10/15/2026
If you've snorkeled in Hawaii, you've probably heard it. A steady crunching under the water, like someone chewing gravel. That's a parrotfish eating.
They scrape algae off the coral all day, which keeps the reef from getting overgrown. They also bite off bits of coral as they go, grind it up, and pass what they can't digest as fine white sand. A big one can make more than a ton of sand a year.
So a good share of the beach you're lying on came out of a fish.
Our new video on the uhu:
That crunching sound you hear when you snorkel over a Hawaiian reef...
