In 1995, when we first explored wunderpus territory, which overlies much of the Coral Triangle, the then-undescribed octopus’ fame had spread far and wide. The newly sensational creatures attained much of their acclaim for dancing like dandies across sandy seafloors on eight unimaginably limber arms — an eye-popping feat of acrobatic dexterity well worth traveling halfway around the world to see.
I DON’T EXPECT TO SEE ANIMALS much larger than my thumbnail while I’m drifting on a night dive in the ocean. So I’m surprised when a translucent skirt of tentacles […]
OF ALL THE FISHES IN THE SEA THAT ANNA ADORES, blennies perch high atop her favorites list. Her fascination with the tribe of typically small, hole-inhabiting bottom-dwellers …
IT HAD BEEN A BUSY WEEK for the fish surveyors aboard the Avalon ll, and things were just beginning to wind down. The Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) team of 16 volunteer research divers had recorded population estimates for 246 fish species on 26 reef, seagrass, mangrove, and ironshore sites within the benevolent boundaries of […]
TO FIND THE FIRST DESCRIPTION OF A LARVAL PEARLFISH in the wild, I had to search back to the early 1980s annals of blackwater diving and Christopher Newbert’s account of drifting 40 feet down a lighted downline tethered to a dinghy bobbing on a night sea somewhere off the Kona, Hawaiʻi, coast. The story appeared […]
To the delight of the divers staying at Tawali Resort on the shores of Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea, Anna’s hunch turns out to be right on track.
PETUALANGAN BAWAH AIR KAMI baru-baru ini dimulai dengan pencarian fantastis untuk melacak seekor ikan kecil yang tidak mencolok dan tidak lebih besar dari nikel. Dalam banyak hal, misi kecil kami untuk menemukan kuda laut kerdil (Hippocampus zosterae) yang jarang terlihat ini lebih mirip kegiatan akhir pekan anak-anak muda yang riang daripada kegiatan tujuh orang pria dan wanita yang mengenakan pakaian selam di sepanjang garis pantai di perairan dangkal Teluk Florida yang jarang dijelajahi di Key Largo, Florida.
SEJAK akhir tahun 1800-an, perdebatan di antara para ahli taksonomi kelautan telah berputar-putar di sekitar status spesies ikan bass laut Karibia kecil yang megah dalam genus Hypoplectrus, yang umumnya dikenal sebagai dusun. Inti dari kontroversi ini adalah esensi taksonomi: Apa yang mendefinisikan suatu spesies?
MANY JAPANESE DIVERS LOVE UNDERSEA CREATURES, particularly the home-grown varieties living in abundance along the country’s craggy volcanic coastlines and offshore islands. They also have an infatuation for the eccentric — the stranger the better.
On our first trip to Hachijō-jima in 2015, we were in the company of friends on a mission to photograph a scientifically undocumented pygmy seahorse the size of a pumpkin seed. Even after a concerted four-day search, the tiny target eluded our efforts until a single seahorse miraculously materialized in the last minutes of the last dive on the last day.
