Ocean and Wildlife of the Big Island
Booking a snorkel trip on the Big Island, Hawaii, is more than just slipping into a pair of flippers. It's about entering a vibrant, living tapestry of life beneath the ocean's surface! The waters of the Kona Coast and beyond are an ocean zoo full of unique animals nowhere else on the planet are they found!
They make homes amongst volcanic reefs, tucked away in protected bays and found roaming the blue open water channels.
Whether booking your daytime reef trip, or joining in for an incredible nighttime giant manta ray snorkel, learning about the ocean life you could see on the Big Island will only increase your sense of wonder!
Listed below are some of the amazing ocean animals you will be sure to see while snorkeling on the Big Island, as well as some amazing and fun facts about each!
Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle
The Hawaiian green sea turtle, also called the honu in Hawaiian, is a famous symbol of wisdom, good luck, and long life in Hawaii. People often see the slow turtles feeding on algae near a shallow and sheltered bay in Hawaii.
An adult honu has been observed to weigh about 300 lbs and was of about 3 ft in length. Although it is a strictly marine species, the green sea turtle cannot get its air and they need to be in water surface breathing the air periodically although it may even dive up to 5 hours with only one breathing.
Reef Manta Ray
The Big Island's signature night time snorkeling tour brings guests to witness the spectacular barrel-rolling performance by manta rays as they feed on plankton that have been drawn to the dive lights.
The reef manta rays are described as some of the most intelligent and elegant fish known to swim the oceans. Reef mantas can have a "wingspan" of 12 feet across and are completely harmless as they possess no teeth, stingers or barbs.
They also have the largest brain-to-body weight ratio of any coldblooded fish and are known for their intelligence and curiosity.
Locals have been able to distinguish individual rays through their unique patterns of spots on their bellies, and many repeat visitors have been given nicknames by their guides.
Spinner Dolphin
Commonly known by locals as naiʻa the spinner dolphin is revered for its playful interactive social behaviors. Packs of this incredible marine mammal will often come into shallow, tranquil bays on the Big Island to sleep and interact during the day.
The spinnerdolphin gets its name from its typical behavior of propelling itself vertically into the air, spiraling up to seven times before returning to the sea.
Spinner dolphins display behavior called unihemispheric sleep where they are only resting half of their brain so they can keep their selves swimming around and watching for predators.
The vocal behavior of these dolphins uses up to a dozen different kinds of clicks, whistles, and squeaks, each belonging to a specific pod member.
Reef Triggerfish
The humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa, which is also Hawaii’s state fish, has one of the best names to learn. This bright little fish dashes around the coral reefs, searching for its breakfast. “Trigger fish with a pig’s snout” is the likely meaning of its native name, alluding to the grunts it makes when scared and the nose on its pig- like snout.
It’s an opportunistic feeder of small crustaceans.
It can also wedge its large dorsal spine into rocks so that larger predators can’t pull it from safety when resting. Its name refers to the grunt made by the humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa when annoyed or caught, although one cannot imagine the fish being easily caught. The humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa is an incredibly aggressive little fish; not one to shy away from a confrontation with a creature far bigger than itself.
Yellow Tang (Lauʻipala)
The dazzling lemon-yellow coloring of the yellow tang is what makes it one of the most brightly colored, and one of the most recognizable reef fishes on the Hawaiian coral reef. Yellow tang can often be seen in groups, or shoals, mowing the shallow hard coral gardens on.
Yellow tang develop incredible coloration; they actually start out their lives as faint yellow juveniles with subtle white markings before developing into adults with that striking electric neon yellow color! During nighttime their vibrant yellow body fades to a bland brownish-gray with a distinct white lateral stripe; they essentially become naturally camouflaged while they sleep!
These yellow tang act like gardeners to the coral; they feed on invasive species of algae that tend to smother live coral and kill it if left unchewed!
Humpback Whale (Kohola)
Every winter, thousands of North Pacific humpbacks migrating from their Alaskan feeding grounds swim to Big Island's warm waters to breed. Though they are more often heard and seen during dives or from boats during these whale migrations, seeing them is a highlight of Hawaiian wildlife. Humpbacks swim over 3,000 miles roundtrip yearly to the warm, peaceful waters of Hawaii from the cold feeding grounds of Alaska.
Baby humpbacks are fifteen feet long and can drink one hundred gallons of their mom's rich milk daily.
Performing their gargantuan surface breaches requires 40 tons of whale to leap the surface of the water and expends several thousand calories in moments.
Hawaiian Monk Seal
Endemic to the Hawaiian Islands alone and among the most endangered of marine mammals on the planet is the Hawaiian monk seal, which translates to dog that runs in rough water in Hawaiian. The solitary Hawaiian monk seals can usually be seen in basking in one place on a sandy Big Island beach or in swimming along the outer reefs.
They truly are a living fossil, essentially unchanged earless seals over the millennia.
In contrast with those seals that can stand a great many things, Hawaiian monk seals bask by spending long periods in the hot sun for their full molt in just one hit-the mammal loses fur and its top layer of skin simultaneously.
The monk seal dives to over a thousand feet and stays under to hunt octopus, eels, and fish that live on the seabed, staying underwater with closed nostrils for up to twenty minutes.
Moray Eel
Some of the species of moray eels, like the yellowmargin moray and snowflake moray, spend their life exploring dark reefs and lava tubes around the Big Island. Many snorkelers can be very intimidated by their habit of holding their mouths open as if ready to take a bite but actually the morays are timider than most.
Morays also lack the pectoral fins present in most fish, causing the eel to swim through a "serpentine" movement pattern. This allow the moray to effortlessly maneuver through tight cracks and crevices of a reef.
Instead of a single set of jaws like most fish, morays have pharyngeal jaws. These "inner" jaws shoot forward inside the moray's mouth, grasp prey, and then transport it to the gut.
Many species of morays also establish cleaner shrimp relationships where tiny cleaner shrimp crawl within their mouth and clean off dead tissue and parasites.
Hawaiian Day Octopus (Heʻe)
A perfect master of camouflage the Hawaiian day octopus is at the top of most lists of the smartest and most agile animals on the ocean. Whilst the majority of octopus species worldwide are nocturnal predators the hee is a diurnal animal often foraging on shallow coral reefs for prey throughout the day.
They can alter not just their skin colour but texture and pattern as well at incredibly high speed to blend seamlessly into coral, sand or smooth rock within a fraction of a second.
It has three distinct hearts and copper based blood, which is blue and responsible for carrying oxygen in the marine environment.
Two thirds of an octopus's neurons are contained within its tentacles which give each tentacle a 'mind of their own' which means that each arm can independently see, touch and move, taste
Moorish Idol (Kihikihi)
This undeniably gorgeous masterpiece of the reef is readily recognizable because of its lengthy dorsal filament, boldness in black and yellow vertical bars, and bold white accents. They are a common sight when snorkeling through the shallow, rocky drop offs of reef environments, often observed swimming in pairs or small groups.
Their species scientific genus, zanclus cornutus, refers to the small, hornlike tubercles that form above their eyes when fully grown.
Their tubular snouts are uniquely adapted to extract tiny sponges and invertebrates hidden inside narrow crevices.
With complex dietary requirements and schooling social behaviors the wild Moorish Idol is very difficult to maintain, and a breathtaking organism to behold in its natural Hawaiian habitat.
Booking a guided snorkel tour on the Big Island gives you a front-row seat to this complex and breathtaking underwater world. By maintaining a respectful distance and practicing responsible ocean tourism, we ensure that these magnificent marine species continue to thrive around the Big Island for generations to come.