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 More than 2,500 species of native plants and a large number of introduced plants are found in the Hawaiian Islands, including many varieties of shrubs, trees, grasses and flowering plants.
The only mammals native to the Islands are the hoary bat, the Hawaiian Monk Seal, and the Polynesian rat, and there are very few predators. Hawaii's ecosystem supports a variety of bird and plant life, but many species (such as the Hawaiian goose) are endangered.
The state's largest mammals are the Humpback whales that migrate to warm Hawaiian waters every year to mate and calve. You can see them from the shore or on a whale-watching cruise during the winter months of December to April. These magnificent animals can grow to be as big as a school bus.
Hawaii's freshwater streams are home to a variety of native species and alien species, and the ocean surrounding the Islands hosts some of the most exotic (and delicious) fish in the world. More than 650 species of fish live in Hawaiian waters. Some of the tastiest fish are various types of tuna , open-ocean selections such as Mahimahi and Ono, and bottom-fish such as Onaga and Opakapaka.
Hawaiian waters also host about 40 different species of shark. Many of them are harmless, and the most infamous of them all, the Great White, is rarely seen in Hawaiian waters. The most common sharks in the Islands are white-tip reef sharks, gray reef sharks, black-tip reef sharks, and tiger sharks.
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