What's That Fish? : New Discoveries in Maui

Beautiful Maui. I'm still pinching myself that I was part of the first wave of tourism when Hawaii reopened their doors to COVID-free visitors on October 15th. Of course, it didn't take long for me to acclimate to the windward breezes, the tropical sun and, especially, the picturesque beaches with their beckoning coral reefs just an easy swim offshore. As soon as the surf shop opened on my first morning in the Aloha state, I rented snorkel gear so I'd be ready to dive right in during my seven-day stay.

I only had to walk a hundred feet from my hotel room to find a good site to snorkel: Napili Bay is one of the easiest and most rewarding places for underwater exploration in Maui. Green sea turtles were feasting on algae at the south end of the cove when I first entered the calm ocean. While reacquainting myself with these gentle creatures was just what the doctor ordered, it might have been identifying a few new fish that really captured the excitement of my long-delayed return to Hawaii.

Again at Napili but on the last full day of my trip and just several feet from shore, I obsessed over a small, dark bluish fish that made me think of Dory from "Finding Nemo." In fact like the cartoon character it was indeed a surgeonfish, but not a blue tang, rather a whitecheek surgeonfish that is described as closer to blackish purple in color. Strikingly beautiful and not intimidated by me, the fish was a difficult subject to break away from for lunch. Lucky for me, three hours later, it was in the same area of rocks when I re-entered the surf.

Around the same time and in the same area of shallow water, I was surprised to find two other brand new specimens to add to my collection of fish finds that afternoon. One was the blue boxfish, the other a pair of ambon tobys. While I've certainly seen a spotted boxfish before, the blue version was an exciting discovery. It turns out that he was in fact the male of the species - with his own name! - and is quite handsome with his cobalt blue sides and bright orange forehead. And this was actually a second find as I had encountered one earlier during my vacation, several miles away at Honolua Bay.

The ambon tobins are a type of pufferfish, much smaller than the stripebelly puffer I regularly encounter in much deeper water. In addition to their diminutive size, these tobys stand out from their cousins because of their color and embellishments: an exotic pattern of lines adorns their heads and spots speckle their bodies, both trims glowing an iridescent emerald.

My last full day in Maui was shaping up to be a great success. In between dips in Napili Bay, I walked a couple of hundred feet across a full parking lot and payed a visit at Kapalua Bay, another popular cove in northwest Maui.

I waded into the surf at the south end, in search of turtles, and then planned on swimming out closer to the break as I made my way to the north end of the bay. Green sea turtles were indeed easy to spot but before I started my easy glide northward, I paused to observe another new discovery from the week: the squaretail or Hawaiian filefish.

In general I mistake individuals in this family of fish for triggerfish, and have enjoyed seeing a common one, the barred filefish, for years. It's a large, elegant creature that frequently swims slowly through shallow waters, allowing me to sometimes film its graceful moves. The squaretail is a much smaller filefish and seems shyer, and is quite dark, so overall a more difficult subject to study. Fortunately the white mark at the base of its tail was a clear identification.

Sublime Kapalua looks out on the island of Molokai almost a dozen miles across the channel; it's no wonder the Ritz-Carlton built their hotel here. The breathtaking panorama of sky and sea is an artist's dream, while the living wonders never cease to amaze me below the surf. I've enjoyed photographing one huge star-eyed parrotfish in these shallows over the course of a few years. On the first day snorkeling on this trip I spent an exciting few minutes with a whitemouth moray eel also.

Kapalua didn't disappoint me on that last full day on Maui when I soon discovered a brand-new butterflyfish, the multiband. Epitomizing life on the coral reef, this family of fish is probably the most colorful one in the sea. However the multiband butterflyfish might be the exception that makes the rule as it's mostly tan with dark stripe-like markings and just a splash of yellow.

Finally, I came across one more new fish at Kapalua, a variety of unicornfish, which is also a type of surgeonfish. Specifically it was the paletail unicornfish, which is much smaller than the more common and colorful bluespine. It was difficult to make out its namesake horn until I studied some photographs back on dry land later.

Six new finds in a week, three on the last full day of my holiday! Of course after all my hours snorkeling on the area's reefs, I was bound to identify an array of new creatures, especially with a camera strapped to my wrist. For some people paradise is a tropical island and a mai tai in their hand; for others, it's a coral reef and a checklist of fish species on a mental clipboard. For me, it's all of the above.