Close Encounters with … Wyland the Artist! Part I

As some of you may have noticed from my "Steve Drogin's Party" blog of Nov. 30, 2007, I do occasionally associate with humans. Most encounters of this type never make it into my blog, but now and then something of note happens on dry land and I feel compelled to share it with you. Today’s blog will be one of those occasions!

Last month I got a call from my friend, Wyland, the artist, and he said he was coming over to the Big Island for an artist’s reception at the Wyland Gallery on Ali’i Drive in downtown Kona. He was wondering if Masa and I would take him out on the water to look for whales and dolphins the morning of the reception. We said yes, and we spent the better part of a day on the coast of Kona, Hawaii, looking at marine life, both in the water and on the canvases in Wyland’s gallery.

First, let me give you an introduction to Wyland. His name is Robert Wyland, but he goes by the name of Wyland, the Artist. Wyland is known throughout the world for his murals and paintings of marine life, especially of whales. His series of 100 "Whaling Walls" is nearing completion, after which he will tackle a series of 100 monumental sculptures.

The "Whaling Walls" were what made Wyland a household name, as they are iconic artworks for the cities in which they’re located. They can be found in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. His 100th wall in the series will be painted in Beijing, China during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The walls are enormous and decorated with all kinds of marine life, with whales as their main focus. Wyland has featured gray whales, blue whales, humpbacks, orcas and others in an effort to raise environmental awareness and foster affection for whales. The Beijing installment will feature life-size images of the great (balleen) whales, and children from around the world are going to be invited to paint along with Wyland. To see more photos of Wyland’s Whaling Walls, go to the Wyland Foundation website.

We met up with Wyland in the morning of the 28th for breakfast for a meeting. He does not only bought us nice breakfast, but also gave us his calendars and newly produced Wyland Musice CDs. He has such a charm or charisma in him and also knows how to please people. Besides his talent, no wonder he is so successful as an artist. Around noon, we left the restaurant for Keauhou and then departed the harbor for whale-watching. Right away we ran into a Capt. Zodiac boat and asked them if they’d seen anything. They told us a pod of short-finned
pilot whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus, was just south, on the way to Kealakekua Bay, so we headed in that direction.

We found the pilot whales no problem, but unfortunately, there were a bunch of other boats there, too. We waited quite a while for them to leave, then Wyland got in the water with all of his HD video camera gear. As I mentioned, Wyland has a new record label and he needed some video of pilot whales, which he planned to use for a DVD version of one of his records.

Large marine mammals are protected in Hawaii, so we’re not allowed to approach them, but the pilot whales seemed drawn to Wyland, and they circled him for some great footage. One of the keys to Wyland’s success is that he always seems to be where the animals are, and if he’s not, they come to him! I’m looking forward to seeing those shots on the Wyland music label DVD.

Wyland is 51 years old, but he has the energy of a teenager. He was in and out of the boat at least 15 times, lugging that heavy video equipment, and putting in at various places to get different angles. I came away with a new appreciation of how hard a worker Wyland is!

After Wyland had enough of the pilot whales, we went into Kealakekua Bay to enjoy the beautiful scenery there. Again, there were tons of tourists, so we felt a little claustrophobic. There were some long-snouted spinner dolphins, Stenella longirostris, there, but they did not close enough to get any video of. Finally, as we were thinking about leaving, some spinner dolphins approached where we were, and again Wyland got some great footage for his label. A little while later, we saw one breaching humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae.

We finished our boating excursion about 6:00 p.m. Wyland is amazing, because after a full day of swimming, snorkeling and videography from Masa’s boat, he still had the energy to take on a full night’s work at the Wyland Gallery. He was there by 7:30 p.m. and stayed all evening, painting a whale on canvas in oils, and using a Japanese ink brush to make line drawings of humpback whales for friends and gallery patrons.

The gallery was pretty packed with Wyland fans, gallery clients and quite a few passers-by who just wanted to see what all the noise was about. Wyland would work on the canvas for a while, then put down the brushes to talk to the guests and sign memorabilia. He took photos with anyone who asked and delighted everyone with his friendly personality and casual style.

After he finished the humpback whale painting, it was auctioned off, and it fetched $16,500!!! The snapshot here, taken by one of my employee’s 8-year old daughter, shows a glimpse of the painting mid-way through the creation process.

Masa and I were personally invited to the gallery but didn’t arrive till later in the evening as I had to do some car pooling for my daughter and Masa had to wash boat and clean up all grears after all. There were still lots of people there, but when things started to die down, Wyland drew a line drawing for each of us using a Japanese ink brush . He drew a humpback whale and calf for Masa and a whale fluke for me! They came out great and we were both so excited to get these great works of art! Mine is now on display in the SeaPics.com office.

After all that, I was pretty exhausted, but Wyland was eager to get us to commit to another day on the water the next early morning! Obviously, there’s more to write about, but I’m going to save it for my next blog. Check out Close Encounters Part II, which should be up in a week or so! Mahalo!

Hunt or To be Hunted - Gang of False Killer Whales!

As some of you may have noticed from our spotty blog appearances, Masa and I haven’t been out on the water quite as much as we’d like to. It’s the holiday season, when everything is really hectic, so things like fishing excursions get put on the back burner. We also had some technical issues to cope with at my SeaPics.com office, which occupied much of our time. Finally, on the 20th, we managed to embark at long last.

As a change from our usual pattern, we launched Masa's boat from Honokohau Harbor, which is just north of Kona town, rather than from the southern marina, Keauhou. We were hoping to find a whale shark, Rhincodon typus, as they often appear in this area in December. I bet you didn’t know whale sharks were harbingers of Santa, did you? There were reports of some sightings north of the harbor. For us, though, it remained just that: a rumor.

We took some pictures of the lighthouse and the deep sea water pipes at Keahole Point. These pipes suck up cold sea water from a few thousand feet deep and pump it to over 30 enterprises in the National Energy Laboratory of Hawaii (NELHA). Some companies use the cold, clear sea water for aquaculture, including the raising of main lobster, abalone, Japanese flounder, seahorses, algae, and more. Other companies produce mineral-rich drinking water labeled as Hawaii Deep Sea Water. This water is exported to Japan, where it commands a nice price. We recently read in the local newspaper, West Hawaii Today, that the pipe had some damage to it and would require extensive repairs.

We cruised past the open water fish farm operated by Kona Blue Water Farms. They have huge submersible net enclosures out in this area where the current rips past. They raise very tasty and now famous Kona Kampachi, almaco jack, Hawaiian yellowtail, or kahala, Seriola rivoliana. Paradoxically, farm raised amberjack is arguably healthier than the natural variety. The fish farming operation produces fish that are free from ciguatera, the reef toxin that is common to this species when they live in the natural environment. The fish are fed pellets, so they don’t ingest any reef toxins. An article from West Hawaii Today told of a recent fish breakout that occurred here. Apparently, a lot of the escaped fish just hung out in the area of the net, as they had no inclination to strike out for better things.

We took some photos of airplanes landing at Kona airport, and because it was pretty clear, we had a great view of snow-capped Mauna Kea, and got some pix of that, too. Then we hung around with the "swim with dolphins" excursion boats for a while. About 3 or 4 boats were there, and all the tourists were trying to get close to the long-snouted spinner dolphins, Stenella longirostris, that were milling about in this area. The dolphins did their spins they’re so famous for, and everyone got a nice show. A dog barking on one of the boats drove us a little nuts. I love dogs, but I wonder how the paying customers felt to have that yapping going on all day. The ocean off the Kona coast is a quiet place, unless you bring noise like that with you.

After the boats left, Masa got in for some good picture opportunities. There must have been a hundred spinner dolphins there; a real sight to behold!

