Photo: Debra Baker · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Description
- 📏 up to 2 m
- 🌊 outer slopes, passes, deep lagoons
- 🛡️ Endangered (IUCN)
The humphead wrasse is the largest of the wrasses: a big bump on the forehead, thick fleshy lips and fine coloured lines around the eye. It can live for more than thirty years. It feeds on molluscs, sea urchins and even spiny starfish that it swallows without trouble. Born female, humphead wrasses later become male.
Did you know?
The humphead wrasse is one of the stars of the lagoon: it readily comes to meet divers. Highly sought after, it is now threatened and fishing for it is strictly regulated. In Tahitian it is called mara (adult) or parahirahi (juvenile).
Source: TAXREF vernacular database
Tahitian names: TAXREF (INPN/MNHN) – Society Islands. French name: Napoléon.
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