DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Canoe paddlers from Kamamalahoe Canoe Club practiced in Keehi Lagoon yesterday in preparation for tomorrow's regatta, the first held there since early June. Both canoe racing associations canceled regattas earlier this year because of an infestation of stinging jellyfish. Recent checks for the tiny jellyfish show that hardly any are there anymore. Chanelle Koja-Cristobal, front, Chris Schoknecht and other paddlers from Kamamalahoe Canoe Club started their workout.

Canoes return
to Keehi

Water samples show the lagoon appears
to be mostly clear of tiny jellyfish

Tomorrow, for the first time in six weeks, canoes will race in Keehi Lagoon.

Based on water samples taken yesterday, the lagoon appears to be clear -- or at least almost clear -- of tiny, stinging jellyfish that forced regattas to other locations since June 5.

"We're going to go out there and hope that everything's OK," said Hannie Anderson, president of the Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association, which will hold a regatta there tomorrow. "We're pretty optimistic."

There will be extra precautions for boat-holders -- the people who tread water and hold canoes still for the start of a race, Anderson said. Instead of having boat-holders stay in the water between races, a motorboat will pick them up. Showers between races will be available, and supplies of a suntan lotion that purports to lessen the effects of jellyfish stings will be available, she said.

"We feel pretty positive that we're working this out," Anderson said.

Oahu's other racing association, Na Ohana O Na Hui Wa'a, plans to hold its championships at Keehi next Saturday, and the Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association will hold its championships there July 24.

"We'll be there Saturday unless this weekend OHCRA has a problem," said Tambry Young, Hui Wa'a vice president. "People want a fair race course," she said, in reference to Keehi's calm waters. Surf conditions at beachside race locations can give teams an advantage depending on what lanes they draw.

Paddlers -- especially boat-holders -- suffered painful stings from something in the Keehi Lagoon at May 29 and June 5 regattas. Some paddlers reported stings in the water there as far back as January.

On June 14, state Department of Health water samples showed the presence of tiny, pinhead-size jellyfish in large numbers, which appeared to be causing the stings.

Bishop Museum invertebrate biologist Lu Eldredge said the water samples he examined yesterday had "maybe one thing looked like hydromedusae" -- the type of jellyfish seen in mass quantities in the June 14 samples.

A July 1 sample also showed very few of the jellyfish, but both canoe associations opted to stay away until a second sample looked good.

The state Department of Health is collecting the samples and giving them to Eldredge and Jerry Crow, a curator at the Waikiki Aquarium, for examination. Crow plans to send samples of the mystery jellyfish to an expert in Switzerland for possible identification.

It is possible the Keehi jellyfish are a new species or that they might never be positively identified, Eldredge said. He hopes that sampling can be done monthly for a full year, to see if there is a season during which the jellyfish proliferate.

"If they never come back," he said, "it tells us we don't have them anymore."