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!

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!

Face to Face with Short-finned Pilot Whales & Oceanic Whitetip Sharks!

It's been two weeks since my last blog entry, but only because we had mechanical problems. The starter on Masa's boat didn't work, so we had to get it repaired. Two weeks confined to land; hate when that happens.

Today also started out a bit iffy. We were all gassed up and down at the marina, ready to rock 'n' roll, when we realized we'd left the ice on the floor of Masa's house. Raced back for that, wondering what else would go wrong. As it turned out, the rest of the day was excellent, if you can call a day without catching any fish excellent. What we had instead was the kind of photo opportunities that remind us why we live in Kona. It was also notable for another reason, too; it was the first time on the water for my new puppy, Sugar. She's a Tibetan Spaniel, and quite possibly the cutest dog in the world. We'd get to see what kind of sea legs she had, and because I have photos to capture the moment, so will you!

As we started late, we decided to go straight to C buoy FAD
(Fish Aggregation Device) without trolling. When we left about 5 miles from Keauhou Bay, we spotted a pod of short-finned
pilot whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus. Probably 50 or 60 of them resting at the surface. The light was perfect, so we went in their direction for some pix. As we approached, we encountered some other visitors: a small pod of wild Pacific bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, had converged on the same spot. There must have been some baitfish there, as the dolphins were swimming frantically in circles. The pilot whales were there, too, and they didn't seem happy to have the dolphins mixed in their pod. One biggest male (bull, the leader in the pod) seemed very agitated. He was launching his body out of the water and slamming on the surface, in some kind of threat display to the dolphins. While all this was going on, a couple of oceanic whitetip shark, Carcharhinus longimanus, came into view. I mentioned in my previous blogs how oceanic whitetips are often in the vicinity of pilot whales, and here they were, right on schedule. This was clearly going to be an amazing day. How often do we get an opportunity to try and get dolphins, whales and sharks in the same shot? And as we got our gear ready for the big moment, of course, they all disappeared! Poof. Gone. Hasta la vista.

It was then that we noticed Sugar was gone, too, I panicked for a moment, wondering if she'd been on the oceanic whitetips' menu. We scrambled around the boat, calling her name. It's a small 19 foot boat, so to not see her was scary. Fortunately, we found her, wedged between the cooler and the side of the boat. She found the most comfortable spot by herself. Smart dog!

We thought the pilot whales had gone north, so we slowly went that way, back in the direction we came from this morning. We soon came across them again, still with dolphins this time. It seemed both pods were settled and started traveling together very slowly. We've seen pilot whales often, and it's always hard to know what kind of behavior to expect. Sometimes they leave as fast as they can, sometimes they stick around to see what's up. This time, fortunately for us, it was the latter. We watched them logging for a while. This is an observable behavior where they line up in a row, right next ot each other, rubbing skin, in some kind of socializing activity. As our boat approached, they didn't make a move to leave. They stuck around, curious, and started spy-hopping, a behavior common for all intelligent marine mammals such as humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae. One will pop its head out of the water, straignt up, and watch us. Then another one did it, and another. Soon all around us was this whole pod of pilot whales spyhopping like crazy. It was a little surreal, and not unlike a game of whack-a-mole, with their heads bobbing up and down, randomly on all sides of our boat. An amazing display, and one we hadn't ever seen this many "pops" before. We just stared at them, popping off shot after shot.

As we were enjoying the show, two oceanic whitetips approached the boat. Now we knew we had to get into the water, if only to get the whitetips and pilot whales in the same photograph. As Masa prepared to enter the water, he fretted about what camera gear to take. The dilemma in this situation is always the same, and it's a catch-22. To take good pictures of the whitetips, you need a bulky two strobe setup completed with long strobe arms. However, to get the pilot whales, it's better if you can swim freely at their pace, which is hard to do with all that equipment. Take the strobe and risk not getting the whales; go light and forget about the sharks. It's a roll of the dice. Masa decided to take the strobes as he was sure that sharks would approach him immediately. One of the whitetips was big, probably 9 feet or so, and usually the bigger the shark is, the closer Masa can get to as larger sharks wouldn't afraid of anything if it's particularly edible like Masa. In addition, past experience told him that if he left his strobes behind, sure enough, the shark was going to approach and pose for him inches from his dome port, so he took them with him this time.

He got into the water, and sure enough, the big whitetip rolled right up to him. This species will often do that, as they're curious to see what you are. They'll come right in for a bump to see if it's edible, so it's nice to have a camera housing between you and them. With the adrenalin rush of that big whitetip coming in, Masa waited and waited till the last second and snapped the shot. He got it nicely, and the shark veered off when the strobe flashed.

Later on, he also got some pics of the smaller shark and a rare shot of a whitetip with a school of pompano dolphins or dolphinfish, Coryphaena equiselis.

While we were focusing on the oceanic whitetips, the pilot whales continued heading north. Masa got back in the boat, and we followed them for another go. Masa kept shooting the oceanic whitetip sharks but he also had a good opportunity to observe a mother and calf pair. It is not easy to do as the mother is protective of her offsprings just like any human mothers, and invariably keeps the calf on the far side of her from strangers, which means she's usually blocking the shot. She kept nudging the calf away, but at one point, the calf, like a typical teenage, ignored Mom's warning, and slid under her for a better view of Masa.

