An assortment of sergeantfishes swim beneath floating debris, gathered by a series of big swells. Unlike the fish, I got to swim through the debris, which can sometimes include sizable chunks of wood.
Don’t bump your head
Category Archives: In The Water
Gray Chubs and Hawaiian Flagtails
The surge zone is the area above shallow reefs near shore, where incoming swells churn up the water. It’s home to a variety of fish including chubs and flagtails, the turbulent, bubbling water acting as a screen from predators.
Chubs will venture out a ways during the day, but flagtails only emerge at night to feed on plankton.
Fishing with a view
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Traditions.’ See more responses here.
I’m the world’s worst fisherman and would have starved long ago if I had to rely on catching fish for food. But in Hawaii, fishing has long been a traditional way of putting food on the table. With line, net, or spear, on shore or from a boat, catching fish has been, and still is, a big feature of island life. And if the fish aren’t biting, at least the view tends to be wonderful.
Rainbow Chubs
Rainbow Chubs are rare in Hawaii. I’ve seen them before, though not often. These three were in an area where I saw two the week before. My fish book says they drift in as waifs from the Eastern Pacific, but I wonder if perhaps a breeding population is establishing itself in Hawaii.
The Numbers Game #48
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 169. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
It’s a fish eat fish world
I know this fish as a Crocodile Needlefish (Tylosurus crocodilus), a name explained by looking at the jaws and teeth. Elsewhere, it’s known as a Houndfish. When I first saw it, I thought it might have a bit of fishing gear hooked into its mouth. It was working its jaws up and down, as if it might be trying to dislodge something. But when I got closer, I saw it had a fish in it’s mouth.
The unlucky fish looks like a toby, probably an Hawaiian White-spotted Toby. Except the unlucky fish might be the needlefish because the toby has clearly inflated itself, as they do. Not only that, but the skin of these tobies is highly toxic. My fish book tells of a diver who found a frogfish with one of these tobies inflated in its mouth. The frogfish was dead, though whether suffocated or poisoned he couldn’t tell. He freed the toby, which swam away none the worse for wear!
Getting down with brown
This month’s Sunday Stills color challenge is ‘Auburn or Brown.’ See more responses here. Captions on the photos.
Monk seal and pup
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Cozy.’ See more responses here.
This mother and her pup were looking pretty cozy on the beach at Keokea Beach Park. Mothers stay with their pups for five to seven weeks. During this time, the mothers generally do not feed, while pups feed on their mother’s milk. Mothers are typically huge when they give birth, but they lose a lot of weight during the rearing time, while the pups get correspondingly bigger.
This pup was very young, and it was quite dramatic to see how quickly the pup got bigger and the mother smaller!
Graham's Island 