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| Swim Lane off Kailua Pier in Kona |
We have been swimming from the Kona pier for over a decade
and never seen a shark. We have seen sharks while snorkeling in Maui and
encountered them in the Caribbean, but never in Kona. So we
were surprised to see a shark in shallow water directly under the swim
lane while snorkeling toward the King Buoy with friends last week.
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| Shark under swim lane near Kailua Pier in Kona |
In our other shark encounters, the sharks were in deep
water if stationary or they were moving and gone quickly. Swimming above
a stationary shark in shallow water was different and very unnerving.
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| Bait ball next to Kailua Pier in Kona |
We continued on our snorkel and followed our friends to an immense bait
ball nearby. A bait ball is a tightly packed formation of fish. It
is often spherical shaped, but in this case it was a massive, long rectangle of
fish. Some sources say these formations last only a few minutes, but the
frequent bait balls near the pier in Kona remain intact a long time. Some
claim that bait balls are a defensive maneuver of small fish. Perhaps
the nearby shark had just finished a huge meal.
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| Bill ("dolphin-man") swimming through the bait ball |
We swam further out to see if we could get to a pod of
dolphins swimming near a half dozen tour boats in the bay. The dolphins had
left by the time we got there.
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| Dolphin tour Boats in Kailua Bay across from Royal Kona Resort |
But we made it to the 1500 meter swim buoy.
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| Buoy marking swim route in Kailua Bay, Kona |
We were hoping the shark would be gone by the time we swam
back and after a quick look around there was no sign of the shark. Relieved, we slowed down and rested a bit by treading water. Our
friends were distracted with something under us, so we put back on our masks to
check it out.
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| Shark underfoot in Kona |
Directly below our feet was the shark lying on the sand.
“SWIM!” We all made it back to the pier very quickly.
Though many of the swimmers were talking about the shark on the pier,
most were not worried and jumped right in.
Our friends were convinced the shark was just sleeping or
sick. Whatever brought the shark to our swimming lane, we can no longer
say that we have never seen a shark in Kailua Bay.
1 comment:
Never seen a shark in Kona? How do you manage that? Sharks are quite common along the Kona coast, we routinely encounter whitetip reef sharks. These small sharks are beautiful and rarely any threat to a swimmer or diver. I suspect you met a whitetip.
Try diving from the beach just south of the Honokohau harbor entrance. Good odds of meeting one of the resident tigers.
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