This Redbarred Hawkfish was spotted at Ke'e Beach yesterday. Redbarred Hawkfish are common on the North Shore of Kauai, but I rarely see them on the South Shore. The nice thing about Hawkfish is that they will pose for you. They use their pectoral fins to "perch" themselves on rocks where they wait for their prey. They tend to stay pretty still, which means, I could get a nice photo.
This was only one of a few fish however, that were spotted at Ke'e at all. The sheer number of people visiting this beach has taken an extreme toll on the environment. Notice the amount of algae growing on the reef in this picture. There is an obvious nutrient problem here, uncertain of its source, but something is going on for sure here. I would recommend steering clear of Ke'e to give it a break. Choose to go to Tunnels down the road a bit (though Tunnels is seeing quite an impact too) but the area is a little larger. Hawkfish are extremely common at Tunnels, so you will be sure to see one of these guys perched on the reef posing for a picture.
