Understanding, enjoying and caring for our oceans
Ralph Foster from the SA Museum is keen to find out if divers in SA have seen any bicoloured specimens of Whitebarred Boxfish, Anoplocapros lenticularis. He is referring to orange & white colouration without any dark markings. He says that orange & white Whitebarred Boxfish without any dark markings are […]
Congratulations to downunderpix’s Paul Macdonald & Elizabeth Solich on having the little rod-less anglerfish that they have been finding at Edithburgh confirmed as being a new species that has been given the name Narungga Frogfish, Histiophryne narungga. It was previously thought to have been the cryptic or rodless anglerfish, Histiophryne […]
This article was inspired by Jenni Wyrsta’s photo of a dolphin playing with what appears to be a red gurnard, Chelidonichthys kumu. Jenni posted this photo on Facebook on 1st August 2020: – A dolphin playing with what appears to be a red gurnard (Photo taken by Jenni Wyrsta) Further investigation […]
David Muirhead recently found out via the iNaturalist “About link” that many (most?) of the world’s 100+ species* of clingfish, especially those in the miniaturisation clade, which includes most of the southern Australian species, have a mucous coat that is distasteful to humans and outright toxic to their predators. * […]
I wanted to do a shallow sub-tidal snorkel at the cliff base at Carrickalinga. I was able to do a shore entry via a walking track from the North Bay car park. This location has been part of a Green Sanctuary Zone in the Carrickalinga Cliffs MPA since 2014. (Personal […]
Fish are now thought to feel pain in a way that is comparable to land animals. Although not all scientists agree, the consensus that fishes actually do suffer like us is fast approaching. There is also much work being done on fish cognition and emotion, which shows that fish “have […]
More on Mimicry, Mutualism and Symbiosis by Steve Reynolds I keep returning back to my roots. As reported in The Colour of Fish in 2017, my first ever attempt at writing about marine life started in 1979 after I had read an article titled “Colour it Blue” by respected fishing […]
More Senator Fish Behaviour by Steve Reynolds In my report Recent Return to Rapid I wrote about how I came across a male senator wrasse just laying ahead of me. I didn’t know what the senator wrasse was doing so intently. At the time, I thought that perhaps it was […]
Recent Return to Rapid by Steve Reynolds I returned to Rapid Bay jetties, for the first time in two months, for a dive on 5th June. My dive was particularly enjoyable for a number of reasons. Apart from seeing the moonlighter with the unusual colour pattern on its right side, […]
More About Peculiar Colour Patterns in Fish by Steve Reynolds I was happy to see a few good-sized Moonlighters, Tilodon sexfasciatus, swimming beneath the old Rapid Bay jetty during my dive on 5th June 2020. I was also very surprised to see the unusual Moonlighter previously seen by David Muirhead, as […]