April is Earth Month, and as we look forward to Earth Day on April 22, you might be looking for ways to stay connected to the environment in these uncertain times. We are all facing new and unfamiliar challenges as we adjust to this rapidly changing situation and navigate disruptions to our daily life. Here are some fun and easy activities you can do from the comfort and safety of your home:
A bucket list item for many REEF surveyors - discovering a new species. And even better, getting a species named after you. This has happened a handful of times over the last couple of decades, and one of our surveyors now has the honor of it happening twice! One of REEF's most prolific surveyors, Janet Eyre, now has a beautiful shrimpgoby named in her honor after discovering the fish on a recent trip to Indonesia.
A landmark scientific study published from the Grouper Moon Project was featured as the Editor's Choice by the editor of Science in the January 24 2020 issue. Each week, the editor selects important papers from other journals, providing a roundup of weekly science policy and related news.
While everyone knows that marine mammals are well known sound producers, did you know that many fish species also produce and use sound to sense their environment? Marine environments are teeming with underwater sounds from animals, human activities (shipping, costal development, oil and gas exploration etc.), and geological processes such as rain, wind, and water flow. The combination of the sounds, called a soundscape, can be used to study the ecology of animals that produce, hear, or respond to sound.
A new species of shrimpgoby was discovered by active REEF surveyor, Janet Eyre, while conducting REEF surveys in the Misool area of Raja Ampat in January 2019. Janet then communicated with authors, providing images and an exact location of where the fish was sighted, enabling the collection of type specimens. The new species was described and named after Janet - Janet's Shrimpgoby (Tomiyamichthys eyreae).
We are excited to announce that the REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project database topped 200,000 earlier this fall. The survey was conducted by active surveyor, Kreg Martin, during a survey Cape Kri in Dampier Strait, Indonesia, on 10/15/ 2015.
Here's Kreg's story of getting involved with REEF in the tropical Pacific and the lucky 200,000 survey:
In this early paper, staff from REEF and NOAA studied feeding ecology of the invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans). The authors collected stomach content data from fishes taken throughout the Bahamian archipelago. Three relative metrics of prey quantity, including percent number, percent frequency, and percent volume, were used to compare three indices of dietary importance. Lionfish largely prey upon teleosts (78% volume) and crustaceans (14% volume).
Culling can be an effective management tool for reducing populations of invasive species to levels that minimize ecological effects. However, culling is labour-intensive, costly, and may have unintended ecological consequences. In the Caribbean, culling is widely used to control invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish, Pterois volitans and P. miles, but the effectiveness of infrequent culling in terms of reducing lionfish abundance and halting native prey decline is unclear.
Through the analysis of acoustic recordings of captive Pterois spp., this study has confirmed anecdotal evidence that Pterois spp. are soniferous. This report of sound production in Pterois spp. provides the foundation for future research into their specific acoustic capabilities including sound production mechanisms, the role of social behaviour and applied techniques for controlling and monitoring invasive Pterois spp. in the tropical and temperate western Atlantic Ocean. REEF staff, Lad Akins, was a co-author.
The authors evaluated Goliath Grouper’s use of mangroves as essential nursery habitat by estimating absolute abundance, density, survival, age structure, home range, mangrove habitat association, habitat quality, and recruitment to the adult population. REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project data from 1993 to 2004 collected in Florida were used to determine sighting frequency of Goliath Grouper.