We headed out to ZZ buoy - the FAD
(Fish Aggregation Device), where the water was particularly rough. We tried XX buoy next, but there was nothing there either, so we continued on. We did some fishing out at OTEC buoy and caught a couple of small bigeye tunas, Thunnus obesus, for dinner. We almost had a nice one of about 40 lbs, but the hook came off at the surface. It was getting late and we were about 15 miles offshore and about to call it a day, when we noticed something going on in the water. We first thought they were wild Pacific bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, but as we got closer, we noticed their blacker, larger bodies and discovered they were something more rare and exciting: false killer whales, Pseudorca crassidens! Two or three of them! As their latin name shows, they share characteristics with more popular orca or killer whales, Orcinus orca. False killer whales are large marine mammals that grow to about 20 feet in length with a body shape somewhat like the killer whale, but more slender and without the distinctive black and white pattern. Like the orca, they are known to attack and kill other cetaceans such as dolphins and whales.

False killer whales live around the Hawaiian Islands, but range widely. They are generally difficult to see up close, as they are rare to find in the first place and tend to shy away from boats. This time, they seemed preoccupied with something at the OTEC buoy. They appeared to be blowing bubbles toward the buoy again and again. It would certainly be dangerous to photograph such "Killer Whales" up close, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for wildlife photographer, Masa Ushioda, to capture the moment.

As we slowly approached the buoy, we noticed the ocean current was ripping, so Masa dropped in the water up current of the buoy, and drifted toward it and two of the whales. According to Masa, it turned out the whales were trying to hunt a lone bigeye tuna which was using the buoy as a shield against the whales! Masa was kicking hard and trying to stay parallel with the buoy and whales in the strong current. He was barely able to keep himself positioned far enough from the buoy to not affect the activity of the animals, but close enough to watch and photograph this rare event. Masa said the false killers occasionally looked straight at him, but they seemed unconcerned about his presence. Apparently the tuna looked a lot more appetizing to them than Masa. Lucky for him!

Besides these killer whales, there was another rare species in the vicinity, a lone silky shark, Carcharhinus falciformis. These are fairly rare in Hawaiian waters, but they’re one of the most beautiful shark species. Masa was able to snap some good shots of the shark lit up by golden sunset light, because unlike the false killer whales, it seemed more interested in him than anything else, and it circled nearby.

As the whales continued to focus on the tuna, they blew big bubbles underwater with a loud noise. It seemed like they were trying to startle the tuna away from the buoy and snatch it as it tried to escape. Two relatively smaller whales tried this technique again and again, but at the last moment, the tuna was able to swim to the other side of the buoy, escaping the sharp teeth of killer whales. As this behavior kept on, a large false killer of about 19 feet came out of nowhere and swam right by Masa’s legs and joined the rest of the whales. Now three whales with open mouths blowing bubbles ganged up on this poor, frightened tuna. Can you imagine if you were that tuna dodging these huge black monsters? Three whales persistently attacked the tuna in vain, and finally the false killer whales faded into the blue one by one. Yes, the tuna prevailed and went on to live another day!

What a day! Masa was able to get some fantastic photos of two rare species. It was really a behavior we don’t normally get to see, and Masa nailed the images nicely!

As the sun was setting, we thought we saw the false killers again in the distance, but they turned out to be short-finned pilot whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus. It was a large pod - maybe hundreds of them - spread out for miles. We all traveled together riding large offshore swells for a while, and tried to photograph the pilot whales rocketing out of large swells like in the emergency surfacing scene of the Navy submarine from the movie, Red October. Believe me, it was very hard to capture the scene in the near-sunset because the whales were quick and totally unpredictable as to where they were going to appear. Besides, the boat was rocking pretty bad, and in the end, neither of us got a decent shot. Despite that, it was a great day for marine photography; 3 false killers, spinner dolphins and a silky shark! We’ll catch the pilot whales and the whale sharks another day!

To Take or Not to Take Floating Trash

We left the boat launch at about 10:45 and headed out to the FADs
(Fish Aggregation Devices), as we normally do, but we hadn't even left Keauhou Bay when we came across a huge baitball of Akule or bigeye scad or akule, Selar crumenophthalmus. Photographer Masa Ushioda jumped into the water to get some photos, as shots of swirling bait can be beautiful in the right light. He was in the water for 10 minutes or so, got some ok pics (he said visibility was too bad in the bay) and then we continued on. There was a pod of long-snouted spinner dolphins, Stenella longirostris, with us for while, but they seemed unwilling to ride our wake, like they often do. No notable pics as a result of their standoffishyness.

