism - the shark gets cleaned of its parasites and the pilot fish feed on the scraps of the sharks (sharks are notoriously messy eaters). Pilot fish look like they are escaped prisoners from an old time movie - they are dressed from head to toe in black and white bars.

These were larger pilot fish than I normally see - maybe a 1 to 1-1/2 foot in length. The pilot fish were curious and left their shark host to come visit the boat - they hung out with me for a bit while the sharks disappeared. But of course the sharks were not done - they had found something very interesting floating in the ocean -MASA - and they wanted to see exactly what he was about. At this point I was begging Masa to get out of the water - but Masa has been in the water with a lot of sharks, he has over a decade of experience with them and he was totally calm. I kept threatening to call his wife and tell her exactly what he was doing but he seemed unperturbed and thrilled to be the center of the sharks' attention.

The big shark was the one that simply didn't follow proper shark protocol - apparently it hadn't read the shark handbook before it showed up. I rarely see fins of this shark species cutting the water - but this one was above the water a lot - you could clearly see where it was and where it was heading. And, of course, it was heading directly at Masa - again - for a nice hard bump against his housing and then it swam over to say high to me on the boat. It even poked its head out of the water (sorry no pictures of this). Contrary to my wishes, Masa comfortably cruised with the 10 foot shark and its smaller sidekick for about 45 minutes - and then as silently as they came, they left. Masa finally got out of the water and then I got to put my head under a towel to see what he had seen in the back of a 3 inch on camera LCD screen. Wow, did he get some great shots! They looked incredibly awesome and I was hoping he would get around to posting a few here for everyone.

Well, I know you are all thinking I'm a big chicken - and well, I am - but the little shark loaded with pilot fish did cruise back over again - and without its gargantuan cousin I did get in the water to check it out. OK - it is true that I didn't let go of the boat or the tuna bat in my hand - but I did get to see the most beautiful shark cruising with pilot fish in the blue, blue water of Hawaii - and as Masa said - it was gorgeous!

The Strange Dietary Preferences of Oceanic Whitetip Sharks

We went out earlier than usual today because we were up at an ungodly hour. I went in to work at SeaPics.com for a while before going out. Amazingly, my employee, Christine, was already in the office at 5:45 a.m. Yes folks, I have some seriously dedicated employees! There weren't many trailers down at the marina, which is usually a sign that the fishing's bad. No worries for us, because when the fishing's bad, we're taking photos. Likewise, when there's nothing to photograph, we're fishing, so we're always occupied.

We did our usual rounds of going out to the FADs (Fish Aggregation Devices), but there wasn't much happening. Masa put out all kinds of trolling lures, but we had no luck. Because we were out earlier than usual, we had a nice view of Hualalai (see picture of Hualalai volcanic mountain, 2,523m/8,271ft above sea level, last historical eruption in 1800-1801, off Kona Coast, Big Island, Hawaii, Pacific Ocean), which is often clouded over a little later in the day. There were no whales or dolphins to photograph, so we took some scenic shots of the mountain.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Big Island, Hualalai is one of the 5 volcanoes that make up this island. It's not as well-known as Mauna Kea, the highest point in the Pacific, or Mauna Loa, the most massive mountain in the world, or the active vocano, Kilauea, all of which are also on the Big Island, but it's the dominant geographical feature of Kailua Kona, where we live. Hualalai is dormant, but will no doubt erupt again at some point in the future. It last erupted in 1801, and they say it erupts in a 200-year cycle, which means ... well, let's think about fishing.

We headed south, trolling for wahoo, Pacific kingfish or ono, Acanthocybium solandri. We traveled at high speed of about 8 to 12 knotts, which is best for ono fishing, and with all the right gear out. We found ourselves in a small parade of fishing boats doing the same thing: going out to the 150 to 250 ft. depth, called "Ono Lane", then following the drop-off in a southerly direction. We did this from about 7:30 to noon. There was no action on our lines, so were taking pictures of the nothing that surrounded us. The Kona coast doesn't have the dramatic cliffs of the Hamakua Coast on the north side of the island, so pictures of this area aren't very marketable. We got some scenic photos that could make background shots for a magazine spread or pamphlet. We also got some shots of the waves crashing on the 20 ft volcanic rock cliffs when we passed by the tip of Kealakekua Bay.

