This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 2:05 pm and is filed under About, Adventure Cruises, Information, Sites, Snorkeling, Snuba. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Photo Courtesy Dr. Jack Randall
So the title of this posting probably grabbed your attention. What? Snakes in Hawaii? We do not have sea snakes here, and there is a very small, blind ground snake that one rarely sees, but the beautiful snake eel does tend to get a visitor’s attention if seen by a snorkeler or diver.
The Hawaiians named this animal puhi pule, although many just say puhi, a name now used generically for eel. Eels were considered ‘amaukua (family god) by many.
This little eel grows to a mere 101 centimeters (39.5 inches approx) and are bottom dwellers most of the time. According to Dr. Randall, the teeth of this eel are conical and sharp, which means it is a fish, octopus, or other fleshy animal eater, but predators will take whatever presents itself available!
Will the average snorkeler see this cute eel that looks like a snake while out there? Absolutely, if they are alert! The experts say this eel is prevalent in Maui and O’ahu waters. This author has seen them nearly completely buried with just a little head sticking up from the sandy or muddy sea floor. They will quickly disappear if you approach too closely, though. Remember, bring a camera, no sunscreen (tshirts/rashguards are better for the environment), try not to thrash around and put yourself into ’stealth’ mode. Let’s go snorkel!
