A Tail of Two Triggers

The beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one more for dessert

     As the bard once said, "I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast."  Actually it was W.C. Fields, but I don't think the three youths sitting on the table at Ho'okena could have cared less.  It was 0930, the sun was out and they were pounding Budweiser while playing guitars and singing poorly.  But loudly. The Redoubtable SKG and I were ready to look at some fish, but as we passed their perch, we took the opportunity to admire the other thing that Ho'okena has to offer: local color.
      Leaving Woody, Willie and Curt to twang and yelp to their heart's content, we made our way down the sunny beach.  On the way to our entry, we encountered an adult who had dug himself a substantial hole from which he was holding off  four various boys in a wet sand fight.  Not my cup of tea, but at least he called a truce while we passed by.

I count at least nine Four Spot Butterflyfish.

     The water this day was cool, clear and free of stinging critters and we had a nice swim across the bay.  We didn't find the coral clump with the Potter's and Flame Angels, but we had a sweet look at the Gilded Triggerfish.  Additonally, there was a remarkable aggregation of Four Spot Butterflyfish.  A few butterflyfish appear commonly in large groups;  Lined and Raccoon are two species commonly seen in groups of ten or more.  The Four Spot, like the majority of butterflyfish,  is usually seen in pairs. I assume this grouping had something to do with reproduction.  At the least, it was unusual.

Bridled Triggerfish  Sufflamen frenaetus

    It looked like that would be it as we turned for home when suddenly there was a large triggerfish beneath us.  Black with white caudal peduncle and large curvilinear fins.  I recognized it as a fish we saw last year, unable to remember its common name I called to Sandra, its frenatus something.   In fact, it was the Bridled Triggerfish, Sufflamen fraenatus.  (The Latin name was imprinted on my brain the previous year when i asked for help identifying this species.)   Having spotted us about the same time we saw him, this guy was getting out of Dodge.  I gave him a chase, but the best I could do was a photo of the north end of a southbound fish.  Still, it was a very good fish, the first Bridled Trigger for the year and only the third in my illustrious (or not) fish finding career.  I'm including the picture that I took last April.  That fish was much deeper and obviously wasn't worried about me and my camera thirty feet above.  Last year's fish (pictured)  and the one we saw a couple days ago are extremely dark.  If you look on the web, you will find pictures of the Bridled Triggerfish almost as light as Sufflamen bursa, the Lei Triggerfish.  The first one I ever saw, swimming deep off the edge at Kona Makai, was lighter in coloration.  There was no doubt it wasn't a Lei Triggerfish, though...this is a very big triggerfish!

Local color at Ho'okena!

    As we came ashore there was a couple of a certain age entering the water.  The guy looked like a farmer of semi-exotic weed.  He sported a grizzly white beard and for a bathing  suit he had chosen a pair of cut off dungarees.  That he put his fins on well up the beach and then approached the waves bass ackwards only enhanced his remarkable appearance.

    Sandra and I got showered off and repaired the small kiosk for lunch.  As I got things set up, she set off down the beach to take some pictures.  Right in front of us, three generations of ladies played in a tide pool.  Sandra asked permission and was invited to photograph the baby, mother and grandmother as they played in the pool.  By the time she was done taking pictures, the ladies had made her an honorary auntie!

    So yesterday I hauled my lazy bones down to the pier and went for a swim on Paul Allen's Reef.  The water was cold and cloudy, so I decided to swim fast.  About fifty yards past the rip rap I spotted a Finescale Triggerfish.  The large, ghostly fish saw me too and similar to my triggerfish encounter from the previous day, the Finescale headed rapidly away.  I'd like to show you a picture that I took a different time of this fish, but I have never taken a good picture of the Finescale Triggerfish.  It really is a ghostly whitish gray and, at least in my experience, quite shy.  Its not nearly as uncommon as the Bridled, though, and we have been disappointed that we did not have it on the list for this season.  Now we do! 

