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 ...

I've written before that no single fish epitomizes snorkeling on Hawaii's reefs more than the reef triggerfish.  This state fish of the Aloha State has an Hawaiian name that means triggerfish with a nose like a pig.   And it's almost impossible not to spot this animated resident each time you swim in the shallows.      I was excited last year to encounter one of its cousins for the first time, the lei triggerfish, which is almost identically sized and shaped but with plainer markings.  And on this year's return trip to Maui I was surprised to find a new member of the family, but one that is maybe flashier in appearance than the reef triggerfish.  It's the lagoon triggerfish, sometimes called the Picasso triggerfish.  With more stripes and vibrant colors, no wonder it's named after an artist. Triggerfish are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the families of fish that live on Hawaii's reefs; surgeonfish, butterflyfish, ...

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...