CRITTER: ‘Awa’ is Hawaiian name for the giant milk-fish

Terry Lilley / special to the garden island

Awa is the giant milk-fish.

This time of year, when the surf starts to get smaller on the North Shore of O‘ahu and Kaua‘i, we get a deep-water visitor. It is not a shark, but many surfers have fled the water thinking so because the milk-fish can get five feet long and has a dorsal fin that looks very much like a shark fin! Awa is the fish that I get asked about the most because they live in the open ocean most of their lives, so people do not know what they are when they see them right in the surf zone.

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