Spotted Burrfish, Paul Allen's Reef,  March 2012

Chloromycterus reticulatus

One more look at the rare Burrfish

     As I turned for the barn, I was presented with a wonderful opportunity.  A Porcupinefish was resting in clear, shallow water and permitted me to dive three times for pictures.  At last he came to his senses and swam away.  Its hard to tell if he was sleeping out in the open with his eyes open or if he was stunned for some other reason.  As you can see, he wasn't being cleaned.  So who knows why he was so cooperative.  It wasn't until I got home and looked more carefully at my pictures that I realized that this was not the common Porcupinefish, but a Spotted Burrfish, a fish I have never claimed before!  It is only due to the camera, the cooperative nature of this individual and the really superb photographic field guides that I was able to make this call.  I hope you enjoy those pictures as much as I do!
    Here in Kona, we have five triggerfish that I would say are quite common.  The Gilded is pretty regular at Ho'okena and I've seen him at Honokohau, as well.  The two that we added to the list are pretty unusual and I'm grateful to Kanaloa for steering them our way this year.

jeff

Death on the Sand A work of fiction

    The day started innocently enough.  Susan was meeting the girls for some bonding on the beach and I would go for a swim, pick her up in a couple hours.   Susie looked great as she headed for the beach, a nice fitting swimsuit always brings out the best in a girl.
    I was left at the pool with a couple of the guys.   Events have ordained that these fellas spend a deal of their time around the pool.  No more swimming in the ocean.  So it goes.   On the other hand, we were in Hawaii and it was snowing back in Portland, so things could be worse.
    Our conversation was lightened by two petite twenty somethings across the pond.  They were minimally clad and knew it.   A sensual shower, seemingly for our benefit, and off they went.  And it was time for me to go, as well.

This little guy was granted a free pass.

    Down the strip at Wailua,  I grabbed my stuff from our ancient Honda and strolled into the shelter.   Under the spreading metal roof of the kiosk, a bunch of Episcopals were preparing a remembrance for an elderly optometrist.  So I was informed by the advanced guard of the church.  I suppose the departed are no longer elderly, but he had been so recently.  The Episcopals had the tables bedecked with tropical  flowers, at first I thought it might be a wedding reception or a baby luau.  But no, it was a wake.  Perched on the buffet stood a glossy 11 by 14 of the good doctor.  He was reclining in his favorite chair reading a novel by the late Michael Chrichton,  It promised to be a fine send off.

Spiny Sea Cucumber  Holothuria hilla

     Getting in to the water it was real shallow, so I swam out a bit before putting on my fins.  dodging the multitude, I made my way left where I found a moon shell harboring a hermit crab.  I could see a his legs tipped in white.   His small face peered up at me, blue antennae checking things out.  His handsome shell not withstanding, he was surely a Hanzlitts and so reprieved from a closer exam.

     A few strokes further and I happened upon a worthy invertebrate and not one hiding inside a cone shell, either.  This was a handsome sea cucumber with a haircut like Bart Simpson, Holothuria hilla.  Ochre and white, he was colored much like Thompson's Gazelle.  He was actively grazing, but he was mistaken if he thought he was a gazelle.  The sun was bright, the water clear, and I set about getting a picture of this beauty.  This is not a particularly rare animal, but one that is usually nocturnal.  Unlike most Hawaiian sea cucumbers, he does not have a thick leathery skin.  If you lack a good defense, the veil of night represents a significant benefit. 

Spiny Sea Cucumber and Stripe Belly Puffer

     One should never assume their actions around the reef are going unnoticed.  Fish are always keeping an eye on you, much like an egret watches the cattle, in hopes that some prey will be revealed.  As soon as I started photographing, a pair of threadfins, bright as shiny yellow banderas, came to investigate.  Within moments they were nipping at the cucumber and I was trying to shoo them away.  the activity attracted a saddle wrasse and a pair of Lined Butterflies, big as dinner platters.
      Not only that, but a Striped Belly Puffer cruised in.  Ordinarily these guys just drift stolidly about the reef.  They must know that they are poisonous and they give us humans little notice.  This fellow had a totally different affect.  He looked nothing like a floating lump, but more like a dog on point, eyes fixed on its prey. I could almost sense the puffer queivering in anticipation.  Who would have guessed that this stolid fish, so common at Waulua, could transform into an animated predator?  

