This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 10:26 pm and is filed under About, Adventure Cruises, Sites, Snorkeling. 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 & Robert Patzner
Many youngsters go into the waters around Maui hoping to see Nemo, and go away very disappointed learning Nemo doesn’t live in Hawaii. The movie, they are told, was about animals in and around Australian waters. That is true, but we can give them Nemo’s friend, Gil, the moorish idol. The moorish idol is often confused with angel fish, but this cute little fish, who looks like he/she has eyelashes, is in a genus all to himself. They feed mainly on sponges and occasionally on algae. They stay little, says Dr. Randall, growing to a mere 8 inches. The ancient Hawaiians called this fish kihikihi, which translated means curves, corners and angular. Since this fish was small with a compressed body and not much to it, most likely it wasn’t used as a food source, but more importantly, since it eats mainly sponges that would probably make the meat dangerous to consume.
Will the average snorkeler be able to see these beauties? Absolutely! In Hawaii around the reefs and out at Molokini, the moorish idol is plentiful. If one were to hold still and just observe you will watch them cruising all around, adding a beautiful splash of color wherever they go.
Sorry, kids. Nemo lives in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere but, fortunately for us all, Gil has made it to Hawaii and hopefully is here to stay!
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 am
australian cruises…
I love sports! Is everyone excited about Sunday?…