It was years of diving before Murray and I saw our first frog fish. It was in the Maldives. The frog fish was bright red and he was walking, not swimming, across his little patch of coral. Funny looking creatures. Not very fish like. A very rare sighting.
Here in Kona, we have seen four frog fish. FOUR! And they are huge! By frog fish standard, of course. And ugly.
The frog fish are whitish here, to blend in with the bleached coral. Normally they are green but they adapt to their surroundings so the ones we have spotted are white.
Their faces look almost human. Maybe there is a human trapped inside and that is why they walk instead of swim. Wait a minute! We see one swimming today! Our dive master, A, had never seen one swimming before, so we are treated with quite a rare sight.
They don’t seem to propel themselves with their legs, but with the fin on their back plus their tail. A definitely odd movement that somehow keeps them afloat and moving forward.
The frog fish like to blend in with their surroundings, but this frog fish has a warped sense of blending in. He has lodged himself in the crook of the chain at the bottom of the mooring line that our boat is tied to. Hanging upside down, trying to look like a chunk of coral.
Frog fish. Unique, odd, ugly but somehow fascinating.