Bigeye Trevally

Photo: Mark Rosenstein · CC BY-NC

Bigeye trevally aggregate in tight tornadic schools of several hundred fish at Naviti Reef Wall, a classic schooling behaviour thought to confuse and overwhelm visual predators during attempted strikes. These schools spend daylight hours in mid-water column and descend to the reef at dusk to hunt as individuals or loose groups, taking advantage of the disorientation of smaller fish at the transition between day and night. Their large eyes — an adaptation to low-light foraging — make them equally effective hunters in the dim conditions beneath the overhanging reef wall.