We got to the VV buoy fairly quickly. At one point, two large dolphinfish, dorado or mahi mahi, Coryphaena hippurus, circled our boat and checked out Masa's lure. One of them grabbed it just underneath the boat, and leaped 15 feet out of the water! It's always exciting when a mahi mahi takes your lure and leaps so high up - the very behavior that led them to be called dolphin fish! That long, green fish ended up breaking off the hook, and making a clean get-away. It's odd that he managed to break off the hook, as it was on a 60lb wire leader (prepared for wahoo,
Pacific kingfish or ono, Acanthocybium solandri), so we speculated on what other toothy fish (wahoo, barracuda or shark) was down there that may have done the job before him. We hung there for a while, but came up empty.

About 300 feet from the VV buoy, we came across some trash in the water. It was a piece of floating styrofoam, and my readers, I know you're thinking, "Of course, you retrieved the trash in the interest of protecting marine life." Well, in this case, you'd be wrong! And since there is little else to talk about for today's blog, I'm going to pontificate on trash.

There is all kinds of trash in the ocean. Floating plastic can be a danger to sea turtles, as they ingest it, thinking it to be edible, like jellyfish or squid. There are discarded fishing nets that can get wrapped around seals, whales and dolphins, and of course, no marine animal will last long with synthetic nylon cords constricting its neck or flippers. On the other hand, there are bits of floating foam or other debris like this, which over time accumulate all manner of algae, plant life, and eventually, marine animals. This bit of styrofoam was now home to all kinds of life, including barnacles, small fish and crabs. At this point, it seemed unlikely to pose a hazard to turtles. On the other hand, ripping it out of the water would immediately cause the destruction of a whole ecosystem, with an unknown number of animals that called this ocean slum a home. A couple of months back, we came across a sargassum fish, Histrio histrio, which is one strange ranger, floating in debris like this. So for us, every bit of floating garbage is an individual issue, and we may or may not pick it up. Today, for better or worse, we let harmless trash lie.

About two weeks ago, we came across a large plastic bag trailing a long monofilament line in the ocean. I had so much to write about that day (see Oct. 25 blog!), that I couldn't make room to discuss it. Near South Point on the Big Island, where a strong wind blows almost everyday by nature, many shore fishermen use plastic garbage bags in a fishing technique called "kite fishing." They blow the bag up with air, tie it closed, and attach their fishing line to it. They then launch the improvised "kite" in a windy area and let the wind and water currents pull their fishing lines out to sea. In this way, they can get their fishing lines out to much deeper water where they have a chance of catching some offshore species like ahi (yellowfin or bigeye tunas), aku, ono (wahoo), mahi mahi and even marlin. For people who can't afford a boat, this may be their best chance of landing those excellent eating fish. On the other hand, predictably enough, plastic bags end up getting lost at sea. It's deplorable, but it happens.

On that day, we retrieved the plastic bag from the ocean. We looked around for what kinds of marine life might have called it home, and found only two tiny crabs. Sorry crabs, but in the interest of the greater good, we appropriated the trash. So you see, folks, in our world, some trash gets picked up and some remains where it was found.

Now I'll mention one last trashy item, but of the natural variety. Today we saw a large patch of weird yellowish-brown stuff floating in the water. It may have been an algal bloom of some kind. I have photos, but let's just say they lack sufficient impact to post here.

Next, we meandered about, trying to find "F" buoy. This is one hard buoy to find sometime when the ocean is rough with swells; it seems to drift 1-2 miles in either direction. We finally gave up and headed over to "C" buoy about 15 miles away. We had a short run with at least a hundred pantropical
spotted dolphins, Stenella attenuata there, but like the spinner dolphins we saw earlier, these didn't want to play in our wake. They were active and doing some nice leaps, but they were a bit too far away for any good shots, and soooo unpredictable!