Let's Get Pacific
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| The small, cryptic magenta dottyback inhabits caves and crevices of steep coral slopes from Indonesia to Fiji. |
October 2003
By Buck Butler
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| The rare magnificent shrimpgoby has yet to be scientifically classified.|
In 90 feet of water, off the north shore of Komodo, Indonesia, a two-inch fish shelters in the darkness of its sand burrow, unaware that right now, it is seriously annoying one of the world's foremost authors of marine-life identification books. At the surface, Ned DeLoach giant-strides into the water for another dive, having spent the last two crouched outside the tiny burrow of the magnificent shrimpgoby, waiting in vain for the fish to emerge onto the sand flat. DeLoach drops straight down to the shrimpgoby's home, sets his camera on the sand outside the small opening and ascends 20 feet in the water column, waiting and watching. The little fish gradually becomes accustomed to the camera's presence, emerging cautiously and then retreating quickly. DeLoach descends to the sand and pulls himself slowly along the seafloor, shielded from the fish's view by the bulk of his camera housing. He checks his computer--two minutes of no-decompression time--and waits ... and waits ... and waits.
The instant DeLoach decides to abandon his position in frustration, the fish pops out of the hole, perches on the sand next to the little shrimp it shares its burrow with and--magnificently, unexpectedly--flares its dorsal fin photogenically.
Click! DeLoach gets the shot.
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| When threatened, juvenile helmut gurnards spread their fins to make themselves appear larger. |
A New Ocean
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| Male scalefin anthias come in a variety of striking colors, but the species can always be identified by the purple blotch on its pectoral fin.|
Though it required three tanks of air and more than an hour of frustrating bottom time, the photo of the magnificent shrimpgoby is just a tiny component in the groundbreaking new guide to Pacific reef fishes put together by DeLoach, and his three collaborators--longtime partner Paul Humann, ichthyologist Gerald Allen and underwater photographer Roger Steene. Humann and DeLoach are best known for their Caribbean fish, coral and invertebrate identification books, which have become the bibles of reef ID for divers. Now, with the publication of Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific, divers in the world's largest ocean will, for the first time ever, have a comprehensive reef fish guide based on the principles that have made Humann and DeLoach's other ID books so successful among recreational divers.
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| Leaf scorpionfish are among the most beautiful lie-in-wait predators on the reef.|
Unlike the majority of fish guides, the Humann/DeLoach books emphasize visual identification over scientific classification. "Traditionally, marine life ID books weren't concerned with whether anyone would see the fish in the water," says DeLoach. "Our books are written specifically with recreational divers in mind." In their books, fish are grouped together by broad descriptions (such as "heavy bodies/large lips," "sloping heads/tapered bodies" and "odd-shaped bottom dwellers"), and descriptions of each species focus on the characteristics divers can use to distinguish it from similar species.
The Team
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| If you think wrasses are all small, you have yet to confront the humphead wrasse, which can grow to more than seven feet in length.|
While not every Pacific species took as much work to catch on film as the magnificent shrimpgoby, the book is still an astounding accomplishment. There are 2,500 photographs and 2,000 individual species, including 114 species of damselfish, 93 blennies, 40 parrotfish and 15 snake eels.
Because Humann and DeLoach's expertise, as well as the majority of their photo library, was from the Caribbean region, they knew they would need help putting together a comprehensive guide to Pacific fishes. Enter Gerald Allen and Roger Steene.
Allen, the former senior curator of fishes at the Western Australian Museum, is one of the pre-eminent experts on fishes of the Indo-Pacific region. He is credited with discovering dozens of the fish in the book, and many are named after him. Steene is an Australian underwater photographer and avid fish-watcher with 10 books to his credit.
Starting with a foundation of Allen's and Steene's extensive collections of fish photos, Humann and DeLoach set out to complete the set, traveling throughout the region over a period four years, adding fish, one photograph at a time. Some, of course, were easier to get than others.