Having gotten up so early on this beautiful, calm day, I was sleepy, so I slept on the deck for a while. Masa told me later that C buoy was as dead as it could be for fishing. When I woke up, he was driving the boat down to UU buoy, which is near Kona Paradise subdivision. Finally we saw some activity. There were about 5 fishing boats working at the buoy and many birds flying overhead.

We saw a small pod of short-finned pilot whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus, nearby, maybe 9 or 10, logging. As expected, there were some oceanic whitetip shark, Carcharhinus longimanus, milling around with them. Masa wanted to get in the water for some photos. He entered the water quietly and found himself fairly close to the large bull pilot whale that was relaxing there. These bulls can be unpredictable, and Masa didn't want to get close enough to disturb it. They floated around in the water there together for about 10 minutes or so, just eyeing each other. While Masa was attempting to photograph one of the oceanic whitetip sharks coming his way, he saw one of the pilot whales poop 50 feet below, which sent the oceanic whitetips into a minor frenzy. Three of the four sharks immediately sensed the huge, free meal and rocketed into the cloud of poop, eating it. This behavior explains why they hang with the pilot whales, but it makes you wonder why they don't spend more time checking out the delectable diver in their midst. I guess whale poop is tastier, which is lucky for Masa.

Masa got back in the boat and we continued fishing. Right there at UU buoy, he got a 20 lb yellowfin tunas, Thunnus albacares, on a jig. He bled it over the side, which is what Masa does to ensure tasty sashimi. This brought those whitetips barreling over to the boat. With all that blood in the water, Masa jumps in for some pictures! Unfortunately, the whitetips didn't approach Masa close enough for the picture he wanted, of several in the same shot. Masa finally came back on the boat to try for another tuna.

Right away, he got a tuna, but with the blood in the water, those whitetips didn't let Masa enjoy it for long. They latched onto that tuna, churning up the water, and tore it apart. Now we know why the whitetips are nice to Masa; he feeds them tuna!

We headed south for a while and ran into a pod of friendly pantropical spotted dolphins, Stenella attenuata. They hung with us a bit, but the light was poor, so it wasn't a great photo op.

Now we were at B buoy, which is really far out from Kona for a small boat. The B buoy is located about 5 miles offshore of an old fishing village, Miloli`i. We quickly got another tuna, 15-20 lbs, then another. These fish are great for sushi, but for the moment, we were fascinated by the small cookiecutter shark, Isistius brasiliensis, scar that decorated the side of one of them. For those of you unfamiliar with this species, a cookiecutter shark is a small (20 inch) shark that latches onto dolphins, whales and large fish with a suction action. It then twists its body in a violent motion and slices off a hunk of flesh, leaving a single circular scar of 2 to 4 inches in diameter, depending on the size of the shark. The victims generally have no long term effects from this, but live the rest of their lives with that nice, round tattoo.

On our third strike, we knew a shark was in the area. The tuna was being reeled in at a predictable pace, when suddenly, in a burst of strength, it just took off, as it tried to avoid the shark. No luck for the fish or for us, as the large shark grabbed the tuna and settled in for a short game of tug-of-war. The shark was thrashing around and cut the tuna in two; all we pulled up was the head. You'd think Masa would be disappointed to lose the tuna, but he seemed pleased that he didn't lose his jig. However, with sharks in the area, we knew we'd lose any tuna we'd catch, so we headed back to UU.

There we caught a small great barracuda, Sphyraena barracuda. Barracudas are beautiful fish, but not good for eating because of the danger of ciguatera, a reef toxin prevalent among predatory fish that inhabit tropical reefs. It's rare to catch a barracuda so far out, as they generally stick near the reefs where they feed. As we took some photos, it thrashed about and cut the line with its sharp teeth, and plunged back into the water. Chalk up another one for the fish.

For our efforts this day, we had little to speak of in the way of photographs. On the other hand, we caught several tunas and managed to land 4 intact. Great sushi tonight! And for those of you who follow this blog, we are pleased to say that Sugar, my Tibetan spaniel, did really well on the boat today; no sea sickness at all!