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Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Kona Coast location page.
Overview
A Kona lava-reef dive built around a hollow pinnacle, swim-throughs and small arches, with schools of pyramid butterflyfish giving the site its name. The reef starts in recreational depths but drops toward deeper sand channels, so guides usually keep newer divers on the upper structure while advanced divers explore the darker ledges for eels, lobsters and cleaner shrimp.
Briefing note
Treat the swim-throughs as optional scenic routes, not mandatory passages. Surge can make the arches uncomfortable even when the surface looks calm, and boats may substitute another Kona reef if the afternoon wind or swell has built.
What you'll see
5 species curated- year-roundPyramid butterflyfish
- year-roundHawaiian green sea turtle
- year-roundConger eel
- year-roundHawaiian flagtail
- year-roundPeacock flounder
Sightings evidence
1 record on file- high confidencePyramid butterflyfish
- Last confirmed
- May 2026
- Recent records
- 130 within 10 km
Sources & methodology
How we summarise this
We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.
Sources
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
- Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
- OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
- iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
- WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
- FishBase — FishBase Consortium
- Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
- REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation
Conditions
| Month | Water | Visibility | Current |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 24–25 °C | 15–30 m | mild |
| Feb | 24–25 °C | 15–30 m | mild |
| Mar | 24–25 °C | 15–30 m | mild |
| Apr | 24–26 °C | 18–35 m | mild |
| May | 25–26 °C | 18–35 m | mild |
| Jun | 25–27 °C | 18–35 m | mild |
| Jul | 26–27 °C | 18–35 m | mild |
| Aug | 26–28 °C | 18–35 m | mild |
| Sep | 26–28 °C | 18–35 m | mild |
| Oct | 26–27 °C | 18–35 m | mild |
| Nov | 25–26 °C | 15–30 m | mild |
| Dec | 24–26 °C | 15–30 m | mild |
Season calendar
Peak season highlighted · current month outlined
Gear for this site
Beyond the basic kit- Dive computer — The pinnacle has attractive deeper ledges and sand channels, so nitrogen loading can creep up if the group spends too long below 25 m.
- Small torch — A compact light helps reveal cleaner shrimp, lobster and eels under the lava ledges without turning the dive into an overhead penetration.
Next step
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