CRITTER: Po‘opa‘a the stocky hawkfish
Po‘opa‘a the foot long stock hawkfish is a master at hunting on the Hawaiian shallow coral reefs.
CRITTER: Omo the underwater hitchhiker
Remoras, also called suckerfish are the hitchhikers of the sea They have a suction cup on top of their head which is a modified dorsal fin used to attach to larger animals. Ridges on the sucking cup are parallel spines which create a vacuum to hold onto larger animals like whales, sharks, rays and sea turtles. These bizarre looking fish can grow to about 24 inches long and they will even attach to the bottom of boats to get a free ride.
CRITTER: A healthy coral reef protects our beaches from erosion
40 foot waves along O‘ahu North Shore this week! Another home falls into the sea. I can just visualize the headlines in all of the newspapers, but this does not need to happen to our coastal homes and roads.
CRITTER: The exploding battle between coral and algae out on our Hawaiian reefs
There is a massive, ongoing battle for space happening right now on our Hawaiian coral reefs and the battlefield is changing quickly.
CRITTER: Thousands of sea turtle nests gone from Hawaii
Most of our green sea turtles (honu) over the last thousand years have laid their eggs way up in the NW Hawaiian Islands.
CRITTER: Sexing ula the Hawaiian spiny lobster
Catching your own lobster for dinner is fun and also saves a lot of money from buying one in the store!
CRITTER: Meet hinalea ‘i‘iwi from Hale‘iwa
Looking out over my dive site the other day right off of the town of Hale‘iwa on the north shore of O‘ahu I saw three black iwa birds circling high above. It is fitting that they were flying right above Hale‘iwa as the town’s name means “house of the iwa Bird.”
CRITTER: The fish with no Hawaiian name that can’t swim
For the past thousand years native Hawaiians hunted fish using spears in shallow water.
CRITTER: Moa the boxfish that was half male and half female
Over the past 15 years it was my goal in Hawai‘i as a marine biologist to identify and shoot video of every fish species that occurs here, so I could do marine life identification movies for our school education program and also to educate tourists.
CRITTER: Aloalo the most ferocious creature in the sea
While scuba diving at 60 feet deep in Kaua‘i I saw my first large tiger shark underwater close up.
CRITTER: Fresh water coral bleaching event in Maui in 2015
There have been a lot of articles lately in the news about coral bleaching and how rising sea temperatures may be to blame. It is easy to attach a cause to the decline of our coral reefs on earth but the sea is very complex and what kills corals in Australia or Indonesia may not be killing corals in Hawai‘i.
CRITTER: Endangered unique coral reef at Mala Wharf in West Maui
There is a very unique coral reef in Lahaina, Maui, that was started by hurricane Iniki back in 1992 when huge 30 foot waves tore apart a pier that was used by the pineapple industry.
CRITTER: Marine life that eats poison to become poisonous
Have you ever been out snorkeling or scuba diving and seen a super colorful nudibranch or sea slug slowly crawling across the reef?
CRITTER: Tracking baby mullet travel from Kaua‘i to Ni‘ihau
Have you ever flown on an airplane between the Hawaiian Islands and seen the sea surface when it looks like there are shiny smooth rivers twisting through the rougher waters?
CRITTER: Pu shell, the protector of our coral reefs
I was scuba diving one day off our North Shore at about 60 feet deep, when I came upon an amazing sight and shot a video of a bright red cushion sea star.
CRITTER: Lehe the Hawaiian thicklipped jack
Fishman here in Hawai‘i like to catch the giant trevally (ulua) or a large bluefin trevally (omilu) as these are the two most common large game fish that live on our shallow near shore reefs.
CRITTER: “Sharktober” October shark attacks explained
For the past five years I have been in the National Geographic series every summer called When Sharks Attack. The purpose of the show is to expose possible explanations for why sharks sometimes bite swimmers, surfers, paddlers and divers here in Hawai‘i.
CRITTER: Deep sea mining off Hawai‘i could affect Kaua‘i marine life
The beautiful colors that highlight our shallow water coral reefs here in Kaua‘i are produced in part by photosynthesis within the algae that grows in the coral structure.
CRITTER: Healthy corals found in The Coral Triangle
In 2015 here in Hawai‘i we had a coral bleaching event that killed a lot of our shallow water corals especially in Maui and Hawaiian Island but on Molokai, Lana‘i, Ni‘ihau, Kaua‘i and parts of O‘ahu the corals remained healthy. This odd pattern of coral deaths in Hawai‘i was unusual and I set out to try and find the reason we lost so much coral but only in certain locations.
CRITTER: Meet kikakapu the saddleback butterfly fish
We have many species of beautiful butterflyfish here in Kaua‘i but it is a rare find to see a pair of saddleback butterflyfish.