Giant trevally

Photo: Nikolai Vladimirov · CC BY-NC

Giant trevally — ulua in Hawaiian — are revered as a game fish and as a spiritually significant species in Hawaiian culture, and at Shark Fin Rock they reach their full size of over a metre and over 60 kg in large individuals. They hunt cooperatively in loose groups, using the pinnacle as a reference point to corral baitfish against the structure before charging in sequence. Their predatory intelligence is remarkable — studies have documented ulua learning to time their feeding runs with the arrival of specific bird species, and individuals at fixed sites such as pinnacles are known to exhibit site-fidelity for years.