Dogtooth Tuna

Photo: Luis P. B. · CC BY-NC

Dogtooth tuna are the wall's signature apex predator, solitary hunters that patrol the current-swept face of Cape Nelson targeting reef fish in explosive strikes from open water — their preferred tactic of herding prey against the wall makes the reef face itself a hunting tool. Among the fastest fish in the ocean for short distances, they represent the connection between the open ocean pelagic zone and the reef community, and their presence indicates that the food chain connecting plankton to top predators remains fully intact at Tufi.