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.

Bumpheads & Blenny Hunting

It was a major privilege yesterday, to be asked to accompany Sabah Parks staff on the hunt for a purportedly new species of Blenny. Sure enough, we found several colonies so the process of detailed description can eventually begin. Led by Irwan Isnain (Research Coordinator for Western Sabah), Jim and Roslee were the intrepid photographers in our troupe, with Boy our amenable boatman. Thanks guys!

Also fantastic, was the first viewing in TARP both for me and Irwan (who dives more than I do here), of a juvenile Bumphead Parrotfish (listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List)! Ensuring no net fishing is done in the Park has gone up a notch in my priority list now (if it could get any higher).

Added to this was my first sighting here of the sumptuously blue-margined Semicircle Angelfish. (I will process these later for the TARP checklist; this is just a taster.)

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!

400th Fish Species Caught on Camera

I'm pretty certain that the soft coral pictured here off Sapi island exactly a year ago (6 April 2008) is a member of the family Xeniidae. That should make up for yesterday's uncertainty.

I bought a digital video camera and housing a few weeks ago, in Singapore. A day or so after testing it out whilst snorkelling, it died on me. It's been awaiting parts from japan for repair ever since. However, the day I tested it (16th February) brought me a surprise: a new species of Sergeant fish (Abudefduf septemfasciatus) hiding right in front of my eyes - sure enough I'd misidentified it a couple of times in the preceding 1year. Sadly, my photo is complete rubbish, being pulled off a test-shot with the video. Still, I know where to go next time to get better photos.