Goodbye TARP

GOODBYE TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN PARK! I'm writing this from England where I have just arrived after a wonderful three years on and off in Sabah. In memory of the place, I thought I'd post my picture from 1st September 2007 off Gaya island of perhaps the strangest and most beautiful creature I had the pleasure to meet there during the last three years: the Whip coral crab Xenocarcinus tuberculatus (family MAJIDAE).

I bowed out with a lovely day of dives (4 in all) with my daughter on 15th July 2009. I was surprised to see a new Damsel - Chromis ternatensis - which is new to the TARP aggregate fish checklist, and pleased to see a lovely Wrasse I've been keen to see in the park - Novaculichthys taeniourus (the Rockmover). As of today, my confirmed list stands at 441 plus 3 without evidence, and the confirmed aggregated TARP fish checklist weighs in at 560 plus 4 unconfirmed.

I've been so pleased to be part of this and hope that in due course, other divers and snorkellers will add entries to the aggregated list.

Pushing It

I've already mentioned the successful morning spent diving with Sabah Parks research staff on 24th June 2009. I've now had a chance to create ID cards for the endangered Bumphead Parrotfish Bolbometopon muricatum and the sumptuously decorated Angelfish Pomacanthus semicirculatus. Additionally, the day offered up a new species of Triggerfish for the aggregated TARP fish list - Balistapus undulatus (this photo comes form the Philippines but I will be uploading my poor quality image in due course), as well as a first sight of the Goby Eviota sigillata, and in a 1 metre deep foray amongst some mangrove roots (alongside tangled ropes and other manmade debris but no crocodiles): the Dartfish Parioglossus rainfordi. My personal checklist of fishes photographed in TARP now stands at 439, with the aggregated list of fish-with-evidence at 559. Of these, 444 have been noted in the last 4 years.

I'm hoping also to gain access to a list of fishes identified here by a Japanese marine biologist working with Sabah Parks a couple of years ago which I think will add 20-40 more to the list in due course. By the time I leave Sabah permanently later this month, it would be great if I had been able to coax the list to top 600 species: this would be tremendously significant for TARP and I hope it would be a stimulus to enhance the park's protection and help ward off future attempts at such astounding schemes as building a bridge to Gaya island, or a ring road and residential developments on it (believe it: I've seen the proposals vegetating where last left after being rejected, but who knows what monster resurrection might be attempted by a future Frankenstein).

Today's photo shows a Sabellid worm jockeying for space amongst a host of large coral polyps off Sapi island on 24th June 2009.

Cardinal Park

A ferocious squall hit Tunku Abdul Rahman Park on the morning of 17th June this year. Totally unexpected, the blue sky darkened in minutes and the rain flew in sideways. A calm shallow muck dive off Gaya island was transformed in minutes into a maelstrom of cloudy mud, with visibility below 1 metre, and tall waves on the surface. We abandoned it after 20 minutes, but not before surprising myself with two new Cardinal fishes - Apogon endekataenia and A. hartzfeldii. Moving to calmer sites in the shelter of Sapi island for the rest of the day, I was gratified to see another new Cardinalfish - Apogon fraenatus - and a new Goby - Valenciennea sexguttata. Two of these four are new on the aggregated TARP fish checklist too, bringing it up to 553 confirmed (and 4 unconfirmed) species.

The poor vis, even at Sapi island (where my buddy and I lost the rest of the group in one bank of particularly mirky soup) meant my focus switched to macro, and I am particularly pleased with the photo here of the centre of a partially unfolded Feather star.

63 species - 45 minutes snorkelling - Mamutik

A strange kind of Anemone to say the least, this was photographed off Sapi island back on 11th July 2008.

After a long weekend SCUBA diving near Cebu in the Philippines last month and processing all the emerging photos, I'm now able to get back to more recent events nearer home - this time a chance to test out my newly repaired video camera snorkelling off Mamutik island. Not very good I'm afraid, but it has still been possible to pick out 63 fish species during just 3/4 hour before the battery gave up. And three of these are new to my TARP fish list (now standing at 430 species), one also being new to the comprehensive TARP fish checklist (now at 551 with evidence).

The overall new fish is the Halfbeak Hyporhamphus dussumieri. The other two are the Damsel Pomacentrus simsiang and wonderfully - the Butterflyfish Chaetodon adiergastos (last listed here in 1992).

