Meet ‘awela the Christmas Wrasse
Almost all snorkelers here in Hawai‘i have seen this extremely colorful fish on our shallow-water coral reefs, but few have ever seen one up close because they never stay still.
Meet mano the Grey Reef Shark
This eight-foot-long, 300-pound shark is quite rare in the main Hawaiian Islands, but there are a pair of them that live in Hanalei Bay. They are more common around the islands of Ni‘ihau and Molokini, and they tend to be territorial.
Meet the Hawaiian Reef Rose
While diving or snorkeling on a Hawaiian reef one may see what looks like a bright-red, four-inch-wide rose growing on the bare lava rocks.
Meet the Jeweled Anemone Crab
This is by far one of the craziest creatures on our Hawaiian coral reefs.
Meet the gilded triggerfish
Hawaiian trigger-fish are made famous by our common, shallow-water, wedge-tail trigger-fish known as humuhumu-nukunukuapua‘a, but we have another, less-known Hawaiian trigger-fish that does not even have a Hawaiian name.
Meet pupu poniuniu, the Hawaiian textile cone shell
Thousands of people here in Hawai‘i and around the world wear this shell around their neck, but few people have ever seen a live textile cone shell.
Meet the blue swallowtail sea slug
This beautiful, one-inch-long sea creature is very common on Hawaiian coral reefs but rarely ever seen.
LILLEY: Meet ‘ekaha ku moana, Hawaii’s Black Coral
We all have seen the beautiful black coral necklaces that have been sold in Hawaiian jewelry stores but this coral species is not black! Only the coral skeleton is black but the actual live coral is bright orange or tan in color.
Meet kikakapu, the lined butterfly-fish
Many butterfly-fish live in schools and hang out together, but this rare, Hawaiian butterfly-fish is a master at social distancing.
LILLEY: Meet ko‘a, the versatile, colorful antler coral
Nothing on a Hawaiian coral reef is more impressive than a three-foot-tall antler coral.
Meet ulapapa, the regal slipper lobster
As a marine biologist, I have been studying lobsters worldwide for over 30 years, and have seen species that only grow to three inches long and others that grow to three feet long.
Meet the marine poly-clad flatworm
Meet one of Hawai‘i’s most ancient creatures: The free-living, marine poly-clad flatworm.
Meet kumu the whitesaddle goatfish
Kumu is Hawai‘i’s only endemic, shallow-water goat fish.
Meet puhi la au the saddled snake eel
There are no sea snakes in Hawai‘i as a general rule, but one eel often gets mistaken for a sea snake. Meet puhi la au the snake eel.
Meet the very shy, red volcano sponge
Do you know that we have bright-red, underwater volcano’s here in Hawai‘i, and they are very common?
Meet kikakapu the reticulated butterfly fish
Hawai‘i is famous for its clouds of butterfly fish snorkelers and divers can see here on our coral reefs.
Puhi the tiger moray eel doesn’t have stripes
This is a really rare and secretive, three-foot-long moray eel that lives throughout the tropical Pacific Ocean, but Hawai‘i is where it is most commonly seen.
Sea star or starfish, this one is the cushion star
These sea stars, commonly called starfish, are really bizarre creatures.
Meet ‘ulua aukea the giant trevally
This big fish in the jack family is very famous here in Hawai‘i because you see stickers of the fish on the back window of the fishermen’s trucks or on their T-shirts.
Meet ‘u‘u, the big-scale soldier fish
This bright-red, foot-long reef fish is one of the most common fish in Hawai‘i, but most snorkelers never see them.