Mahalo to Nikki Clouse for sharing this trigger fish photo with us for our Aloha Friday Photo series. I believe Nikki’s photo is a humuhumunukunukuapua’a. This Hawaiian fish with the long name is Hawaii’s state fish.
Though the length of the name looks fairly intimidating to pronounce at first glance, it’s really quite easy. Use this link to learn how to say humuhumunukunukuapua’a. If that doesn’t work, I’ve heard many folks shorten the name to humuhumu or simply humu.
The fish in this photo appears to be friendly, but from our snorkeling experience, we’ve learned that the humuhumunukunukuapua’a is very territorial and what may appear as friendliness is actually behavior trying to tell you to go away.
Have you seen a humuhumunukunukuapua’a in Hawaii? Where did you see this fish?
Happy Aloha Friday!
Sheila Beal