Going back to the 63 fish species in 45 minutes, I'm wondering whether there could ever be enough interest to have some sort of contest in TARP - to photograph and identify as many fish species as possible whilst snorkelling? Maybe something for the future...

Why 'Gregory'?

With its dual rhinopores at the front and gill fronds at the back, this astonishingly coloured Nudibranch can slither around in broad daylight (this one off Gaya island on 18th February 2009), safe from predation because of its toxicity - as advertised by the wild & wacky colour scheme!

As I've noted before, even snorkelling in TARP can throw up surprises - 14th April at Sapi island was no exception. As well as a much better picture for Sergeant fish Abudefduf septemfasciatus and my first sighting of an adult of the Damsel fish Chrysiptera unimaculata, three new guys appeared: tiny, unafraid Dragonet Anaora tentaculata, the Gregory Stegastes fasciolatus, and an initial phase form of the Wrasse Stethojulis bandanensis. And I'm hoping to go again this coming weekend - maybe I'll get a better shot of the latter; nice!

Mellow Yellow

A Yellow-lipped sea krait (Laticauda colubrina, family ELAPIDAE) poked prodded and slithered its way across and under shallow corals off Gaya island. Reserving its deadly venom for small fishes and invertebrates, it ignored me. It's was my first ever sighting of this species and if my air supply wasn't borderline, I'd have given it more of my attention. The day was the 4th of April 2009, a day with enough else of interest to report that I'm sorry I can't dawdle:

It ended with my first sighting of the elusive but iconic and brightly coloured Dragonet Synchiropus splendidus soon before finally surfacing; it began with a first sighting of the weird and camouflaged Flathead Platycephalus indicus (save for flashes of bright yellow in its tail when disturbed). In between I counted another 6 new species for my TARP Fishes list (now sitting at 423; the TARP collaborative list will then read 548 confirmed + 4 probables when I update it): Gobies Amblygobius nocturnus, Cryptocentrus caeruleomaculatus, Mahidolia mystacina, and the astonishingly beautiful Cryptocentrus leptocephalus; Blenny Salarius guttatus; lastly (with a rather poor photo) a juvenile specimen of Wrasse Halichoeres podostigma.

As well as some improved pictures for several old fish friends, some new colour phase fishes also presented themselves for inspection: the juvenile Boxfish Ostracion cubicus and the Dottyback Pseudochromis fuscus (both bright yellow); also a juvenile of Scolopsis margaritifera sporting its second set of colours (along with the first, they mimic different poison-fanged members of the Blenny genus Meiacanthus only one of which I have seen meaning the other is probably around somewhere in the Park yet to be discovered).

Incidentally, since posting information about my last dive in February, I have been able to identify a fish from back then which had been vexing me: Glassfish Ambassis miops.

Fangs, Babies & Butterflies

Just think - this beautiful baby sponge seen off Gaya island on 30th August 2008, may already be well on the way to being a giant barrel sponge capable of hiding Porcupinefishes or Lionfishes...

Anyway, I'm still catching up on my fish observations - this time data from 20th February this year. First a confusion to clear up: Until now, I have persisted in calling a certain type of Wrasse Oxycheilinus orientalis because a significant authority suggests it. However, having read further, I am pretty certain that what I have seen is actually called O. rhodochrous even if the first authority doesn't recognise it. And whilst reviewing my photos of the suspects, I realised that one was just wrong. Further investigation convinced me that in the past I have actually seen a second species (not yet listed for TARP by myself nor by Gerry Allen previously) called Oxycheilinus bimaculatus.

Alongside this are three more fishes not previously listed in TARP by either of us: Moray Gymnothorax zonipectis (normally only visible at night so very nice to spot on a daytime dive), Wrasse Pseudocheilinus hexataenia (which hides most of the time and only appeared to me in the background of a photo of another fish), and yet another large Grouper species (hooray!) Plectropomus leopardus.

Lastly, there were two special fishes which Gerry had already seen but I hadn't: Butterflyfish Chaetodon auriga (I sometimes wonder why the Butterflyfish presence seems to have dwindled since 1992), and the very localised (known only from the coast of Sabah and Palawan island) Fangblenny Meiacanthus geminatus; with its poison fangs, it has prompted some very good mimics - at least one of which (the juvenile of Scolopsis margaritifera) can also be seen in TARP.

In total then, my TARP list stands at 414 fish species, and the combined list total at 548 (it will take me a while yet to update this list on line).

