This day back in 2009 I went chasing after several fish. Keep in mind that I was only swimming and snorkeling. Shark's Cove is a protected reef and fishing is prohibited by law in this area.
I swam to the middle of the cove through a school of silver fish and eyeballs. They tickled me ears as I swam through them which caused me choke and gag on water. I had to calm myself a bit and stop laughing because I didn't want to have a panic attack in 30 feet deep of water.
The Hawaiian Humunukuapa'a or Trigger Fish. They are very protective of their mates and their egg nest. I stumbled upon a couple of them and they chased me away.
The fish on the very top is a Unicorn Fish. It blends almost perfectly with its ocean background. However, underwater you can see neon blue stripes that line it's fins. My camera did not catch it but these fish are brilliant underwater.
These are Manini or Convict Tang. They are very beautiful and friendly. I was able to swim with the school of fish without frightening them or getting chased.
Shark's Cove is one of the cleanest beaches on the island of Oahu. As you can see, the coral is pretty much dead. This raises the concern of pollution. Pollution from obvious sources like plastic bottles, aluminum cans and fishing lines but also pollution from unseen sources. Unseen sources such as chemical run off from the land, and raw sewage dump into the ocean. This all plays a factor in the decline of coral populations. As you can see, 3 of 4 species seen on this blog page depend on coral as its food source. If the coral dies, then these fish die. If these fish die then we will have food shortages and nothing pretty to watch underwater.
