Honolulu Star-Advertiser © Susan Scott
January 23, 2012
Monk seal
I spend a lot time working on, sailing to and marveling over wildlife and scenery on Pacific islands. As much as I enjoy visiting other islands, however, I always miss my own.
Last week, just home from Midway Atoll, I drove to Sunset Beach to watch the big waves. There on that busy beach lay a roly-poly monk seal surrounded by informational signs that workers had stuck in the sand. The sleepy seal lifted its head, viewed the semicircle of whispering admirers around it and promptly went back to sleep.
Midway offers some great snorkeling, but its coral reefs are so far from the swimming beaches you need a boat to get there. Besides that, there’s Midway’s winter weather. January’s water temperature is a chilly 68 degrees, and air temps average in the mid-70s. This Oahu resident wore sweats and stayed on the beach.
Oahu’s January waters, however, are 76 degrees, a delicious temperature, especially when Kona weather brings high humidity.
With south winds blowing offshore, I went for a swim off my favorite Waialua beach and headed to a turtle-cleaning station I know. The place was so crowded with greens, I could barely squeeze in for a look. Eleven adult turtles (a record for me) hovered around a giant coral head as damselfish nibbled on algae and parasites stuck to the turtles’ skin and shells.
The fish were doing a fine job on one turtle, exposing lovely patches of purple-and-orange shell. As I floated on the surface admiring its colors, that turtle drifted right into me. The touch startled me but not the turtle, which seemed mesmerized by its fish massage. It was me, not the turtle, who back-paddled away.
A moment later I spied a 5-inch-long sea hare struggling to get its footing in the strong current. These charming invertebrates get their name from tentacles that look like bunny ears. (Sea hares are relatives of sea slugs, snails without shells.) After taking its picture, I placed the marine bunny in a hole with good holding.
The frosting on my saltwater cake showed up in the form of an 8-inch-tall sea horse hanging on for dear life to a thin stem of algae.
Sweet Oahu! A Sunset seal, a turtle traffic jam, a sea hare save and an underwater pony on a seaweed hitching post, all on a balmy day in January. I will always be an explorer of islands, but I will never find a better one to call home.
©2012 Susan Scott