Here's an unusual fish to see around the main Hawaiian Islands. We were lucky to observe quite a number of the beryciform fish Beryx decadactylus, also called the alfonsin.
ALFONSIN

Here are some large (and quite valuable) gold coral trees (or they might be something not-so-valuable called the branching bamboo coral!). There are usually a lot of synaphobranchid eels, possibly Meadia abyssalis, swimming around the tree or intertwined in the branches.
CORAL1

This is definitely a gold coral tree.
CORAL2

According to Bruce Mundy, this is Grammicolepis brachiusculus, a zeiform fish related to the John Dorys.
GRAMMICOLEPIS

Bruce thinks this small fish is another type of zeiform fish, called Cyttomimus stelgis.
CYTTOMIMUS

We still aren't sure what this little fish is. It might be a species of basslet, possibly Grammatonotus laysanus. Note the caudal filament barely visible in the shadow.
GRAMMATONOTUS1 GRAMMATONOTUS2

Bob Moffitt thinks that this is a species of decorator crab from the family homolidae, possibly Paramola japonica.
CRAB1

Bob identified this crab as belonging to the family cancridae, Cancer macrophthalmus.
CRAB2

There were a lot of sharks in the area, most of them were dogfish, Squalus mitsukurii.
SHARK

Here's a very large stingray nearly underneath the submersible, this is Plesiobatis daviesi.
RAY

This is the amberjack, Seriola dumerili, also called kahala. It is very abundant and is considered a nuisance fish due to ciguatera. One of these rammed the submersible during our dive, apparently attacking the sub's light.
KAHALA1

Here's a juvenile of one of the species we were trying to survey. This is the deepwater snapper ehu, or Etelis carbunculus.
EHU1

Ehu were not very afraid of the submersible lights, unlike their relatives the onaga.
EHU2 EHU4

This is the other species we were trying to survey. This is the deepwater snapper onaga, Etelis coruscans.
ONAGA1

Another onaga, and a school of boarfish, Antigonia.
ONAGA2

And more onaga.
ONAGA3

And even more onaga.
ONAGA4

How's this for quantity?
ONAGA5

Here's a couple of BIG ones.
ONAGA6 ONAGA7

This small onaga is being measured with our laser pointers, see the two small dots?
ONAGA8

This gives you an idea of what our view was like from the sub's portholes (actually this is a shot from the outside digital camera, but this is how fish would look off in the distance).
ONAGA9

Here's some interesting behavior, small onaga and an ehu in a group. Can you tell which is which?
EHUONA1 EHUONA2

This interesting looking fish is called a pomfret (Eumegistus illustris), from the family Bramidae. It is a seldom seen deepwater species. This image is animated, if it doesn't move you might need to upgrade your browser or check it's settings.
POMFRET

Let's start with some invertebrates, this is a sea slug, possible Pleurobranchus, next to a Laemonema rhodochir from the family moridae.
SLUG1

These hermit crabs, Parapagurus dofleini, have large sea anemones, Stylobates aeneces, on their shells for protection from predators. The crab's original shell can be absorbed and the sea anemone will secrete a new hard casing for the crab. So no need to hunt for a larger shell as the crab grows.
HERMIT1

Here's an unidentified eel.
EEL1

Laemonema rhodochir is a morid fish related to the codfishes.
LIMO1

This is another morid, a species of Physiculus.
PHYSIC1

This fish lives in close association with certain types of deepwater corals, it's name is Hollardia goslinei, a spikefish in the family triacanthidae.
HOLLAR1

This fish has an unusual rake-like apparatus under his chin. This is a type of sea-robin or gurnard, Satyrichthys engyceros (family triglidae).
SATYR1

Here's an unidentified scorpionfish with some distinctive cirri on his head (family scorpaenidae).
SCORP2

This is called the deepsea moi or barbudo. It's name is Polymixia berndti (family polymixiidae).
POLY1

This is Bembrops filifera, a fish from the sand diver family (bempropsidae).
BEMB1

Here'a a nice closup of a small fish called Chlorophthalmus proridens, a relative of the lizardfishes (family aulopidae), sometimes called the greeneye.
CHLOR1

This silvery fish was hanging vertically in a head-up pose, slowly flicking his small tail fin. It might be something from the family paralepididae, gempylidae, or trichiuridae.
PARA1

These are Caelorinchus spilonotus (family macrouridae), Nezumia propinqua (also family macrouridae), Bembrops filifera (family bembropsidae), and Nezumia propinqua again, respectively.
FISH2 FISH3 FISH4 FISH5

This is Chaunax umbrinus, an angler fish which we encountered quite often (family chaunacidae).
CHAUN2

This scary looking fish is called a goosefish, Lophiomus miacanthus (family lophiidae). In the lower shot, the blurry dark object above his head is his lure which he can wave around on a pole to attract something to eat.
LOPH2 LOPH3

This is large stingray, Plesiobatis daviesi, which was missing part of his tail and had lots of scars on his body.
RAY2

This is an electric stingray, possibly of the genus Torpedo. See how his tail fin is more fish-like than whip-like.
RAY3

Here's an neat looking crab, probably a rake crab, Cyrtomaia smithi, showing some interesting behavior.
CRAB3

At one location the seafloor was littered with an extremely high density of these sea urchins, Chaetoderma pallidum.
URCHIN1

These shrimp, Heterocarpus ensifer, were very common at nearly all depths we dove to.
SHRIMP1

This is a free-living pearlfish, Pyramodon ventralis. Most other pearlfishes make their homes inside sea cucumbers, using the "back door" so to speak.
OPH1

This might be a morid, or it might not be...
OPH2

This is called Glossanodon struhsakeri, or deep sea smelt.
GLOSS1

This appears to be the right-eyed flounder Poecilopsetta hawaiiensis, characterized by two spots on the caudal fin.
FLOUND1

A lizardfish of the genus Synodus.
SYNOD1

Ditto...
SYNOD2

This is a conger eel, possibly Acromycter alcocki, Bathyconger guttulatus, B. aequoria, Bathyuroconger vicinus, or Uroconger lepturus.
EEL3

This is a type of duckbill eel, Saurenchelys stylurus, of the family Nettastomatidae.
EEL4