Reef triggerfish

Reef Triggerfish
File:Humuhumunukunukuapuaa.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Tetraodontiformes
Family:	Balistidae
Genus:	Rhinecanthus
Species:	R. rectangulus
Binomial name
Rhinecanthus rectangulus Bloch & Schneider, 1801

humu­humu­nuku­nuku­āpua`a redirects here. For the Rhinecanthus aculeatus of the same name, see Lagoon triggerfish.

The reef, rectangular, wedge-tail, or Picasso triggerfish, also known by its Hawaiian name, humu­humu­nuku­nuku­āpua`a (IPA: [ˌhumuˌhumuˌnukuˌnukuˌa:puˈaʔa], also spelled Humuhumunukunukua'Pua'A or just humuhumu for short; meaning "triggerfish with a snout like a pig"), is one of several species of triggerfish. Classified as Rhinecanthus rectangulus, it is endemic to the salt water coasts of various central and south Pacific Ocean islands. It is often asserted that the Hawaiian name is one of the longest words in the English Language and that "the name is longer than the fish."

Description

The triggerfish's teeth are blue and are set close together inside its relatively fatty mouth, it has a small second spine, which it can use to lock its main spine into an upright position. The triggerfish can wedge itself into small crevices and lock its spine to make it extremely difficult to get out. In addition, when fleeing predators, the triggerfish will sometimes make grunting noises, possibly a call to warn other nearby triggerfish of danger at hand.[1]

One particularly interesting portion of the fish's behavior is the ability to blow jets of water from its mouth. These jets help the fish find benthic invertebrates that may be buried under the substrate. Triggerfish can often been seen spitting sand from their mouths in order to sift through the material in search of edible detritus or organisms. Reef triggers are fairly aggressive and will generally not tolerate conspecific species in its general vicinity, thus the fish is often found solitary. This is particularly true in captivity. Triggers have the remarkable ability to rapidly alter their coloration. They can fade into a relatively drab appearance when sleeping or demonstrating submission while the coloration is often the most vivid when the fish is healthy and unthreatened by its surroundings.

Distribution

The reef triggerfish is distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region, and it is especially prominent in the coral reefs of the Hawaiian Islands.

Hawaii state fish

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii

Due to an expiration of a Hawaiian state law, the trigger fish ceased to be the state fish of Hawaii in 1990. On April 17, 2006, bill HB1982 was presented to the Governor of Hawaiʻi which permanently reinstated the reef triggerfish (humuhumunukunukuapuaʻa) as the state fish of Hawaiʻi. The bill passed into law on May 2, 2006 and was effective upon its approval.

Humuhumunukunukuapuaʻa means "triggerfish with a pig-like short snout". It is not, as often claimed, the longest fish name in Hawaiian; that distinction belongs to lauwiliwilinukunukuʻoiʻoi ("long-snouted fish shaped like a wiliwili leaf"), the butterflyfish Forcipiger longirostris. For the purposes of religious sacrifices, every land animal in the Hawaiian islands had an equivalent in the sea. The Humuhumunukunukuapua‘a was seen as equal to a pig.

In popular culture

• Eric Stone, a "boat songs" musician often compared to Jimmy Buffett, sang a song about the fish titled simply, "The Humuhumunukunukuapuaa" found on the CD The Legend of the Lost Soul (2001).
• The 1933 song My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua Hawaii written by Bill Cogswell, Tommy Harrison, and Johnny Noble, and popularized by Hank Snow is remembering about the place "Where the humuhumunukunukuapuaʻa go swimming by".[2]
• In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Rascals, an animated reef triggerfish is part of the GUI of a classroom computer.
• In the Bugs Bunny short Waikiki Wabbit, Bugs, as the sole inhabitant of a South Pacific Island, greets a pair of shipwrecked sailors by saying "welcome to Humuhumunukunukuapuaʻaʻaʻaʻaʻaʻaʻa... Island."
• The daily comic strip Sherman's Lagoon features a visit of a Humuhumunukunukuapuaʻa in the strips starting from 2006-07-15. Among others, he retells his story of its being reinstalled as the Hawaiian state fish.
• It was also used by the Kona Bicycle Company as a name for one of their bikes in the mid '90s. Kona reinstated the bike and it is currently offered in 2006.
• It was accidentally captured by Dog "The Bounty Hunter" Chapman's daughter on an episode of the Dog the Bounty Hunter. It was released safely after Dog found out that it was a HumuHumu.
• In the LDS movie The R.M., the Tongan foreign exchange student is named Humuhumunukunukuapua'a.
• The trance fusion jam band The Disco Biscuits have a song named Humuhumunukunukuapua'a.
• In an episode of the animated cartoon Top Cat, as the character of Benny the ball prepares for a vacation to Hawai'i he asks Top Cat what a Humuhumunukunukuapua'a is.
• KnoxKast Radio's Episode 44's name, Humuhumunukunuku, is a play on the name of the fish.
• On the soundtrack to the Disney Channel original movie High School Musical 2 there is a track entitled 'Humuhumunukunukuapua'a' which is performed by Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel.(while the song is going, Ashley says that she could do "fish talk")

References

• "Rhinecanthus rectangulus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. 30 January. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
• "Marine Life Profile: Reef Triggerfish" (PDF). Waikiki Aquarium. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2005). "Rhinecanthus rectangulus" in FishBase. December 2005 version.
• "Legislation to permanently establish as Hawaii state fish". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Hawaii may honor fish with long name". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)