Sea Life

Sea Birds: Sea birds are used to find land. However, not all seabirds are useful for finding land. The birds that are most useful are the birds that fly out to sea in the morning to fish and return to their home island at night to rest Thus, at dawn the direction the birds are coming from may indicate the direction of an island; the direction the birds are going to in the afternoon indicates the direction of an island.

The two most reliable land-finding birds are the manu o Ku, or white tern and the noio, or noddy tern. See “Fish, Birds, and Mammals of the Open Ocean” (PVS website). For more on these two birds, see the following Wikipedia sites:

White Tern (Gygis alba) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Tern
Brown Noddy or Common Noddy (Anous stolidus) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Noddy
Noio (Black Noddy (Anous minutus) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Noddy

Other birds are sighted in the Pacific open ocean. As these birds may stay out at sea for more than a day, soaring and fishing (and some live most of their lives on the open sea, except when they breed on land), the direction of their flights does not necessarily indicate the direction of land. For information about open ocean seabirds, see the following Wikipedia links:

Manu Ka'upu, or Albatrosses (family Diomedeidae) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatross
'Ua'u kani, or Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge-tailed_Shearwater
'Ake 'ake, or Storm-Petrels (family Hydrobatidae) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm-petrel
'Iwa, or Frigate Birds (family Fregatidae) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigate-bird
'A, or Boobies (family Sulidae) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booby
Ko'ae, or Tropic Birds (Genus: Phaethon) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropicbird
Ko'ae 'ula, or Red-tailed Tropicbirds (Phaethon rubricauda) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-tailed_Tropicbird
Ko'ae kea, or White-tailed Tropicbirds (Phaethon lepturus) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_Tropicbird

Edible Pelagic Fish of the Pacific Ocean: The crew of the Hokule’a deploys fishing lines when voyaging and catch various fish for consumption. Although seafearers have been known to eat seabirds when no other food is available, fish is the preferred fresh meat because it generally tastes better. Among the fish considered ono, or delicious and best for eating are the aku (skipjack tuna), ahi (yellowfin tuna), mahimahi and ono (wahoo). See “Fishing Aboard Hokule'a” at the PVS website - http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/lifefishing.html

For more information about the edible fish caught on the open ocean, see the following Wikipedia links:

Aku, or skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skipjack_tuna
Ahi, or yellowfin tuna, (Thunnus albacares) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowfin_tuna
Mahimahi, or dolphin-fish, dolphin, or dorado (Coryphaena hippurus) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahi-mahi
Ono, or wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahoo
A'u, or swordfish - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swordfish
A'u, or marlin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlin
A'u lepe, or Indo-Pacific sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pacific_sailfish