Fish monitoring
- Emma
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
When I joined CRCP I immediately embarked on a fish monitoring adventure. Even though I always loved observing fish, training to monitor them took it to a whole new level. Now you must wonder, what does it even mean to « monitor » fish ? And how is it done, because as you probably noticed before, fish move and sometimes quite fast. Well, let’s start from the beginning.
First you have to know what you’re looking at, right? In the Philippines there are more than 3000 species of fish. Luckily for me, at CRCP we focus on reef associated fishes, so that takes it down to about 1800. Now, as you can imagine, that’s still a lot and trying to identify each specific fish can be a hard task. That’s why « fish families » come to the rescue. Some species share physical or behavioral characteristics and can be grouped together so when we see a fish, we can refer to his « scientific family » and not his exact species. As a fish watchers, that’s a life saver, because I don’t know about you but my memory space isn’t unlimited. Some extra special fish are monitored at the species level due to their important role in the reef ecosystem (or simply because divers find them photogenic, but hey don’t worry fishes, beauty is subjective and we don’t discriminate at CRCP, we love you all!). Ok now that I did the hard work of memorizing them, the actually tricky part awaits me, sizing and counting them. Because we don’t only need to know who’s there, we need to know how many and how big they are. Sizing comes with practice, counting on the other side… let’s say it will probably remain a forever challenge.
Now it’s time to go diving and practice the actual monitoring. My dive buddy and I go down at a specific depth to lay out a 20m transect line, let it rest for 15min so the fish that are a bit shy have time to come back and then it’s show time. We each position ourselves on one side of the line, with a slate and a pencil in hand ready to scan the surface to the seafloor and record all the fishes that swim by. I forgot to mention an important detail, we only have 10min to cover the 20m, so no time to lose, ultimate focus is the key! While it is a bit overwhelming I’ll be honest, it is also so thrilling and fun and quickly became one of my favorite thing to do. It is also widely important as reef fish abundance, species diversity and seasonal fluctuations are crucial informations to understand the health and resilience of coral reefs and the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). That way we can recommend best practices to protect the marine ecosystem we all depend on and care for.
At first I was captivated by the big fish, but slowly, my focus changed and I started to notice the smaller ones and the little details that unfold underwater if only you know where to look. I went from not being able to spot and recognize a Blenny (a family of weirdly cute fish) to save my life, to them being my favorite fish to encounter ! Especially the yellowtail fangblenny (Meiacanthus atrodorsalis) (if you know, you know, if not come spend time with us, we will show you).
The coolest part about learning to identify fish in my opinion is that you also learn how they move, where they are on the reef, what they eat and how they behave. Some of the territorial ones will try to chase you away, the curious ones will check you out while the shy ones hide away, and the majority just won’t care much about you at all. You become part of their world and time completely stops. It feels like you could stay there forever (but hey don’t forget to check your air because unfortunately we don’t have gills just yet).
If you want to experience a part of this process, come and spend a week with us on the fish specialty, I can’t guarantee that your brain won’t fry but I can guarantee you endless fun !
Happy fish watching out there !
Are you curious about the research that CRCP conducts? You may go read CRCP's past reports to learn more about the incredible coral and fish diversity in Siquijor. Click here.
Comments