Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 8, 1 August 1989 — Naturally Hawaiian [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Naturally Hawaiian

By Patrick Ching Artist/ Environmentalist

The fish with a snout like a pig

The humuhumunuk unukuapua'a was recently selected as Hawaii's state fish. The popularity of the fish may be partly attributed to its lengthy and poetic name made famous by a song whieh describes a "little grass shack in Kealakekua, Hawai'i

where the humuhumunukunukuapua'a go swimming by." Colorful and splendidly marked, this reef fish belongs to the triggerfish family whieh has a number of species in Hawai'i. Most sources say that because of its tough skin and many bones the fish was not considered a favorite eating fish and was sometimes used to fuel the cooking fire. Triggerfish have a retractable hom at the front of their dorsal fin whieh they use to help lodge themselves into cracks in the reef to escape danger. They are generally skittish, difficult to ap-

proach, and have the ability to swim away very swiftly. In some areas of the Pacific, certain species of triggerfish are poisonous. In Hawai'i, however, there are no real!y poisonous triggerfish.

The humuhumunukunukuapua'a, so called by the Hawaiians because it was the fish with a snout like a pig, also grunts like a pig when taken from the water. It was said to be one of the forms of the demi-god Kamapua'a who could conveniently change himself into a fish at will.

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a