Honolulu Star-Advertiser © Susan Scott
October 12, 1998
My marine biologist friend gave a talk with a book-signing recently at a Maui bookstore.
“I’ll be there,” I told her the evening before. “I’m going to check out the new aquarium first, then I’ll come.”
I missed her entire event.
But I had a good excuse, one my friend accepted cheerfully: The aquarium was so wonderful, I couldn’t bear to rush through it. I spent most of the day there.
The fun of Maui’s aquarium, called the Maui Ocean Center, starts at the entrance. Perched on the shores of Maalea Bay, the building has swooping curves in the walls, floors and walkways, which wind both indoors and out. The effect is remarkably marine.
Once inside, I was completely hooked. Not only were the large display tanks full of prime Hawaii marine life, but some animals were doing things I had never seen before.
One such behavior came from several Hawaiian Dascyllus, or alo’ilo’i.
These members of the damselfish family change colors as they grow. When young, the 1/2-inch fish are black with a white spot on each side and a brilliant bluish-white bar on the forehead. It’s common to see these striking baby damselfish hiding in the arms of branching corals in calm, shallow waters.
When the fish grow up, they lose their forehead bars, their black bodies lighten to gray, and the white side-spots fade.
When I stopped at a tank to admire these colorful Hawaii natives, I noticed one youngster nestled among a large anemone’s waving tentacles. As I watched, other young alo’ilo’i joined in, and soon five or six of these little black-and-white fish were rolling in and rubbing against the anemone’s stinging appendages.
I had never seen this species do this before. I watched for a long time and remembered seeing orange clownfish, also members of the damselfish family, doing the exact same thing. The clownfish don’t get stung by their anemone buddies, and neither did the Hawaiian Dascyllus.
Apparently, when given an anemone, Hawaii’s damsels like to cuddle up as much as their South Pacific clownfish relatives.
Soon after I left the damsels, I stopped in front of a tank of garden eels. My jaw hung open as I watched one fully emerge from its sandy home and hang in midwater.
Garden eels live in large groups beyond the reef in about 80 feet of water. There, they back into the sand, and stretch from their holes into the current to eat passing plankton. The scene looks like a weird stem garden.
When a diver approaches such an eel patch, the eels duck into the sand, then pop up behind you, like whack-a-moles. It’s a fantastic sight, one that for me has been too rare.
But now here they were. Not only was this the first time I’ve seen garden eels in an aquarium, but it was the first time I’ve seen one emerge completely from its hole.
I moved on, enjoying each exhibit. Even the octopus here sat up and stared me in the eye, something that rarely happens in an aquarium. I later learned this was no accident. Due to some creative glasswork in the octopus’s tank, the creature usually faces forward.
Maui’s new aquarium does have some bugs to work out. Fish identification signs are sorely lacking, and residents need family passes to afford this pricey place. Also the superb restaurant and gift shop are off limits to non-aquarium users, a policy that doesn’t make sense.
That said, I loved my visit to the Maui Ocean Center. This novel facility is shaped like the ocean, blends in with the ocean, and made me feel part of the ocean.
There’s nothing like it on Oahu — but there should be.