Hawaiian Sharks & Rays Creatures Guide

The last of this series of Hawaiian fish cards is a departure from the common and friendly reef creatures, and is instead a guide to Hawaii’s sharks and rays. Side 1 side shows the Inshore Species - ones that swim where even you might swim - hanging out in the crystal waters above a colorful Hawaiian reef. These species include Hawaii’s most common shark, the whitetip reef shark which divers see all of the time, the compact-sized blacktip reef shark which is hard to find inHawaii, the blacktip shark, the man-sized gray reef shark, the dangerous and rather large Galapagos shark, the most recognizable shark, the scalloped hammerhead, and the most dangerous shark in Hawaii, the awesome tiger shark. The tiger shark is the most likely to ruin some snorkeler’s or surfers day as it is responsible for a several attacks each year. The odds are something akin to getting struck by lightning, but yes it does happen. Three species of rays gracefully glide above the colorful Hawaiian reef on the sharks and rays card. They are the huge but harmless manta ray (one of Franko’s favorite night dives is the manta ray dive on the Kona Coast), the elegant whitespotted eagle ray, and the bottom-dwelling broad stingray. A flurry of technicolor reef life is depicted on the bottom below the sharks and rays. The flip side of the Hawaiian Sharks & Rays card shows the offshore species. These include the tiniest and the largest sharks. The tiny one is the cookie cutter shark, which has a feeding method that has it chomping non-lethal, but scarring 5-inch round divots right out of the side of pelagic fish, and even dolphins. The largest shark is the whale shark. It is shown to scale next to a woman diver. People occasionally get lucky and have a close encounter with one of these gentle giants on the outside of Molokini Island by Maui or near Lehua Rock at the northern tip of Niihau, 17 miles from Kauai. Since all of the other sharks appear so business like, with their natural menacing look, this whale shark is shown with it’s mouth agape in feeding fashion, which makes it actually have the appearance of smiling. Perhaps it is happy with being the largest thing in the sea other than the great whales. Other species shown on this card include the sleek and fast blue shark, the potentially dangerous oceanic whitetip shark, the world’s fastest shark, the mako, the beautiful thresher shark, the silky shark, and Hawaii’s rare visitor, the great white shark, which luckily prefers cooler waters. However, on Labor Day, 2003, Franko was at Yokahama Bay (aka, Pray for Sex Beach) on Oahu when a great white shark decided to check out the local skin divers, perhaps thanks to the delicious bloody odor of their spear catches. Yes, they got the heck out of the water, although it can be argued that the great white shark was not hunting, otherwise they wouldn’t have even seen him coming! Yikes! I called the Honolulu Ocean Safety people, but guess what...they did not believe my story that a great white shark was there! The local life guard wouldn’t believe it either.