Mike in the Wild

No fish epitomizes snorkeling on Hawaii's reefs more than the reef triggerfish.  Both tenacious and colorful, it's an easily recognizable sea dweller that every swimmer and explorer encounters within moments of entering the surf and shallows.  It's also the official state fish of the Aloha State, with a Hawaiian name sometimes acknowledged as the longest word in the language.  Even if actually not so, the word is indeed longer than the fish! The family of fish is called humuhumu  in Hawaiian, and the reef triggerfish is specifically the humuhumunukunukuapua'a .  It's a fun word to learn to say, an easy act when you break it down into its simple and repeated parts:  hoo - moo - hoo - moo, noo - koo - noo - koo,  ah - poo - ah - ah .  It literally means, "triggerfish with a nose like a pig." The triggerfish is called as such because it can erect and lock its dorsal spine to hold itself tightly in a rocky crevice as a means of protection.  I...