Your Thanksgiving Turkey (Fish)

   Happy Thanksgiving!  On this day we can give thanks that the guys with the spears and nets haven't taken all the fish and those guys who patrol the shoreline in their Japanese sock rock walkers with oyster knives haven't taken all the limpets.  Maybe there is hope.
      Anyway, I seem to have promised you a Thanksgiving Turkey.  As you may know, the group of scorpionfish known as lionfish are sometimes called Turkeyfish.  In most locations lionfish are more often seen by divers as they like to live upside down facing the roofs of caves.  There are two species of lionfish in Hawaii and I have been lucky to see one.  Several years ago, my son Charles showed me a Hawaiian Green Lionfish on the rubble near the entrance at Kahaluu.  (It never hurts to have a pair of sharp young eyes, if you want to find a cryptically colored fish sitting still on the bottom!)  This was before I started taking digital pictures underwater, so as I must once again refer you to a link on the web for a picture of this fish:

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1280&bih=619&tbm=isch&tbnid=WKd8xAbG31f88M:&imgrefurl=http://saltwater.tropicalfishandaquariums.com/Scorpionfish/index.asp&docid=oBqDP-dX1lMTIM&imgurl=http://saltwater.tropicalfishandaquariums.com/Scorpionfish/dendrochirus-barberi.JPG&w=650&h=434&ei=yMXOTr6RB6aRiQK0r5XOCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=173&vpy=159&dur=557&hovh=174&hovw=258&tx=152&ty=109&sig=103332346128262804817&page=1&tbnh=126&tbnw=165&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

    Just three years ago Sandra and I spent a significant part of the winter in Bali.  The snorkeling there is amazing.  On some rainy day we will discuss why that is.  During the winter of 2009 I saw two species of lionfish while snorkeling.  One time the fish was out  on the reef in the middle of the day.  For your Thanksgiving treat I will share these three pictures of the Turkeyfish.

Pt. antenetta,  Jemeluk, Bali, December 2009

   From Alii Villas on the Big Island of Hawaii, Happy Thanksgiving!