Mike in the Wild

Riding the first wave of tourism back to Hawaii when the state started allowing COVID-screened visitors in October, I was starved for the type of travel that had been on hold for most of the year.  Part of that hunger was a drive to swim in the water off Maui and to reacquaint myself with the many denizens of the sea.  I was especially heartened when I quickly stumbled upon a relatively uncommon fish for me, the pink-tailed triggerfish. It's in a family with the reef triggerfish, a fish that epitomizes snorkeling on Hawaii's reefs like no other.    It's impossible not  to spot this animated, striped resident of the coral reef every time you enter the water; no wonder it's the state fish of Hawaii. 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.  It can only unlock this bone by the 'trigger' of a second dorsal spine that holds the first in place. I regularly ...