Saddle Wrasse, Stripe Belly Puffer, wounded sea cucumber

      He watched the cucumber for perhaps fifteen seconds.  The cucumber wasn't going anywhere, so he could wait as long as he wished.  Striking suddenly, he grabbed the cucumber in the middle, ripping a chunk of flesh and spilling what passes for the guts of an echinoderm.  He then backed off and other fishes approached for a nibble.  The puffer backed off a bit, but remained fixed on his prey, staying that way until I swam off.
     Back on the beach, the good doctor had drawn a mob.  I caught my shower and made my way through the throng.  Me and the venerable Honda made our way back up the strip to where Susan was waiting for me by the old stone church.  I guess she'll stick with the old salt for another day.
   

As I paddle off into the sunset I'm going to leave you with the face of Menace to haunt your dreams.  Looks a bit like Hannibal Lecter, doesn't he?

jeff

Bluestripe!

Strolling under the Vog in Kailua

  I suppose that there are lots of reasons to take a camera with you in the water.   First, its possible that the water will be clear and the sun will be out and there will be some really pretty fish close at hand to photograph.  Second, its a sightseeing tool.  I take pictures of my swimming partners, the boardsurfers and pictures of the shore from the perspective of the swimmer.  The last reason is, that regardless of the conditions, I might see something that merits documentation.  I saw this fish in that place on that day... regardless of the art.

Nose down Bluestripe Butterfly from above

    Yesterday was a type three sort of day.  The vog was dense making Kona look like something out of a Stephen King novel.  And the water was on the Ironman side of the pier was a little less than crystal clear.    It was Sunday and the local artsy fartsy folk were holding the Stroll.   The stroll  is a small art fair held one Sunday a month along Alii Drive as it winds through the village.  Usually during the stroll there are continuous  live music performances, and its sort of fun to swim while they play.  On this Sunday I was swimming without the tunes.
   The one good thing about Sundays afternoon at the pier from my perspective is that the boat operations seem to be suspended.  Having the entire pier to myself, I headed on out to where the larger boats tie up.  Almost immediately I spotted  a Bluestripe Butterflyfish.  This was the first one for the season and I was very pleased.  As we were further out the pier than usual, he was in about fifteen feet and showed no inclination to surface.  I attempted to dive and was rewarded with a brutal headache at only a few feet.  Playing through the recurring pain, I dove for five or six shots and then bid this uncommon butterfly farewell.   As you can see from these pictures, my results fall more into the documentary type of photo as opposed to lovely art.  Oh well.  We got the fish. 

This is the clearest picture of the Bluestripe

    This swim had little else of merit until the end when we spotted a nice and cooperative Banded Butterfly.

    Today I took Sandra back to see the Bluestripe.  I had been violently ill the night before and I am assuming that explained the headache when attempting to dive.   At any rate, you don't see fish if you don't get in the water.  Today was Monday.  There was no stroll and no vog... it was a lovely day in the neighborhood. 
    The big boats were not docked against the pier, so we took advantage of their absence and  patrolled the spot that the Bluestripe was seen previously. Ten minutes of searching failed to reveal our fish.  We spotted a Milletseed (probably the same one that has been around the pier for the last couple months) but no Bluestripe.  He apparently put in a cameo appearance lasting only one day!

Citron Butterflyfish,  Kailua Pier, March 2012

    Everyone agrees that the Bluestripe Butterflyfish is endemic to Hawaii and usually occurs in shallow water.   I certainly hope that it is more common elsewhere than it is in Kona.  Our friend John Hoover notes that when they aren't breeding, Bluestripes tend to be solitary.  This is unlike most other butterflyfish; many species are found swimming in pairs, a few, like Lined Butterflyfish, swim in larger groups.  To the best of my recollection (officer),  I have never seen more than one Bluestripe Butterflyfish at a time.
    As the water was clear and the sun was out, we went in search of aquatic delights to photograph.  On this day we saw the small Citron Butterfly swimming among the coral.  There was also a really nice Intermediate Pearl Wrasse.  And last, and perhaps most pleasing, a Collector Sea Urchin that had donned a multi-colored plastic bracelet like the one we had borrowed a couple moths ago.  I withhold judgement as to whether it looks better on the urchin or on Sandra's wrist! 

