Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Banded Coral Shrimp in Kona Hawaii.



We had a cool cloudy day in south Kona today. I had the day off and didn't make it into town, so I have no idea what it was like in Kailua or north today. That's one of the wierd things about the Big Island, the weather where you are isn't necessarily what the weather is 15 miles away... we have to explain that to customers sometimes when they're up at the resorts and it's blowing a gale, it's often windfree down where we're diving.

A little news I saw in yesterday's paper that may affect some shoredivers... The ladder at the old wharf at Mahukona apparently washed away during big surf recently. There's been some type of ladder there for years, it was rebar for a long time, then sometime in the last couple of years someone put in a stainless pool ladder. Anyway it's gone and nobody at the county is making a decision as to whether they are responsible for replacing it or not. They noted they'd make a decision later in the week. I suspect some local mystery benefactor has been putting it in all these years and may have to do it again to get it put back in, in the meanwhile, it's somewhat of a safety issue because people have been using it for years and it's quite difficult to get out of the water at times without it.

The photo above is of a pair of Banded Coral Shrimp (Stenopus hispidus). I noticed something a bit interesting when I enlarged it to check on sharpness/focus earlier, they're expecting... soon it'll be time for them to pass out a lot of little waterproof cigars, take a look at the belly and you'll notice eggs. Many shrimp, lobsters and other crustaceans carry their eggs 'til they hatch.


Aloha,

Steve

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