Visiting Hawaii's Waterfalls May Give You A Glimpse Of A Fish Doing The Impossible

Fish swim. Birds fly. Humans walk. These seem like pretty fundamental rules of the animal kingdom until you witness something that breaks them entirely. Standing beside one of Hawaii's thundering waterfalls, watching tons of water crash down volcanic rocks, you might catch a glimpse of nature's ultimate overachiever: a fish inching its way up the vertical stone face against torrents of cascading waters, defying every expectation of what fish are supposed to do.

The Hawaiian Islands overflow with natural wonders that challenge assumptions, from waterfalls along the Hamakua Coast to towering cascades hidden in Akaka Falls State Park. These waterfalls, drawing in thousands of tourists, harbor one of nature's most improbable athletes. Despite being only an inch long, the Nopoli rock-climbing goby has turned what should be certain death into an elaborate courtship ritual, all in service of finding love in the stream pools above.

Ancient Hawaiians had long recognized these tenacious creatures before science did. There's even an old Hawaiian saying about how the Nopili clings, suggesting that luck will follow suit. After witnessing the spectacle firsthand, it wouldn't be a stretch to think that they were onto something.

To help put things into perspective, the Nopoli goby measures an inch long (about the size of a paperclip — though in adulthood, gobies could grow up to 7 inches) and it hauls itself up waterfalls as high as 330 feet (about the size of a soccer pitch). In human terms, think of it as you scaling Mount Everest vertically while someone is pouring the entire contents of the Niagara Falls on your head. The physics of it sounds impossible, but that's the reality of these fish as they make their way up wet volcanic rock in a caterpillar-like motion.

The gobies don't swim upstream like salmon do — they literally become a living suction cup. When these fish decide they're ready to mate, they undergo a transformation over the span of two days where their mouth migrates from the front of their head down to their chin, creating a second sucker to complement the belly sucker all gobies possess. It does not sound at all pleasant, putting it mildly — though to be fair, neither does scaling waterfalls nearly 4,000 times their size — but that is what equips them with dual-action climbing gear, allowing them to alternate between their mouth and belly suckers to scale wet rocks.

If you're lucky enough to witness this treacherous climb during breeding season in Hawaii, you'll see these magical fish shining in blue and red colors that shift with their mood. Nature really is wonderful. For those seeking more of these wonders, these bioluminescent waters of Utila Island in Honduras would be right up your alley.