If  I was a Collector Sea Urchin  /  The first thing that I'd want to do /  Is to collect pretty things 'till eternity passes /  And save them  to give them to you.

I hope you enjoy the pretty pictures and that a Bluestripe Butterfly is in your future.
jeff
 

Echinoderms are My Friends (and Cnidarians Aren't)

Spotted Linckia Linckia multifora  (Comet)  Kailua Pier 2012

    This winter we haven't seen a grat number of memorable invertebrates.  A few crabs, perhaps, but echinoderms have been in short supply.  The Kona coast is home to about five diferent sea urchins that we encounter regualrly.  And Crown of Thorns Starfish is seen routinely at deeper water sites like Kona Makai.  I hadn't seen any other starfish until about a week ago.  Not a one!       
   Snorkeling at the pier, my eye was caught by a flash of mottled red that turned out to be a small Linckia starfish, replete with violet tips that remind me of toe nails.  This little fella, maybe only three inches across, was hiding under the edge of a coral head in about two feet of water.  This is the sea star most comonly seen by snorkelers in Hawaii.  It eats algae and commonly reproduces by automotizing, shedding an arm which becomes a new organism.  Don't try this yourself at home.  The resultant four armed parent is called a comet.  Note that the fellow we found appears to have only four arms. So young to be a mother!

Cushion Star Culcita novaeguinea, Ho'okena 2012

     Yesterday we went to Ho'okena.  Despite the fact that it was drrizzling on the drive down, the beach was mobbed.  It was nice and cool as Sandra and I worked our way through the teeming throng.  We got in at the far end of the beach through some mild surf, careful not to interact with submerged rocks, and we were soon underway.  The water was cold and clear.  Almost immediately I spotted a Cushion Starfish.  He was a nice fat fellow living among the coral and rubble in about ten feet of water.  As you can see, these guys retain their pentagonal shape but don't really have arms like most sea stars.  They feed by projecting their stomachs into coral and digesting the polyps.  This species of sea star  is relatively uncommon while the Crown of Thorns (which dines upon the same species of cauliflower coral) is experiencing a population boom.   I believe this is only the third of these unusual echinoderms that I have seen in Hawaii.

Crown of Thorns Acanthaster planci  (Linnaeus 1758)

      Like me, most of you interact with invertebrates out of the water.  And aside from the odd butterfly sighting, the most memorable are attacks by small insects, mosquitoes, wasps, black flies...the list is long and distinguished.  What, you might ask, is the marine equivalent of a black fly?  Plankton!  When most of us think of plankton, we recall that certain whales eat these tiny organisms and, from the safety of our arm chair get a warm fuzzy feeling.  Mmmmm. Whales.
    Little do you know that lots of these small organisms, which aren't quite microscopic, can pack a significant sting. Sandra and I, in selecting this day for a swim at Ho'okena, had chosen to ignore the recent full moon. Our experience is that following a full moon there is a much greater concentration of stinging plankton in the water at deeper locations.  This may be associated with breeding coral (which are closely related to jellyfish and whose first life stage, is a tiny, free swimming medusa) or jellyfish swarm.

Spotted Linckia  Ho'okena, 2012

    As we swam out, hoping for another glimpse of the Flame Angelfish, we were getting into progressively denser soup with associated stings.  Accidente!
    Not only that, but we began seeing real jellyfish.  This was a species I had not seen pictured.  Swimming curled in the water, it seemed to have a superior fin while its brown string of organs curled below.  Suspended in this way, it looked like a poisonous orchid. The fact that I couldn't identify it, didn't make me want to swim with it, but it was probably a good thing ...we have been studying pictures of the highly toxic box jellyfish for a long time and this was something else.

