

i^ife^^ 



Above left: A bird wrasse. The 

 long beak is used for probing into 

 branched coral in search of tiny crabs. 



Right : Head of a parrot fish. The 

 irregular, beak-like teeth are used to 

 bite off bits of coral, which are then 

 ground up by throat teeth. Such feed- 

 ing habits by many kinds of animals 

 are an important factor in wearing 

 down reefs and producing coral sand. 



well as a variety of burrowing eels, 

 gobies, blennies, and wrasses. 



Coral Fishes 



On the reef several kinds of smali 

 fishes stay close to the dendritic corals, 

 pressing close in the forks of the branches 

 whenever danger threatens. They feel so 

 safe here that a diver may lift the coral 

 head, swim some distance with it and 

 then hand it out of the water and into a 

 tub before shaking the fishes out. The 

 most abundant is a black damsel fish, 

 the size and shape of a quarter with a 

 white spot on the sides. There are also 

 lemon-yellow tangs, red, brown and 

 green scorpion fishes and their peculiar 

 relatives, the velvety caracanthid, a chub- 

 by, snub-nosed fish covered with tiny 

 bright red spots. 



On the shallow reef flats, where the 

 water is only two to three feet deep, the 

 small fishes that habitually seek shelter 

 in the coral can be caught by surround- 

 ing the coral cluster with a net. To find 

 a cluster where fishes were numerous, 

 the Chinese fisherman helping us filled 

 a soft drink bottle with clear oil and 

 water. Through the perforated cork of 

 the bottle he shook a fine oil spray on 

 the water, clearing the surface as though 

 a large glass had been spread. After sur- 

 rounding the coral with the net, the 

 coral was broken up and discarded. 

 The net was then pulled up with the 

 fishes in the bag. 



Page 8 







The "Makua" 



The Fish and Game Department of 

 the State of Hawaii is working to im- 

 prove fishing for both anglers and com- 

 mercial fishermen. One part of this pro- 

 gram is the construction, out of old car 

 bodies, of artificial reefs on the extensive, 

 relatively barren sand flats that occupy 

 most of the offshore area between the 

 living coral and the drop-off into deep 

 water. In addition to building the reefs 

 the program includes stocking them with 

 snappers from the mainland and a color- 

 ful grouper from Tahiti and Samoa. 

 The principal groups of predatory fishes 

 around Hawaii are the pelagic tuna- 

 like fishes, the pompano-jack family, and 

 the large reef-dwelling morays. The in- 

 troduced snappers and groupers fit into 

 an unoccupied niche of bottom area too 

 deep for morays and jacks. 



The Department's key piece of equip- 

 ment is the sixty-five foot motor vessel, 

 the Makua. We joined the Department's 

 staff on a two-day cruise, the main pur- 

 pose of which was to go down eighty or 

 ninety feet in aqualungs to try to find 

 young of the introduced species in order 

 to determine their success in spawning 

 after being transported to this relatively 

 colder environment. Small groupers 



Above: A rare deep water wrasse. 

 This species was first described in 

 1958, and this is only the fourth 

 known specimen to be collected. The 

 head is gold with blue spots. These 

 specialized wrasses have four chisel- 

 shaped teeth that are not for biting 

 but point straight forward. 



were found, but no snappers. We prof- 

 ited by catching a variety of fishes that 

 were saved alive in the wells of the 

 Makua or placed in the freezer and on 

 our return preserved for the Museum 

 collection. 



Beyond the Reef 



In addition to using more unorthodox 

 methods of catching fish, we spent plenty 

 of time angling over sandy bottom for 

 purple-banded goat fishes and over reefs 

 for the beautiful pink and black striped 

 wrasse called "Hilu." On one occasion 

 we went far beyond the reef in a fourteen- 

 foot skiff with a five horsepower out- 

 board motor. With four men on board, 

 plus a live well full of fish and water, 

 there was little freeboard, and the swells 

 were ten to fifteen feet high. All was 

 well, however, until the wind blew 

 stronger and the waves began to break. 

 We shipped gallons of water. There was 

 nothing to do but bail while we carefully 

 worked our way back into the lee of 

 Mokapu Peninsula. In addition to being 

 soaking wet and worried about how far 

 we might have to swim, it was past lunch 

 time, but no one felt much like eating be- 

 cause of the bouncing. Our elderly Chi- 

 nese fisherman shook his head when we 

 reached the relative safety of the lee and 

 remarked that he had not thought we 

 would make it. His fifty years of ex- 

 perience on Kaneohe Bay plus a smooth- 

 purring outboard brought both fish and 

 fishermen back to port that day. 



PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL H1STORV MUSEUM PRESS 



