We all know that coral skeletons are made from calcium carbonate and that they can dissolve in warm acidic conditions. As the oceans warm and acidify, corals along with other ‘calcifiers’ will find it hard to contribute enough structure to maintain present reefs and...
Wart slugs belong to that large and well-distributed Class Gastropoda. Unlike most of their Class mates they have lost any visible trace of their shells, something they have in common with the rest of the Order Nudibranchia. Unlike many nudibranchs, they don't have...
The UK Government is, as anyone over here knows, in the middle of (and by the time this is published may have concluded) negotiations with the EU regarding a Brexit trade deal. This has been long and complicated and is either the best news or the worst, depending on...
I think everyone is familiar with the Emperor Angel (Pomacanthus imperator). I've often seen them in aquarium shops, and usually as juveniles, so you might imagine they are a common fish. Well, sort of... let me explain. Juvenile P. imperator are often seen in fish...
As a photographer I thoroughly enjoy shooting pipefish as they fulfill of my "i need some macro images" needs. For a start, they are quite common, so there's a good chance I'll find one at some point on a trip, which makes all the difference of course and secondly,...
I recently posted about a short dive on a Red Sea fringing reef, with images showing just how variable the underwater scenery could be and how, within just a few meters, the reef could look markedly different. In this post, I refer to that previous one with another...
As anyone who knows me is well aware, I spend as much time as possible in the Red Sea. Sadly, this year hasn't been the best - you may have noticed - and travel has been effectively impossible for me. I keep looking over my image archives and remembering interesting...
Knowing how much clam fans enjoy poring over images of these immensely variable bivalves I have been sharing some of my images in two galleries of tridacnids from the Red Sea, where on most sunny reefs they are very common. In this gallery I have moved south and east...
There are several fish in my Red Sea guidebook that I've long suspected may be part of some conspiracy against me, and that in reality don't exist... I realize that's obviously nonsense, but after many dives failing to find a fish it's easy to just assume they're...
This is the second part of the gallery of my favorite tridacnids from the Red Sea. As you can imagine I've picked the best, so this collection isn't exhaustive. I have ignored quite a few of the small brown ones, and have instead selected ones that particularly stood...