As if that’s not enough to confuse even seasoned fish watchers, some wrasses change body color dramatically after they’re adults, switching from female to male as the need in a wrasse harem demands. Read more
Like its pufferfish kin, boxfish carry a toxin so strong it can kill aquarium mates. And if the little boxfish gets really upset, it can exude, from its skin, enough poison in the tank to also kill itself. Read more
They are really cool, and yes, leaf scorpionfish are common in Hawaii, sometimes in water only inches deep. But that doesn’t mean we commonly see them. Read more
Many people think that marine animals’ sole purpose in existing is to feed us. Not so. Their roles in ocean ecosystems far outweigh our need to eat them. Read more
Bloody attack! Mysterious sea creatures! A taste for human flesh! Unstoppable bleeding … And so went the sensational terms describing an injury sustained by a 16-year-old Australian boy last month. Read more
Last week reader Pat Goding sent several photos of a spotted eagle ray with its snout missing. Part of what looks like a hook protrudes from the ray’s mouth below, and another metal piece sticks up, below the eyes, like a protruding tooth. Read more
An acorn worm’s skin is so thin that when it’s full of sand, which is nearly always, the creature bursts open if you pick it up. Read more
I thought I knew my eels, but a recent news item in this newspaper, about a species called the American eel, left me blank. Read more
Writing in all caps with multiple exclamation marks is the text equivalent of shouting. But those punctuation points and uppercase letters have their moments, and here’s one: OUR KOLEA ARE BACK!!! Read more
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What is it about sea turtles that touches so many of us so deeply? Read more
Pyrosomes have been in the news this summer because masses of them are, for the first time, showing up along North America’s northwestern coast. Read more
The Kaena Point incident is a stark contrast to the aloha spirit we enjoy in Hawaii, but the sentencing is done and it’s time to move on. Read more
The outer reef in this North Shore area takes a beating from the surf every winter, and is therefore riddled with cracks and crevices. Read more
Two weeks ago I picked up a flu bug that knocked me sideways. Aching muscles and violent coughing kept me down for days. Then one morning last week, I had enough. Sick or not, I had to get in the water. Read more
Thirty years ago this week, I wrote my first Ocean Watch column for what was then the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. It was an exciting day that I thought would never come. Then it did and, well, it never ended. I’m still sharing, with pleasure, my marine adventures with readers. Read more
I’ve been home from Australia nearly a week, and I’m still smiling over some of the comments locals there made about Hawaii. Read more
For the last three years, as often as our work allows, Craig and I have been sailing our 37-foot ketch, Honu, in the stretch of water between the Queensland coast and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Read more
The combination of afternoon low tides and Cyclone Debbie’s recent stirring up of the ocean floor has sparked a new passion in me: snails. Read more
When sailing among the hundreds of islands in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, there are no activities I would choose over snorkeling or diving. Except during spring tides. Then, with pleasure, I choose walking. Read more
“It’s so small.” That was our group’s first impression of the platypus we saw paddling along the surface of a creek in Carnarvon National Park. Read more
After voyaging from Pancake Creek to the Gladstone Marina, where we planned to set sail for Heron Island, a gale appeared. Not only did it pack sustained winds of more than 30 mph, the storm front promised to stick around for a week. Read more
