Ocean Inspiration: Sarcastic fringehead

A local resident of our nearby Channel Islands, the sarcastic fringehead, demonstrates an amazing adaptation that enables it to communicate with conspecifics and defend its territory.

Three Seas Panama: Light trapping

Gorgeous larval fish and plankton: a sometimes unappreciated, but vital portion, of life in the ocean.

At the Smithsonian in Panama, I constructed a very rudimentary light trap with some nets and my dive light in hopes of catching some larval fishes to show to the Three Seas class. Along with hundreds of thousands of copepods and other tiny creatures, we did get the odd larval fish!

Conservation biology: Steelhead

Thanks to the students of CSUCI Environmental Science and Resource Management department where I guest lectured last week to the Conservation Biology class. A couple of timely followups which are relevant to my lecture on fragmentation and local steelhead populations:

At UCSB's Bren school this Wednesday:

A COMMUNITY COLLOQUIUM "Saving the World One Trout at a Time"
Chris Wood, President & CEO, Trout Unlimited
Wednesday, March 7, 2012, 11:30 - 12:30
Bren Hall 1414
http://www.bren.ucsb.edu/events/chris_wood.htm

and in the Patagonia Spring 2012 catalog, an article on steelhead in the Ventura River:
"Putting Water Back" by Eric Unmach.

Three Seas Panama 2012: Hamlets spawning II

Drs. Clare Wormald and Mia Adreani have just finished teaching the Biology and Ecology of Fishes class.

We, along with the Three Seas students, had some great opportunities to study a diversity of fishes on the reefs around the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute at Bocas del Toro. We observed a variety of behaviors, like territoriality, mating systems, feeding and swimming behaviors of coral reef fishes and studied ecological processes, including the recent lionfish invasion, and the interaction of fishes and their habitats which include coral reefs and the locally abundant mangrove systems. 

Here the students are speeding back from a dive studying the mating systems of a simultaneous hermaphrodite, the hamlet (Hypoplectrus sp.). Around dusk, hamlets pair up and engage in "egg trading", taking turns in both the female and male roles during their spawning bouts. Here's a short video clip of the spawning behavior.

Three Seas Panama 2012: Hamlets spawning

Link

Three Seas Panama 2012: Territoriality experiment

"Model-bottle" experiments introduce an intruder species in a container into a focal fish's territory. A territory holder, Stegastes planifrons, responds by display, chasing and biting at the intruder fish. The territory holder's display includes color changes, fin and body position displays. We might expect a strong response of the territory holder to a conspecific intruder because they have complete resource overlap.

Three Seas Panama 2012: Taking a break from fish catching

Some of our near neighbors viewed from our staff residence here at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Bocas del Toro, Panama.
Click photos to enlarge.

Howler Monkey





Three-toed Sloth

Conservation biology: Video podcasts and lectures

If you have an interest in conservation biology and ecological restoration, pop on over to the dynamic Dr Anderson's video podcasts and lectures channel. Dr Sean Anderson (aka Professor Pongo) is a professor at California State University, Channel Islands and has very diverse interests and research sites, including Ecotoxicology of the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the gulf, an ongoing service learning class in New Orleans, roadkill surveys, and a large conservation project in Turkey.

Professor Pongo's Channel

Ocean Inspiration: Manta rays

My trip to Hawaii to dive with manta rays. 

Ram feeding - pow! Check out that MPF oscillation. 

Three Seas Panama 2012: Mangrove fishes

Many coral reef fishes use mangrove and nearshore areas as habitat or nursery grounds. Snorkeling just off the dock Mia and I found many species that are on our class fish list* as well as others not seen previously on the reefs we have dived nearby. See if you can add to the list that we have started for this area (post in the comments or email us to add to the list).

Chaetodon capistratus *
Haemulon bonariense
Haemulon flavolineatum *
Lutjanus apodus *
Lutjanus griseus
Lutjanus jocu
Pomacanthus paru juv
Stegastes adustus *
Sphyraena barracuda
Sphoeroides spengleri 
     (see below to the left of picture, click to enlarge)

  

Many snappers (Lutjanidae) and grunts (Haemulidae) are happily hanging out under the dock.