Freckled Hawkfish and huge Anemone Hermit Crabs

Just when I thought I had seen it all, I was lucky enough to find new animals on our last reef walk.  Have you ever seen a Barred Moray Eel or a Freckled Hawkfish? 
During the first half of the walk, one family spotted an eel slithering around the rocks in only a few inches of water. As the rest of the group gathered around, we put our nets in the water to try to capture the eel. This was a quick and evasive eel. At one point it wiggled through the legs of one of the walkers! But, alas, it escaped into deeper water. 

Brittlestars, Box crabs, Sea Cucumbers, and a giant Green Marbled Shrimp were among the animals we were able to collect and observe. Not only did we find the largest Green Shrimp I’ve ever seen, but also the largest Anemone Hermit Crab. This crab was at least 7-9 inches long and was adorned with several anemones. What a find!

Please come join us on a reef walk and help us discover the animals that call the reef their home.

A hui hou! 

Octopi and Sea Hare

We enjoyed the reef walk tremendously! At first it seemed unlikely we'd find anything, the water looked empty, but after just a few minutes we started spotting fish and (let's just say) "others." Tiphanie and Mike (correct name? sorry!) were great when we saw something and yelled, "What the heck is THAT?!?" They immediately knew what it was, what sort of stuff it ate, and how it adapted. A sea hare (one of the ugliest creatures I'd ever seen) squirting pink ink and a crazy prehistoric-looking mantis shrimp were the highlights for me, my husband was totally excited about the 5" octopus he found, along w/ the 1" nudibranch, and the kids loved, well, everything. They were excited to be able to spot things we couldn't, catch stuff and touch a few (even that sea hare, yuck).

I'm glad we went on the walk b/c we learned a lot and I felt better having someone along who could tell us which critters would bite half our finger off, which had venomous spines (the totally cool rock cod), etc.

The time flew by, and we could have stayed another hour happily. After rinses and goodbyes we rushed over to try the Gogi Taco truck on Kapiolani for dinner--bi bim burrito, spicy pork taco, kimchi fries. Really yum, and a perfect ending for a really fun night. Thanks, LAMC!

Uploaded by the McCabe Family