Jump in for a virtual tour
Kahaluʻu Bay
The Old Cleaner Wrasse Station
Coordinates: 19.579264, -155.968100
Visit The Old Cleaner Wrasse Station With Us!
This area, nicknamed the “Old Cleaner Wrasse Station” has a been a favorite feature in Kahaluʻu Beach Park in Kona for decades. Scroll down to see what makes it special, photos and videos, marine life that lives here, what stressors it’s facing, things you can do to help, and more.
2019 | OLD CLEANER WRASSE STATION - ONE MINUTE SWIM-AROUND
Check out this one minute swim around around the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station. The water was just a little bit hazy this day, but the tide is moderate and overall visibility is quite decent. Can you spot some of the more familiar fish seen hanging out?
2021 | OLD CLEANER WRASSE STATION - 360° VIEW WITH YELLOW TANGS
This awesome 360° look around the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station in Kahaluʻu Bay was shot by Pam Madden for Dear Ocean in 2021. In addition to the iconic yellow tangs, see what other fish species you can spot!
2023 | OLD CLEANER WRASSE STATION - PEOPLE STANDING DURING LOW TIDE
Low tide can be a dangerous time for the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station. Not only is the top of the coral brutally close to the hot sun in this video, but also people can be seen standing, which tramples and kills coral. KBEC volunteers are tirelessly encouraging visitors to float or stand only in sandy areas.
2018 | OLD CLEANER WRASSE STATION 3D FLYOVER
This video is an excerpt from a Structure from Motion (SfM) technology pilot project contributed to the Digital Coral Ark by Silver Spiral Seas, LLC. SfM is a photogrammetric range imaging technique for estimating three-dimensional structures from two-dimensional image sequences. You can find out more about the SfM photogrammetry survey pilot project for Kahaluʻu Bay here.
Sea Life Around The Old Cleaner Wrasse Station
You can visit this area of Kahaluʻu Beach Park every day for a year and always see something new if you look closely enough! Even without the cleaner wrasses currently in residence, there are still plenty of species to admire. Being still and patient will have great rewards. The photos and videos of each animal below were taken at the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station in the past several years.
BRISTLE WORMS
It’s always a treat seeing a bristle worm, but you don’t want to touch one! Some species of bristle worms, like fireworms, have toxic bristles can cause itching, burning, and even numbness. Youch! It’s always a good idea to keep your distance and never touch marine wildlife for your safety and theirs.
URCHINS
Just in this short clip, you can catch glimpses of multiple different species of sea urchins including a rock boring urchin, red pencil urchin, and banded urchin, among others.
CHRISTMAS TREE WORM
Don’t get motion sick watching this, but the current was strong and this Christmas tree worm was small! They’ll often close completely with disturbance, so calm viewing is best when trying to spot them.
FISH!
In addition to the iconic and spectacularly beautiful yellow tangs (lauʻīpala in Hawaiian), you can find plenty of other fish around the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station, often a dozen or more different species on a given day.
2019 | OLD CLEANER WRASSE STATION - GREEN SEA TURTLE
Sometimes, when we're surveying the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station, we get a surprise visitor like this green sea turtle (honu). If one surprises you while snorkeling, you can just stay still and remain in place until they pass by. :)
2023 | OLD CLEANER WRASSE STATION - FISH QUIZ
Spoiler Alert! Don’t read any further until you watch the video and see if you can spot four different species of fish. And! Our hats are off to you if you can name them all! (Answer: Yellow Tang, Hawaiian Whitespotted Toby, Sailfin Tang, Orangeband Surgeonfish)
Stressors Affecting The Old Cleaner Wrasse Station in Kahalu‘u Bay
There are numerous stressors acting in unison on the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station. Below are a few examples, but you can learn more about the stressors in Kahalu‘u Bay and what’s being done to alleviate them on the the Digital Coral Ark Kahaluʻu Bay Project page and the Kahalu‘u Bay | Then and Now video.
WATER QUALITY
Impaired water quality from sewage, sedimentation, and runoff stresses the corals.
We usually try to photograph on good visibility days, but sometimes the water clarity is poor. In this photo, the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station is just barely distinguishable at the top.
TRAMPLING
During low tide, especially, visitors are tempted to stand up in the bay.
There are juvenile corals trying to survive and grow in the bay, and many can’t be easily seen. The “rocks” visitors step on are often corals being trampled to death by their feet. Corals are fragile animals and not colorful rocks.
HEAT
Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of thermal stress on our reefs.
For the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station, which is in relatively shallow water and very close to the surface, El Niño events (which are known to bring above average sea-surface temperatures) during the fall months are particularly dangerous.
CROWDS
Hundreds of thousands of people snorkel in Kahalu‘u Bay each year.
And, most snorkelers make it out to the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station because it’s fairly close to the entry point. Because of this, the human impact on this delicate area is even more profound.
2018 | OLD CLEANER WRASSE STATION BROKEN CORAL
Sometimes humans either intentionally or accidentally contribute to the "shrinking" of coral reefs. In this video, you can see a watermelon-sized piece of lobe coral that was discovered broken off and rocking upside-down in the current on top of the remaining coral colony in November of 2018. Contributed by Silver Spiral Seas, LLC.
How The Old Cleaner Wrasse Station Has Changed Over Time
The Old Cleaner Wrasse Station is an ever-changing, living structure. It’s been growing for hundreds of years by many estimates. Yet, the decline in the structure in just the last couple of dozen years has been staggering, largely due to the stressors mentioned above.
