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.

2,000th TARP Fish Observation

January 4th 2009 saw my 2,000th logged fish observation in TARP (I only make a maximum of one entry per morph per location per day). Gradually, I'm uploading some of these to the web (but only one example per morph per location per year; for example Gymnothorax javanicus). Happily enough, it was also my first sight of a fairly large (around two feet long) Grouper Plectropomus maculatus - a pity there are not more large groupers in TARP but there is at least one! (I am still working on that and several snorkel/ diving days since so I have not yet updated my on-line database.) Since working on the TARP fish list in earnest, I have tended to forego taking photos of invertebrates. But as with this beautiful Feather Star (an Echinoderm in the Order Comatulida) photographed off Sapi island back on 25th July 2007, I retain a fascination with the whole, magnificent spectrum of fauna in TARP.

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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Undescribed Goby species seen in TARP

A Japanese expert on Gobies has confirmed that a recent photograph I took was of an as-yet undescribed species of the genus Venderhorstia. It is not however unknown: several photos of it have been taken in Sabahan waters and it is expected to be formally described in due course.

I've not yet uploaded pictures of any of the amazingly beautiful and delicate Feather stars (class: Crinoidea, order: Comatulida) to be found in TARP. This one was taken at Padang Point off Gaya Island on 22nd September 2007.