aatuti

The Norfolk Island Aatuti

In the waters around Norfolk Island the you are alwats guaranteed to see a number of local fish. Amongst these is the fish we call the Aatuti.

The aatuti is an excitable little bugger that will swim right up to you, despite its small size, and audibly warn you off with a loud noise that sounds like "book book". This is the reason that on Lord Howe Island they call it the Book Book fish.

Norfolk Islanders grow up rock fishing with bamboo poles off the rocky shore around the island. Small reef fish such as the Aatuti are very often a local delicacy, with the whole family going swimming and fishing in the traditional ways, then cooking up a fresh lunch right there on the beach.

These days as the owner and operator of Bounty Divers, I tend not to fish as much as I used to when I was a kid growing up here on Norfolk Island, and instead prefer to watch or photgraph them in there natural environment. Just have a look at this little bugger swimming right up into the lense.