We caught no fish on this day, but it was awesome photo-wise. There's actually a lot more to write about, but I'm going to save if for another day. As a final shot, though, here's Sugar, expressing her feelings about today's experience on the water. Don't worry viewers; after two minutes on dry land, she stopped drooling and was feeling just like normal!

The Mahi Mahi Were Jumping!

We got a late start on this overcast day, and headed out to the VV FAD (Fish Aggregation Device) near Keauhou. We checked out what the other boats were fishing there, but it turned out to only be small aku or skipjack tuna,Katsuwonus pelamis, not to our liking. From there we headed out to C buoy, trolling with 4 rods as we went.

Three miles offshore of Kealakekua Bay (where the famous Captain Cook met his maker) we came across a nice pod of short-finned pilot whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus, heading in the opposite direction. This was not unusual, as we often see dolphins, beaked whales, pilot whales and more in this area. On this day, however, we knew the BBC was filming on the Big Island about oceanic whitetip sharks, Carcharhinus longimanus, which often accompany pilot whales, so we called our contact, marine photographer Doug Perrine, to identify the whales' location. No word yet if we actually aided the BBC effort.

We continued south and had no luck trolling. Then the ocean, which had been a bit rough, suddenly went flat, like glass. For a while we didn't see any boats around us, but after we passed C buoy, we spotted several fishing boats ahead of us. We knew something was going on there. As we approached, we started to see pantropical spotted dolphins, Stenella attenuata, leaping high up in the air. It was a large pod of dolphins, and they were head slapping, tail slapping, mothers and calves alike, putting on a real show. They were excited, it seemed, about the school of bait fish right below! Just then, a humongous yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares, popped out of the water, right in front of us! If we were going to catch anything today, this was the spot!

Masa, who usually has a good sense of how to position the boat for fishing, tried a maneuver. He went to position us in front of the dolphin pod, as spotted dolphins and yellowfin tuna often travel and hunt together, and that would put the tuna heading in our direction. The move didn't work, though, and the pod went the other way. The dolphins were moving with the bait fish, and apparently those bait fish were avoiding all fishing boats, dolphins and tuna down below.

The direction of the pod was very unpredictable. Although we weren't quite in the right spot, Masa dropped a jig down deep hoping for a mega-bite from a huge yellowfin tuna. However, as the jig decended, the pod of dolphins moved farther away from us, and we quickly understood there would be no chance for a tuna. We tried several times to predict the direction of the school, but we finally got tired and drifted away from them. The pod of dolphins was now way off in the distance, and as Masa reeled in his jig from the deep, he spotted something following it. Then we saw them - about 7 or 8 mahi mahi, Coryphaena hippurus, trying to bite Masa's jig under the boat!

Mahi mahi, as you probably know, are great eating and popular in all the restaurants. They're also known as dorado or dolphinfish. The latter name has fallen out of favor in restaurants, as people (in the West anyway) are not eager to eat anything called "dolphin." Mahi mahi (the Hawaiian name) are fish, and have no connection to dolphins, except for their high leaps in the air.

As Masa had been using a huge jig for monster yellowfin tunas, he switched to a much smaller one for mahi mahi. As he cranked his reel, a mahi hit his lure. Yes, fish on! Hana Pa`a! Unfortunately, immediately after the hook-up, the mahi shook his head hard and got away. Other mahis hit the lure a few times, but they didn't get hooked up for some reason. Soon they started losing interest in jigs.

Masa started throwing real bait into the water and got out every rod he had in the boat - about 10 or 12, and put on an assortment of lures. The mahi mahi kept circling, but no bites. After a while, Masa threw out a hook with some bait and caught a hagi (a spotted triggerfish; a junkfish for fishing). He kept it on the line as a decoy to keep the mahi mahi interested. He then got out his new chum box full of last week's fish guts. Masa keeps the previous catch frozen for just this purpose, and he tossed it in. Unfortunately, the knot untied and Masa's brand new ChumPro box slipped into the blue. See ya, $29.99!

After about 2 hours of watching the mahi mahi swim races around the boat, we finally hooked one on a baited line! It leapt out of the water about 10 times, and got as high as 8 ft out of the water. Several times it jumped up and landed on its side with a big slap! When we got it in, it was over 3 ft long and about 15-20 lbs, a beautiful yellowish-green with blue speckles. Masa was so happy, as we'd been out all day. About an hour later, we caught another by jigging.

After we reeled in the second one, all the mahi mahi disappeared, like they'd suddenly got the idea we didn't have their best interests at heart. Masa released the poor hagi (he was ok!) and phoned his wife to tell her we were heading home. Then just as we got underway, all the mahi mahi came back for one more lap around the boat. Oh well, we'll see them next time!

On the way back, we passed VV buoy again, the one we started at this morning. There were two guys out there fishing from their jet skis, with their coolers of beer on the back. It was like Easy Rider out there, three miles into the ocea.