Reef triggerfish
, also spelled
humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua‘a or just
humuhumu for short; meaning "triggerfish with a snout like a pig" [
1]), 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."
The triggerfish's teeth are set close together inside its relatively small mouth, and it has a small second spine, which it can use to lock its first spine into an upright position. The triggerfish will wedge itself into small crevices and lock their spine to make it almost impossible to get them out. In addition, when fleeing predators, the triggerfish will sometimes make grunting noises, possibly to warn other nearby triggerfish of danger at hand.[
2] They hide in crevasses.
Diet
Using their extremely sharp teeth and powerful jaws, these fish feed on hard-shelled
invertebrates like
mollusks and
crabs. The reef triggerfish also feeds on
algae.
Area
The reef triggerfish is distributed throughout the
Indo-Pacific region, and it is especially prominent in the
coral reefs of the
Hawaiian Islands.
Due to an expiration of an Hawaiian state law, the trigger fish ceased to be the
state fish of
Hawaii in 1990.
[http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-01-28-humu_x.htm] However, as of April 2006, a bill was presented to the Governor of Hawaii which reinstated the reef triggerfish (humuhumunukunukuapuaa) to be the state fish of Hawaii. The bill passed into law May 2, 2006 and was effective upon its approval.
[http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessioncurrent/bills/hb1982_.htm][http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12371386/]Humuhumunukunukuapuaa means "triggerfish with a pig-like short snout". It is not, as often claimed, the longest fish name in Hawaiian; that distinction belongs to
lauwiliwilinukunukuoioi ("long-snouted fish shaped like a
wiliwili leaf"), the
butterflyfish Forcipiger longirostris.
Eric Stone, a "boat songs" musician often compared to Jimmy Buffet, sang a funny 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" popularized by
Hank Snow is nostalgic about the place "Where the humuhumunukunukuapuaa go swimming by".[
3]
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 Humuhumunukunukuapuaa Island."
The daily comic strip
Sherman's Lagoon features a visit of a Humuhumunukunukuapuaa in the strips starting from 2006-07-15. Among others, he retells his story of being reinstalled as the Hawaiian state fish.
The
Fanta commercials use the word Humuhumunukunukuapuaa as name for the main character, a Haiwaian man.
It was also used by the Kona mountainbike company as a name for one of their bikes back in the mid 90s
It was accidently captured by Dog "The Bounty Hunter" Chapman's daughter on an episode of the DOG Show. It was released safely after Dog found out that it was a HumuHumu.