2% More

It had to be done sometime: a photo of a nemo-fish - this one is Amphiprion ocellaris (family POMACENTRIDAE) photographed off Gaya island on 18th February 2009. All in all it proved a satisfying day including photos of 8 new fish species taking my checklist total up to 408.

Really satisfying was the Blenny Ecsenius monoculus (apparently strictly limited to Sabah and the Sulu islands of the far southern Philippines). Goby Eviota guttata was cute too along with Gazza minuta (a little Toothpony). Under a jetty drifted a silent shoal of the Cardinalfish Sphaeramia orbicularis (a black and silver version of the better known Pyjama cardinal), and loitering around its crevice in a big coral bommie in shallow water was my first Dottyback for TARP - Pseudochromis fuscus. A couple of handsome Filefishes - Pervagor janthinosoma - squared off against each other in the presence of a potential mate (otherwise normally they are very shy and retiring). Out to sea off Sapi island in a deep outer reef, I saw my first Greensnout parrotfish - Scarus spinus (it's a lovely site with many types of Parrotfishes, relieving some of my previous fears about their apparent scarcity in TARP). Lastly in a mixed shoal of Barracuda, I photographed Sphyraena flavicauda for my first time in the park (I've seen it several times before here but not got the camera to it).

That's not all though - as you might expect during such a productive day: I got a photo of the awesome bright yellow morph of the Trumpetfish Aulostomus chinensis, as well as the beautifully barred juvenile Wrasse Cheilinus fasciatus. I was also rewarded with better photos of the Fang-blenny mimic Petroscirtes breviceps (previously I had also misdiagnosed it as P. variabilis), Damsel Pomacentrus philippinus, and off Sapi again the Parrotfishes Scarus forsteni (Terminal Phase) and Scarus niger.

Brill!

Tourism 2008 Figures Equivocal

Preliminary 2008 Sabah visitor statistics are in. I've added them to my historical graph for ease of reference. Overall, numbers appear to be down around 7% on 2007. However the number of visitors from non-contiguous countries is barely down (less than 2%) and the number of non-Sabahan Malaysian visitors is up for the ninth year in a row: this time by over 7%. The apparent down-turn is actually caused by a big drop (60%) in the number of visitors from Indonesia (the drop in their actual numbers matches the total drop in all visitor numbers to within 1%) and I would be surprised if this represented a significant group of true tourists; given the global economic downturn I am quite surprised that non-Indonesian visitor numbers have not plummeted. Incidentally, the figures for the month of January 2009 appear to reflect this argument in comparison to the month of January 2008 as well (aside from a significant drop in South Korean visitors).

I'm a huge fan of these large soft corals (photographed on 30th August 2008 off Gaya island). I didn't touch them though so I can't confirm if they were from the family CLAVULARIIDAE (if so they would withdraw into tubes) or XENIIDAE (nowhere to hide).

Potential Bleaching Predicted from June 2009

For the first time this year, NOAA's 18 week forecast is predicting potential bleaching conditions off western Sabah (starting at the end of May 2009). See their animation for details. Worrying... particularly hot on the heels of the potential severe bleaching warning in the southwest Pacific. Let's hope that neither the prediction climbs into a worse category, nor comes true!

Here's a 'critter' that might be affected if it does: hard coral Euphyllia divisa (family EUPHYLLIDAE) photographed off Gaya island on 1st September 2007.

Hairy monsters

Nearly the end of 2008 and loads to reflect on this year in TARP Watch (which I won't here). But the place still continues to surprise me: on Christmas eve, I was snorkelling for only an hour off Sapi island and photographed examples of another 5 species new to me here! This takes my total to 389. (The combined total of all known recorded identified fishes since 1992 now stands at 529; contrast this with the most speciose part of the Caribbean: Bonaire with 487 species logged in the REEF database). December 24th's additions were: Needlefish Strongylura incisa, Damselfishes Chrysiptera unimaculata (Juvenile) and Pomacentrus dickii, Sea Chub/ Drummer Kyphosus vaigiensis (also a new family here for me - KYPHOSIDAE), and lastly the Boxfish Ostracion meleagris (this one male).

Perhaps the craziest-haired fish of 2008 is shown here off Gaya island on 11th July - Antennarius striatus (family ANTENNARIIDAE).