2019 | FEBRUARY
In February of 2019, the two large coral colonies on the mauka (mountain) side of the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station were relatively intact. Look closely at the top of the coral colony on the left.
2019 | JUNE
By June of this same year, a good deal of the coral on top of the left lobe had died, exposing the skeleton which soon became covered in algae. This transformation is often difficult for new snorkelers to discern.
2023 | MARCH
By March of 2023, the decline in the top section of the coral colony is clearly visible, even to the untrained eye. In the lower right of this photograph, a close look will reveal what looks like a flattening of the coral texture, as well as some accompanying pink dots (the "pink spot disease" is actually an infection by trematode larvae that impacts certain stony coral species), which often bodes ill for the future of the coral polyps in the immediate vicinity.
Closeup view of coral stress and algal overgrowth.
“You may wonder why we call this feature in Kahalu‘u Bay the “OLD Cleaner Wrasse Station.” For decades this structure was the home to an active cleaner wrasse station that serviced hundreds of fish a day— many were large fishes that came in from deeper water for the grooming that these beautiful endemic cleaner wrasses provided. Because this coral formation was so large and distinguished (it can be seen on Google satellite maps!), our family used it as a meeting place when snorkeling out in the bay— “Meet back at the Cleaner Wrasse Station in 30 minutes!”
Sadly, we haven’t observed any Hawaiian cleaner wrasses in this structure for quite a few years, and the large and unusual fish that previously frequented this location are no longer present. In addition, significant portions of the structure have shrunk or disappeared over the last 30 years that we’ve swam there. Some of the coral heads have markedly declined or died, resulting in parts of the structure being reduced to rubble during rough conditions.
But, the bay is lucky to have the protection of Cindi Punihaole and the Kahalu‘u Bay Education Center Reef Teach volunteers, who work every day to educate visitors and mitigate stressors in the bay. AND! We’ve been thrilled to see new coral growth on the structure in the last couple of years, which gives us great hope for the future of this marine treasure.”
— Christine Zalewski
President, Dear Ocean
How You Can Help Protect The Old Cleaner Wrasse Station
(And All Of Kahalu‘u Bay)
We highly recommend watching the 10-part video series Aloha ʻĀina Kahaluʻu created by our friends at the Kahaluʻu Bay Education Center (KBEC), a program of the Kohala Center. This series introduces the bay and show how to respectfully engage with this wahi pana— a sacred, cherished, and storied place. These videos are a must for first-time visitors!
We also invite you to visit the Dear Ocean webpage How To Visit Kahaluʻu Bay Responsibly for some quick tips to help you prepare for your adventure and visit the bay sustainably.
With regard to the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station specifically, the following are particularly important:
Being super careful to avoid chemical sunscreens both on the beach and in the water: The Old Cleaner Wrasse Station is close to the main entry into the bay and gets a tremendous amount of traffic. And, whatever is sprayed on the beach washes out into the bay during rain and high surf.
Making sure everyone in your party knows how to visit the bay responsibly, especially since the Old Cleaner Wrasse Station is one of the easier spots to reach in the bay, attracting quite a few novice snorkelers.
Watching out for inadvertently brushing up against the coral here— sometimes the currents can be quite strong and will move you some distance before you even realize it. There are plenty of wana here (long-spined venomous sea urchins that are intensely painful if they puncture the skin), so keeping a healthy distance is good for everybody!
Donations to Dear Ocean and our community partners such as KBEC and Mission Blue are always much appreciated and go a long way in raising awareness and protecting this marine treasure.
The Old Cleaner Wrasse Station has a strong will to live! Just in the past year, we’ve noticed young corals beginning to grow in and around the area. We’ve even seen increased coverage of live coral on skeletal areas that had previously died off. When humans give nature a chance to heal, it certainly does a remarkable job of rebounding. Check out some of the exciting new growth below!
2023 | MARCH
Juvenile cauliflower coral colonies are particularly cherished among people who have snorkeled Kahalu‘u Beach Park for many years since a vast majority of the mature colonies here died in the coral bleaching events of 2014-2015.
2023 | MARCH
This little colony is a bit protected on the side of a rock, but it’s only about the size of your thumb and can be hard to spot. That’s why it’s best to float and avoid kicking up sediment with your flippers, which can suffocate young coral.
Maybe someday soon, we’ll be able to drop the “Old” and change the name back to simply “The Cleaner Wrasse Station!”
Do You Have Any Photos/Videos to Share?
IF SO, PLEASE VISIT OUR PHOTO/VIDEO CONTRIBUTOR PAGE AND GET IN TOUCH!
WE’RE LOOKING FOR PHOTOS AND VIDEOS OF KAHALUʻU BEACH PARK SNORKELING THAT:
have sufficient clarity and resolution to visually identify species of fish and/or coral.
can be identified by date and location (either by personal knowledge or embedded camera data).
are owned by adults 18 and over willing to grant permission to use in the historical database.
are from 2016 or earlier, especially.
ADDITIONAL READINGS
World Register of Marine Species: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=288900
https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=760319
Eyes of the Reef: https://eorhawaii.org/photo-galleries/learn-your-corals-gallery/
Coral Diseases - Eyes of the Reef: https://eorhawaii.org/photo-galleries/train_your_eye_gallery/coral-disease-gallery/
https://www.marinelifephotography.com
http://www.hawaiisfishes.com/books.htm
We welcome observations you would like to share or corrections you might note. Contact us!
Photo/Video credits: Pam Madden & Christine Zalewski for Dear Ocean, Silver Spiral Seas LLC, & Google Maps.
This page was reviewed by Megan Lamson.