Blue Eye Damsel Plectoglyphidon  johstonianus April 2011

      Leaving the Flame Angel to find itself, we made it back to the shoeline post haste.  There we enjoyed a swim along the shallow reef to the south of the entry.  Here we saw a Spotted Linckia, the second in about a week. This individual was about six inches from tip to tip. 
   We also saw two spring specialties.  The first was the immature of the Blue Eye Damsel.  Bright yellow tail and pectoral fin, luminous blue dorsal fin and eye.  This is a very active, small fish, difficult to photograph.  I drew a picture about thirty years ago and sent it to Jack Randall, the great Oz himself, and he wrote me back saying, "There ain't no such fish."  or words to that effect.  I took a poor picture yesterday. Luckily I've got a good picture from a year ago.  This phase may be new to the Hawaiian ichthyology literature! 
    We also saw the immature of the Freckled Face hawkfish, which is always a treat.  This too is a small furtive fish, although not as spooky as young master Blue-eye.  I hope you like the picture, even if its not perfect.

Forster's Hawkfish  Paracirrhites forsteri  Ho'okena 2012

   
    















Finally, as we were eating lunch, Sandra took a picture of a girl skipping on the rocks.  It is a charming image with which to leave you.

When you're at Ho'okena,  Life is a Day at the Beach!

jeff

Linnaeus and the Fish of Hawaii

Trumpetfish Autostomus chinensis Linnaeus 1758

     Yesterday we wrote a playful blog about triggerfish and common names.   This morning Sandra and I were looking in Randall's guide at the Lagoon Triggerfish.   I had just read the introduction to Tinker's book, Fishes of Hawaii, in which the departed dean of Hawaiian ichthyology  laid out the history of the fish identification.  Would you be surprised to learn that the first guy to categorize fishes was none other than Aristotle?   The tutor of Alexander the Great described about 100 Aegean fishes, preserved for posterity in his Historium Animalium.  Three hundred and some years later Pliny the Elder, a Roman, added a couple dozen to the list.  And then the science of ichthyology fell silent until the Renaissance.   The dark ages were truly an intellectual wasteland.

Stripebelly Puffer Arothron hispidus 1758  Linnaeus

    At any rate, we were looking at the Lagoon Triggerfish and I pointed out that the scientific name is always followed by the name of the discoverer and the date his discovery and name were accepted by the scientific community.  In the case of the Lagoon:  Linnaeus, 1758.  I have noted his name in Hawaiian fish field guides before with a sense of wonder.  This is the man who devised the binomial system by which all plants and animals are known.  Over the years I have puzzled... just  how was it that he named so many fish?  (He is credited with ten species in Randall's Shore Fishes of Hawai'i.)  With this question in mind, I spent today researching Linnaeus and the Lagoon Triggerfish.
    The story begins in Upsala, Sweden, around 1730. Upsala is home to one of the oldest universities in Europe and here  Carl von Linne, a botanist, was close friends with Peter Artedi, an ichthyologist.  The two shared an idea that they could bring order to all of  natural history with a  naming system that delineated the relationship between progressively similar organisms, be they plants or animals.  In 1735 the two made a pact:  they would work together on this project and if one died, the other would carry on with the work.  A mere ten weeks later, Artedi died in a freak drowning accident in Amsterdam.  von Linne became Linnaeus and we are taught that he devised the naming system we all use in natural history.  No mention is made of Artedi.

Goldrim Surgeon Acanthurus nigricans 1758  Linnaeus

    We are still left with  Lagoon Triggerfish,  Rhinecanthus aculeatus Linnaeus 1758.   The first possibility, and this is what I had presumed, is that von Linne was a traveler and discovered animals and plants all over the world.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In his lifetime, he never made it further afield than  Amsterdam.  Primarily he stayed in Upsala where his fame increased as the binomial system gained acceptance in the scientific community.  He was a talented teacher, surrounded by intelligent students.  The brightest of these students were encouraged to go into the world and do the field work necessary to find, describe and name the plants and animals.  Remember, Linnaeus was a botanist and although he encouraged discovery of all living organisms, he taught botanists and these students, known in an almost sacrilegious reference as Apostles, went into the world as botanists first, but with the mission to find other organisms as well.  At this point in my quest I thought, "Aha, one of these apostles found the Lagoon Triggerfish and sent it back in barrel of rum and Linnaeus got the credit."

