12 H atv aiian F i s h e s 



geologic time, have so many evolutionary descendants, and offer so num- 

 erous, so wide, and so varied an assortment of creatures as do the ftshes. 



Hawaii Has Three Groups of Salt Water Fishes 



The fishes which live about the Hawaiian Islands include nearly seven 

 hundred species which are divided most unequally between the salt and 

 the fresh water. Where we have a myriad of fishes of both species and 

 numbers in salt water, we have but few fresh water species. Our fresh 

 water fishes number about two dozen, about half of which have been 

 introduced from other areas. The native fresh water fishes have been 

 derived from related marine forms and are not of much importance. 



Hawaii's marine fishes, numbering more than 650 species, fall into 

 three general groups depending on the place in which they live — the shore 

 and reef fishes, the off-shore fishes, and the abyssal fishes. 



We know almost nothing about the abyssal fishes. They are all small, 

 bizarre animals, somewhat beyond our reach, and provide us with no food 

 or commercial products. 



The off-shore, deep-sea, or ocean-going fishes are an important group 

 for us because they provide us with much of our food fish. Because many 

 of these fishes live in schools, or are of large size, their capture is profit- 

 able and their flesh appears in our markets in large quantities. 



The reef and shore fishes are the most unusual and interesting of the 

 three groups because they include the fishes of bizarre shapes and brilliant 

 colors for which the tropics are famous. These shore fishes provide the 

 markets with some food fish, but their interest lies in their beauty and 

 their brilliance. 



Hawaii's Reef Fishes Are of East Indian Origin 



In general, the shore or reef fishes found about the Hawaiian Islands 

 are representatives or members of tropical families of fishes which are 

 either distributed around the world or are limited to the waters of the 

 south Pacific Ocean, the East Indies, and the Indian Ocean. Most of 

 the fishes of the Hawaiian Islands may be considered as members of the 

 East Indian fauna, for this region is rich in the kinds of fishes which we 

 find in the Hawaiian Islands. The islands of the East Indies may be con- 

 sidered as a kind of a center from which Hawaiian and Polynesian reef 

 fishes have come in ancient times. Many of the fishes found about Hawaii 

 today also occur in the East Indies. We have many fishes in Hawaiian 

 waters which are found nowhere else in the world, but which are related 



