BLACK DURGONS (MELICHTHYS NIGER) HAVE LONG BEEN BOTH A FAVORITE FISH OF MINE and a challenge to photograph. A favorite because I like their dramatic effect – all that blackness with blue stripes along their anterior dorsal and anal fins – and their wiggly technique of swimming powered by those fins. A challenge because, well, they’re black. They suck up light like a black hole. And (see above), they’re wiggly. I’ve shot more black, blobby
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A STUNNING VIDEO OF PERMANENTLY MATED ANGLERFISHES has been captured by two marine biologists in the Azores, in the Atlantic Ocean off Portugal’s coast. As deep-sea denizens, anglerfishes are best known for the bioluminescent lures projected from their heads, positioned to attract prey in the dark surrounding waters. With long, sharp teeth, they appear quite fierce, but because of the depths at which they live, much about them is a mystery. REMARKABLE MATING PROCESS But
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WHAT’S MORE ENDEARING THAN WATCHING A TRUNKFISH SWIM? Watching a baby trunkfish jiggle about trying to. Trunkfishes at their best are relatively inept swimmers, with bulky, triangular bodies and limited tailfin propulsion. They row furiously, they move slowly and awkwardly. As juveniles, they’re small and round. Their tails are barely there, almost negligible, making for less control, with a certain amount of yeeing and yawing. It’s both irresistible to watch them work to master their
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THIS LITTLE GOLDENTAIL EEL used to live in a coralhead right at the top of the house reef at Buddy Dive Resort on Bonaire. I used to stop by and say hello every time I did a dive there. One year, it was joined by its distant chain moray cousin – two wild and crazy guys living it in the same efficiency apartment. Small, but a waterfront view! GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN After that
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MY FAVORITE FISHES TO ENCOUNTER ON THE REEF are three-spot damselfishes (Stegastes planifrons), feisty little guys (usually three to four inches long) that sometimes find you before you find them. That’s because they’re herbivores – algae eaters – who “farm” algae patches for their personal consumption. They constantly weed out the algae they don’t want, to make room for the types they want to encourage. “GET OFF MY LAWN!” And they guard their little gardens
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– THERE ARE LOTS OF FISH IN THE SEA, the saying goes, and it turns out that most of them are bristlemouths, a fish you probably never heard of. TRILLIONS OF THEM It’s a small fish “of the middle depths that glows in the dark and can open its mouth extraordinarily wide, baring needle-like fangs – is the most numerous vertebrae on earth,” says science writer William J. Broad in a recent article in the New
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PARROTFISH ARE SO COLORFUL, SO RELATIVELY APPROACHABLE AND SO ABUNDANT ON TROPICAL REEFS that it’s easy to take them for granted and focus on looking for “exciting” animals like sharks, frogfish and seahorses. It doesn’t help that, often, the species of parrotfishes are hard to identify. SPECIES, PHASES, COLORS & PATTERNS In reality, parrotfishes live complex lives that can involve changes of colors, patterns, size and gender. At one time naturalists thought there were about 350
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EACH TIME, I DIVE FLOWER GARDENS BANKS NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY, I APPRECIATE IT MORE. After my last trip, I realized I had seen at least four fishes and two invertebrates I had never observed anywhere else. They’re presumably present elsewhere – but in 700 dives over 23 years, I’ve never seen them. And I focus on the marine life wherever I dive. 1) REEF SCORPIONFISH I only found this little guy after the fact in
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