Convict Tang  Acanthurus triostegus  1758  Linnaeus

     The first such apostle was Christopher Tärnström, who in 1746 set off with the Swedish East India Company for China.  The ship was forced to stop for the monsoon season on a Vietnamese island and poor Tärnström died in short order of a tropical fever.  There is no indication that any of his work made it back to Upsala.

Spiny Balloonfish  Diodon holocanthus  1758  Linnaeus 

     The second and third apostles became renowned scientists.  Daniel Solander was sent to England, worked under Joseph Banks and those two went with Cook to investigate Australia.  They are the botanists for which Botany Bay is named!   Solander was kept in the shadows by Banks, but he is nevertheless known for making many discoveries of plants and animals.  He is revered in the intellectual history of Australia.  Some of his work is available in The Natural History of Many Curious and Uncommon Zoophytes, Collected by the late John Ellis, (1786).  This book exists.  My librarian (the lovely, talented and Redoubtable SKG) discovered one at the University of Washington.  None in Hawaii.   The first three pages are available on Google books, so I was able to look at those.  I felt palpably close to the secret which remained just out of reach.
      The third apostle, Anders Sparrman, was working in South Africa when Cook made port in the Resolution, near the beginning of his second (and especially for us in Hawaii) fateful journey.   Sparrman, too, would have had a chance of collecting a Lagoon Triggerfish for the boss back in Sweden.
      At this point, now in the early afternoon, I had the reverse of an Aha! moment.  Cook commanded the Endeavor from 1768 to 1771 and the Resolution from 1772 to 1775.  Solander was only ten years old when Linnaeus claimed the Lagoon Triggerfish!  Sparrman a mere sprat. 

Moorish Idol  Zanclus cornutus  Linnaeus  1758

     So it was back to the drawing board with the new question, "What happened before1758?"    Or to put it another way, what didn't happen?  Wikipedia provides a link at the bottom of its article on Solander: European Voyages of Scientific Discovery.   As it turns out, Linnaeus was just ahead of the ball.  The first two such voyages were by the HMS Dolphin in 1764 and 1768.  This was the first time an organized scientific expedition went to sea.  Clearly Linnaeus's work furthered this cause rather than benefitting from it before 1760.
  So where did these fish come from?  Well, when von Linne's good friend and colleague, Peter Artedi, passed away,  Linnaeus was the recipient of his works, including Biblioteca ichthyologica, Philosophia ichthyologica, etc.  Five original manuscripts containing lists of authors, descriptions of 45 genera of fishes, and so on.  Pretty much the world's accumulated knowledge of ichthyology in 1735. Artedi had devised a system of fish classification that survives to this day!
    And what was Artedi doing in Amsterdam?  Most likely visiting Albertus Seba.  Seba was a wealthy man living in one of the busiest port cities of northern Europe.  He paid mariners  for exotic plants and animals which he displayed in his personal museum.  There exist catalogs of Seba's collection, wikipedia references them, but they are not readily available.  Regardless,  I would not want to bet against Seba having the widely distributed and beautiful Lagoon Triggerfish in his collection, the preeminent natural history museum of its time.

Lagoon Triggerfish  Rhinecanthus aculeatus  Artedi 1758

    Finally, we are left with the magical date of 1758.  The Systema Natura was first published in 1735.  It was revised repeatedly.  The 10th edition was published in 1758, included 4,400 species of animals and 7,700 species of plants.  And this edition is the document that cemented the use of the binomial naming system.  All the species now had two Latin names, one for the genus, one for the species.  Anything that occurred before that publication was unofficial.
    When I started my investigation this morning, I had nothing but good feelings about Linnaeus.  He seems to have been an inspirational teacher.  With Peter Artedi he made a quantum leap in the way science deals with classification, setting off a rush to identify the plants and animals of our planet.   However, I can only conclude that he unscrupulously accepted his colleague's work and passed it off as his own.  Wouldn't it be appropriate, even uplifting, to read Lagoon Triggerfish  Rhinecanthus aculeatus 1758, Artedi?

jeff
      

Pablo Picasso, Eat Your Heart Out.