527 catalogued fish species in TARP

This Squirrelfish Myripristis hexagona (Family HOLOCENTRIDAE) at Agill reef off Gaya island on 11th September 2008 probably thought it was nicely hidden; nicely framed more like! Anyway, I am pleased to announce the launch today of a collaborative wiki-based checklist of all 527 known fish species in TARP (not merely my own which already reach 384).

Hotlips and a purple sponge

20th September 2008 was a low visibility, somewhat tired kind of a day. I missed a photo of a new Angelfish to TARP - Centropyge vroliki - so I haven't yet added it to my Checklist; also an unusual Grouper and some kind of Pipefish which had disappeared by the time our dive leader could attract my attention. But lunch on Sapi island brought to the attention of my camera a pair of strange leaf-like fish in only a few centimetres of water which Gerry Allen later helped me to identify as a juvenile of Plectorhynchus gibbosus (better known as 'Harry hotlips'!) I also photographed a Wrasse new to me: Pteragogus cryptus, and the Rabbitfish Siganus corallinus, bringing me up to 377 fish species in the Park. (I also managed to replace my embarrassing splodge of a picture of Emperor Lethrinus erythropterus.)

As always in low vis, I fall back on close-ups such as this strikingly contrasted Comatulid Feather star on a purple sponge background, taken on the same day at Agil reef off Gaya island.

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Fairies & Fangs

A beautiful Boxfish (Family OSTRACIIDAE) - Ostracion cubicus; new to me in the Park back on 11th September this year at Hanging garden off Gaya island, this one being cleaned by a juvenile Cleaner wrasse. A couple of other new fishes too: the Damselfish Neopomacentrus azysron and Wrasse Macropharyngodon negrosensis taking me to a total of 374 species in the Park.

Thanks to Dr Hioyuki Tanaka too for help in identifying the Juvenile Fairy wrasse Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura with its little white nose spot. The day also saw access to better shots to update or add slight colour variations to Fangblenny Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos (the blue form which likes to mimic the Cleaner wrasse seen in today's picture), Goby Amblygobius hectori, Damselfish Hemiglyphidodon plagiometopon, Blenny Salarias obscurus, and the initial phase of Wrasse Labrichthys unilineatus.

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Cleaner shrimps & fish bombs

9th September 2008 saw this cleaner shrimp (Family PALAEMONIDAE, Genus Urocaridella) leave the resident Stingray in the tyres off the south side of Sapi island, and make his way hopefully towards my camera housing. Pretty. Pity about the poor visibility in the park though, which below 18 metres off Sapi got down to only 2 metres! Anyway, above that, it was a nice enough couple of dives involving a new Boxfish species, for my checklist. Including the return to Agil reef off the west end of Gaya island where I picked up a couple of new species of fish (more in a later blog), and some nicer photos of some rarer stuff previously seen, it turned out to be a productive day.

Incidentally, an alleged fish bomber was recently arrested in KK.

Snowflakes and sunshine

Another great day for snorkelling - Thursday off Sapi island saw the emergence in shallow water of a Snowflake moray eel (Echidna nebulosa) on a feeding frenzy - only to slither off into hiding when it was all over. Still, it attracted some interesting scavenging hangers-on which would normally have skittered off at my appearance, the Bluelined hind (Cephalopholis formosa) being their cheerleader.

Friday morning was also encouraging, with more interest expressed in the possibility of publishing my guide to the fishes of TARP. Watch this space.

Today's photo is of a beautifully convoluted Hard coral from the family AGARICIIDAE, taken off Gaya island's southeast side on 27th October 2007.

Shock & Awe

My youngest son and I were glued to the television last Sunday, watching the first of the BBC's new three part series called 'Pacific Abyss'. Stunning and inspiring to say the least! Diving to the so-called 'Twilight zone' between 60 and 150 metres, it was astonishing to me that so much reef life - and several new fish species - could aggregate so far down. Talk about jealous! And for my 11 year old, hugely keen as he is on natural history, came fighting talk about becoming a marine biologist... Hopefully we'll find a way to watch the second in the series next Sunday.

My picture today is more mundane, but striking none-the-less: it is a series of pipes laid down by a Sponge which I think can be located in the family THEONELLIDAE, found back on 23rd June 2007 near the Hanging Garden off Gaya island.

Incidentally, I have withdrawn my experimental TARP fish identification key website for the time being - after reviewing it, I don't think it is fit for purpose and I will ponder its replacement further. The checklist and album remain in place.

