Following up on from my post about life in UK seas and our wonderful soft coral Alcyonium digitatum, I thought I’d share some more pictures of the fabulous life around our shores that lives in and amongst the soft coral gardens there. One group of animals we have in...
A little earlier this month, I posted some pictures of one of the largest single corals I’ve ever seen, a Porites colony on the side of a reef wall in the Red Sea. I’ve trawled through my image catalog and I think I might have found one that’s almost as big, in fact...
We all love a good tridacnid; here are a few gems I shot on a recent trip. The very first time I saw a wild tridacnid, I was quite amazed. I’d seen them on TV of course, but I wasn’t expecting them to be as variable as they are. That was quite a while ago, and I...
When I go diving on coral reefs across the globe, the two most common species of turtle I encounter are Greens and Hawksbills. Sensibly, both species keep their distance from humans and in poor conditions, when the visibility is bad, you might not get enough time to...
By now I think everyone knows that Parrotfish are responsible for creating an awful lot of the white sand we enjoy sunbathing on during our vacations in some tropical paradise. But just how do they spend every day crunching coral and not lose their teeth? I was...
Giant clams (genus Tridacna) have emerged as a promising tool for various ecological interventions in marine environments. This article delves into the potential applications of giant clams in three key areas: reef restoration, microplastics filtration, and carbon...
You’d be forgiven for thinking that every anemone was brightly colored, if you were to go by the offerings in dealer’s tanks. Rose red Bubble tips were commonplace in the fish store I used to visit, for example. In reality though, many anemones are rather nondescript...
I'm slowly working through some recent images from the Red Sea and hopefully you're enjoying seeing them. Here is a selection of butterflyfish. The first on my list is the Masked or Blue cheek Butterfly. Chaetodon semilarvatus is perhaps the quintessential Red Sea...
We all love Pomacanthid angels, don't we? I'm just going to assume that everyone is a fan of this genus of colorful, characterful, and engaging fish. For many years my best capture of the regal was the pretty rubbish one below. At the time I was quite happy with...
The researchers describe the etymology of Peckoltia greedoi in this way:
Named for Greedo of Rodia, a bounty hunter killed by Han Solo in Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina in the movie “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” (Lucasfilm, Twentieth Century Fox, 1977) with whom this species shares a remarkable resemblance.