Lei Triggerfish, Kailua Pier, March 2012

    Back when I was learning the fishes of Hawaii at the knee of Gar Goodson (the author of The Many-Splendored Fishes of Hawaii, Marquest Colorguide Books, 1973) I had a set of common names indelibly etched in that twisted corner of my brain that is devoted to fish identification.  I was a mere sprat, not having yet turned 30, never having used an antiquarian bird book or one that dealt with birds outside the United States.  Little did I know that any author can coin a name for an animal, put it in print and it might very well catch on.  Mr. Goodson (I can find no clear indication that he was a Ph.D. ichthyologist ) got plenty wrong in this book, and his artist, Philip Weisgerber, made some critical mistakes.  However, they did give us a base for reef fish identification.  In the process, they gave us some names to write down on lists, committing them to posterity.  Some of those names, like the Whiteline Triggefish occur no where else. I still use a few of them them thirty years later.

The Yellow Lei Variant was wary of the lens.

    Just yesterday I went swimming at the pier.  The water was clear and warm.  I have been thinking that I did not have a good picture of the Lei Triggerfish  so I took advantage of a couple cooperative specimens and nabbed the pictures you see here.  The Lei is a not an uncommon fish, but it is wary and, where the situation allows, it is frequently deep.  As an aside, taking pictures in a shallow environment like the Kailua pier or Kahalu'u, assures you that if nothing else the fish will be near the surface, closer to your camera and better illuminated. 

This photo demonstrates the dependent bursa.

    There are two color variants of the Lei Triggerfish.  Gar and Phil pictured only one.  Our hero, John Hoover, brought live fish photos to a useable field guide.   In the Ultimate Guide, he only pictures the lighter colored fish with the black lei.  Curiously, Jack Randall, (the greatest ichthyologist in the world) shows only one, but he pictures the dark colored individual with the mustard colored lei.  I didn't get as close to the guy with the yellow lei, but I'm sure you appreciate the photographic negative effect between the two fish.  Hoover states that individuals change from one color variant to the other, perhaps based on their emotional state.  The GIW does not.  I've never seen an individual change, but Mr. Google cites a home aquarist who has seen the "scythe markings" change color from black to tan. Wikipedia says its true with the caveat, citation needed.   I'd like to see it myself.

    In  days of Gar / When men were yar. / And photos weren't invented.
   We'd aim our spar /  And squirt the tar /  And so go home contented. 

R. aculeatus, the Lagoon Triggerfish,  Hello Dali!

    Where the hell did that come from?   The men's room at the Waikiki Aqaurium?     Let's try again.  In 1973, Goodson named Sufflamem bursa the Whiteline Triggerfish.  And so I called it for many years.  It is now commonly known as the Lei Triggerfish, taking advantage of the Hawaiian name, humu humu lei. At least here in Hawai'i.  In Australia it is known as the Boomerang Triggerfish, referring to the kangaroo-killing weapon of their own aborigines.  I am not sure if the Abos  had any  relationship with the reef fish similar to that of the Hawaiian Polynesians, but it does make for a catchy handle.  And lastly, to aquarists (who are likely providing homes to orphans who seem to have lost their spot on the reef...the bastards) they are known as Bursa Triggerfish. 
    My favorite triggerfish, the Lagoon, was called Painted Triggerfish by Gar Goodson, subsequently Picasso Triggerfish and now, by most people, the Lagoon Triggerfish.

Rectangular Triggerfish, R. recangularis,  Kahalu'u 2011

    The State Fish of Hawai'i is humu humu nuku nuku apu a'a.   This name applies to the Lagoon and the Rectangular Triggerfish.  But only the Rectangular is the state fish.  This is the name that Gar Goodson used and which I still use.  I assume that it is the traditional name as the scientific name is  Rhinecanthus rectangularis.   The currently accepted common name is the Reef Triggerfish.  How dull.   I only wonder why this triggerfish wasn't known as the Picasso.  Doesn't it smack of cubism?   Does the Lagoon look like the wild horse in Guernica?  I think a reasonable compromise, and one that I am proposing here, is to name the R. recangularis the Picasso Triggerfish, celebrating the famous Spanish cubist and to name R. aculeatus after the great Spanish surrealist, the Salvador Dali Triggerfish.  That ought to clear things up. (Not!)  But you're seeing it in print, so it must be true!

jeff