This is a catch-all post, not all about Oahu, for with a friend from DC I went to a neighbor island early in the year. I love the beaches on Molokai, which is the only Hawaiian island with a barrier reef, but I've never surfed in more than 3 feet of water in my 3 attempts there. This time there was a strong current at the beach at the 20-mile marker on the south shore (Murphy's Beach), so in under a minute I was moved down to the next beach. Part of my weakness was exhaustion from hanging on to the bench in a small motorboat riding waves of up to 25 feet to the north side of Molokai to see the sea cliffs earlier that day ("Lord, thy sea is so great, and my boat is so small"). My friend Jack got a good photo of an Itty Bitty Yellow Tang (isn't that what you call it?) and in another photo you can see new young coral sprouting branches. I was really glad to see that because so much of the coral along Oahu's south shore is dead or dying from predation or disease.
Michael Fausnaugh took a photo of a tilapia at the last FIN* event of 2011, at Queen's Surf on Dec. 29.
Many people who have aquaponic setups have tilapia swimming around to produce fertilizer for the plants
and for eating when they reproduce. They are freshwater fish but gradually become used to salinity
and are regularly found in near-shore waters.
*FIN is the Fish Identification Network (FIN), which Sasha Medien of reef.org describes as offering the "opportunity to join friends and fellow fish lovers in exploring the coral reefs of Hawaii. Maui's original FIN founders, Mike and Terri Fausnaugh, have since started FIN on Oahu. There are monthly, sometimes weekly, dives at various beaches. At every event, volunteers set up a REEF station with survey materials and identification reference guides in an attempt to lure in new afishionados!" For an interview with a REEF and FIN member, click here.
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