FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72, NO. 4 



are especially moderate on the Kona coast, in part 

 because towering volcanoes shelter the area from 

 the trade winds. 



THE INSHORE HABITATS AND 

 THEIR CHARACTERISTIC FISHES 



The study area in Kona encompasses a variety 

 of submarine habitats, each with a distinctive as- 

 semblage of fishes. For convenience, these 

 habitats are here grouped subjectively into five 

 categories: 1) coral-rich habitat, 2) boulder 

 habitat, 3) shallow reef-flat habitat, 4) reef-face 

 habitat, and 5) outer drop-off habitat. Along with 

 the following habitat descriptions, there are listed 

 the 10 fish species most often seen in each habitat, 

 as observed in the transect counts. 



Coral-Rich Habitat 



In many places where there is shelter from the 

 long Pacific swells, the sea floor in water between 

 2 and 12 m deep is richly overgrown with corals 



(Figure 3). The predominant coral is Pontes 

 pukoensis, which grows in a variety of massive 

 formations. Examples occur in Honaunau Bay, in 

 the lee of Palemano Point, and in the sheltered 

 waters on the north side of Kealakekua Bay (Fig- 

 ure 1). Overall in the parts of the study area that 

 are richly overgrown with corals, P. pukoensis 

 variably shares dominance with another form, P. 

 co>7jpressus, that grows as fingerlike branches 10 

 to 20 mm in diameter. Pontes compressus is dom- 

 inant where there is increased exposure to the 

 prevailing swell, but where there is still some 

 protection from a lee shore or increased water 

 depth. Thus, in the middle of both Kealakekua 

 Bay and Honaunau Bay, as well as in much of the 

 study area where the water is more than about 15 

 m deep, broad fields of fingerlike P. compressus 

 dominate the scene. In extreme situations, 

 habitats dominated by either one of these coral 

 forms are as distinct from one another in their 

 characteristic faunas as any two habitat types 

 characterized here. I group the two coral habitats 

 together because in most of the coral-rich areas 

 where observations were made during this study 



Figure 2. — The shoreline at Cook Point, Kealakekua Bay (looking southeast), which is typical of the shoreline 



throughout most of the study area. 



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