The keiki amberjack has now been hanging out at the same old mooring now for a couple

weeks and it is always a treat to swim out there and watch it ride herd over the sergeants as

well as come up to your face. Today, I was joined by a good friend, Karen, out there.

Couple days later..

Earlier in the month, I took some video of the amberjack and slowed the motion down in a section where it chased one of the sergeants:

Last day of May:

In order to get an idea of the size of this fish and follow its growth, I put a 3"x3" white

card up against the buoy:

It looks like the buoy is about 5" in diameter.

I can't keep away from this rambunctious amberjack and its antics! Today, 6-3-10, the current

was reasonably slack and I could hover for a while in place before slowly drifting away from

the buoy. The amberjack seems to be either more bold or more comfortable on every visit and

today not only would it swim up to my face and camera and circle my head, it would also go

about circling my limbs and torso. I have seen it intentionally bump up against the buoy and line

and today it brushed against my fins, legs, stomach, back and I believe I felt it in the hair on the

back of my head a couple times. Trying to photograph it is a real challenge. It is too small to

see clearly in the view finder and it can dart way to fast to try to track. I just try to point the

camera in the right direction and hope for a focused shot. Most of the time I fail. It is

interesting to watch the fish leave the security of the float and swim across the open water to

me. At one point when it was somewhere around me but out of my view, I noticed a few of the

sergeants starting to bridge across towards me but then return to the float.

In the shot above, you can see the old valve body that is used to secure this mooring buoy.

I would guess the depth to be about 30'. I understand from some divers that the bowl of

the valve itself is its own keiki refuge.

I went back and visited the amberjack the next day. It was busy herding and chasing the

sergeants around but came over and added me to its circuit with some bumps as well. At one

point after it had left me I couldn't spot it up at the float and it took a moment to find it

swimming down the mooring line to a second float that is about 8' below the surface.

There used to be a smaller school of sergeants hanging around it but today I noticed there were

only a couple. The amberjack chased one of them back up to the upper buoy.

A while later after it did some more circuits around me and the upper buoy, it again proceeded down the mooring line where there were two sergeants. When it got to them, It chased both with great speed and determination with a small sergeant ending up swimming away from the buoy in a horizontal course while the second and larger one swam up to join the others at the top. I watched the small one to see when it would turn back but it kept going away. It's a big ocean and nowhere close by to offer any sanctuary for the little guy. I decided to swim down and see if I could get a shot of it as well as possibly get it to follow me back home. As I was swimming down to it, I caught sight of a juvenile unicorn fish that was coming up from below directly at the sergeant. It was going to reach it before I and I waved my hands quickly as I sped up. The unicorn broke off about a foot from the little sergeant. When I reached the sergeant I could see its body pumping from side to side as it swam as best it likely could. I put my hand out in front of it and it actually bumped into my hand before it stopped. It looked up at me and proceeded to swim up and under my chin beyond my field of view. I assumed it had "latched" on to me as a safe haven and I proceeded to slowly rise to the surface and swim back to the buoy. I didn't know where this little sergeant was but as I got within a few feet of the buoy, the amberjack blasted out right at me and I believe proceeded to chase the sergeant around me for a bit. I couldn't really follow the action beyond an occasional glimpse of the amberjack but it ultimately went back to the buoy as I believe the small sergeant did as well. I have no idea what was going on or what the reasons might be for the behavior I observed but it was certainly interesting and I think the little sergeant came very close to being a meal. The numbers of sergeants seem to be down from what they were a week ago and I wonder if the amberjack isn't chasing some away.

The little sergeant is in the shot above. I would guess its length to be about a half of an inch.

I knew I had seen these amberjacks before but it took some thinking to remember the

circumstances. I believe I saw one following a green sea turtle last year but I can't locate

the photo. I also recalled a fish that followed one of four eagle rays last year and I was able

to crop in on a couple shots and make a positive ID. One of the shots is below:

Withe further searching motivated by curiousity I was able to find the shot of a green sea

turtle with hitchhiker from last year: