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.)

Diver caught in a fishing net

Putting together the News links for this blog reminded me of an incident a year ago today (i.e. 31st March 2007). At the end of an afternoon dive on Agarille reef south of Sapi Island, our group came across a long fishing net caught along its bottom on coral at around 10 metres but suspended by floats along its length in mid-water. (Almost no algae had gathered on the mesh so I assume it was quite fresh.) Two of us had knives and we set to cutting it (and various shells and echinoderms) free whilst the rest of the group rolled it up. At one point I looked down to where my buddy was rolling the net and saw a loop of it had come down above and behind him ensnaring his regulator's first stage and his tank valve. I told him to stay perfectly still and gradually cut him loose. It might not have ended happily under different circumstances and it is disappointing that he was exposed to a fishing net in a marine park at all.

This photo of a Tunicate (a Sea Squirt, probably in the family Diazonidae) was taken in the morning of the same day, at Hanging gardens off Gaya Island.