18 new fish species in 1 day

2nd July 2008 proved an amazing phenomenon. Whatever happened (I only visited familiar dive sites - although the visibility was unusually good), it was a bumper day for new species to add to my checklist - over 5% of my total list added in three dives, 2 years after starting the initiative (now standing at a total of 329 species). This guy was one of them - Pomacentrus nagasakiensis, a plain little damselfish with an unique tail pattern, seen on Hanging Gardens off Gaya island.

The others were: the Cardinalfish Apogon sealei (apparently generally rare); Damselfishes Cheiloprion labiatus (puckered lips), Chrysiptera springeri (dazzlingly blue), Pomacentrus amboinensis (unobtrusive); Parrotfishes Chlorurus bleekeri (an Initial Phase morph), Chlorurus capistratoides (apparently unusually far north), Scarus dimidiatus (another Initial Phase fish); the Dartfish Ptereleotris evides (a gorgeous pair circling high above the reef); the Blenny Salarias obscurus (supposedly localised to the Philippines); my first Wormfish Gunnellichthys viridescens; Wrasses Halichoeres prosopeion (a Juvenile wildly different from its Adult morph), Hemigymnus fasciatus (a Juvenile, barred and buzzing round like a bumblebee), Labrichthys unilineatus (both Adult morphs with their tube-forming lips); Goatfish Mulloidichthys flavolineatus (not uncommon but always previously fleeing as my camera turned towards it); the Goby Oplopomus caninoides (the real one); Ghost pipefish Solenostomus cyanopterus (looking like a dead leaf); last but not least the Triggerfish Sufflamen chrysopterum (it's silhouette an angular mosaic of triangles).

Housekeeping finds 2 fish

Wading through the backlog of unsorted photos in the last few days has led me to 2 fishes I couldn't identify at the time, but with help from Gerry Allen on an analogous example sent to me to identify from Lankayan island off eastern Sabah, I realised I had photographed (and have now added) Chromis cinerascens in its nuptial colours (a somewhat scruffy wedding outfit I have to say). Going way back to only my second day of diving ever at TARP, a new book I got for my birthday (Kuiter & Debelius World Atlas of Marine Fishes) has helped me place an unusual and normally cryptic Grouper - Epinephelus ongus. Neither photo was terribly good, so I have recruited a Map puffer fish (Arothron mappa - family TETRAODONTIDAE) taken the same day (17th May 2006) off Gaya island to play best man.

Incidentally, I have fully updated the species checklist which now lists all 311 TARP fish species logged so far.

309 fish species; 2 undescribed

Not only a beautiful day, but a productive one for diving; 28th June 2008 revealed 5 species I was previously unaware of in TARP (including a Goby Asterropteryx striata, a Wrasse Macropharyngodon meleagris, a resplendant Bicolor Angelfish - only the fourth type I've seen in the park - Centropyge bicolor, and the largest variety of reef Filefish - Aluterus scriptus. Of even greater interest was a second species of Goby new to me, this one from the Genus Cryptocentrus which after discussion with Gerry Allen turns out to be as yet undescribed by Biologists (though Gerry and others have seen examples now in various places, not least off nearby Palawan island in the Philippines). In summary, I have now recorded & photographed 309 species of fish in TARP, including 2 species of Goby not yet scientifically described.

An encounter with one of the park's resident stingrays also gave me a much better photo than previously, causing me to change my original diagnosis of Himantura granulata to Himantura fai.

In addition, I was able to capture pictures for the first time (adding relevant panels to my ID album) an Initial Phase form of the Yellowtail tubelip (Diproctacanthus xanthurus) and similarly of the Bird Wrasse (Gomphosus varius).

Lastly, better photos have allowed me to upgrade the ID panels for the Squirrelfish Myripristis hexagona, the Surgeonfish Ctenochaetus binotatus, the Goby Amblyeleotris diagonalis, the Slingjaw wrasse Epibulus insidiator (Initial Phase), the Bird wrasse Gomphosus varius (Terminal Phase), another Wrasse Oxycheilinus digramma, the Puffer fish Arothron nigropunctatus, and the Toby Canthigaster papua.

This cute little fellow (Arothron nigropunctatus) from the family TETRAODONTIDAE is yet another colour form of this extraordinarily varied species; he appeared on the day in question whilst I was diving at the Hanging Gardens off Gaya island.