Get It
Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific, 457 pp., is available from New World Publications, (800) 737-6558; www.fishid.com. Price: $45.
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| The small, cryptic magenta dottyback inhabits caves and crevices of steep coral slopes from Indonesia to Fiji.|
October 2003
By Buck Butler
|| |---|
||
| The rare magnificent shrimpgoby has yet to be scientifically classified.|
In 90 feet of water, off the north shore of Komodo, Indonesia, a two-inch fish shelters in the darkness of its sand burrow, unaware that right now, it is seriously annoying one of the world's foremost authors of marine-life identification books. At the surface, Ned DeLoach giant-strides into the water for another dive, having spent the last two crouched outside the tiny burrow of the magnificent shrimpgoby, waiting in vain for the fish to emerge onto the sand flat. DeLoach drops straight down to the shrimpgoby's home, sets his camera on the sand outside the small opening and ascends 20 feet in the water column, waiting and watching. The little fish gradually becomes accustomed to the camera's presence, emerging cautiously and then retreating quickly. DeLoach descends to the sand and pulls himself slowly along the seafloor, shielded from the fish's view by the bulk of his camera housing. He checks his computer--two minutes of no-decompression time--and waits ... and waits ... and waits.
The instant DeLoach decides to abandon his position in frustration, the fish pops out of the hole, perches on the sand next to the little shrimp it shares its burrow with and--magnificently, unexpectedly--flares its dorsal fin photogenically.
Click! DeLoach gets the shot.
|| |---|
||
| When threatened, juvenile helmut gurnards spread their fins to make themselves appear larger.|
A New Ocean
|| |---|
||
| Male scalefin anthias come in a variety of striking colors, but the species can always be identified by the purple blotch on its pectoral fin.|
Though it required three tanks of air and more than an hour of frustrating bottom time, the photo of the magnificent shrimpgoby is just a tiny component in the groundbreaking new guide to Pacific reef fishes put together by DeLoach, and his three collaborators--longtime partner Paul Humann, ichthyologist Gerald Allen and underwater photographer Roger Steene. Humann and DeLoach are best known for their Caribbean fish, coral and invertebrate identification books, which have become the bibles of reef ID for divers. Now, with the publication of Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific, divers in the world's largest ocean will, for the first time ever, have a comprehensive reef fish guide based on the principles that have made Humann and DeLoach's other ID books so successful among recreational divers.
|| |---|
||
| Leaf scorpionfish are among the most beautiful lie-in-wait predators on the reef.|
Unlike the majority of fish guides, the Humann/DeLoach books emphasize visual identification over scientific classification. "Traditionally, marine life ID books weren't concerned with whether anyone would see the fish in the water," says DeLoach. "Our books are written specifically with recreational divers in mind." In their books, fish are grouped together by broad descriptions (such as "heavy bodies/large lips," "sloping heads/tapered bodies" and "odd-shaped bottom dwellers"), and descriptions of each species focus on the characteristics divers can use to distinguish it from similar species.
The Team
|| |---|
||
| If you think wrasses are all small, you have yet to confront the humphead wrasse, which can grow to more than seven feet in length.|
While not every Pacific species took as much work to catch on film as the magnificent shrimpgoby, the book is still an astounding accomplishment. There are 2,500 photographs and 2,000 individual species, including 114 species of damselfish, 93 blennies, 40 parrotfish and 15 snake eels.
Because Humann and DeLoach's expertise, as well as the majority of their photo library, was from the Caribbean region, they knew they would need help putting together a comprehensive guide to Pacific fishes. Enter Gerald Allen and Roger Steene.
Allen, the former senior curator of fishes at the Western Australian Museum, is one of the pre-eminent experts on fishes of the Indo-Pacific region. He is credited with discovering dozens of the fish in the book, and many are named after him. Steene is an Australian underwater photographer and avid fish-watcher with 10 books to his credit.
Starting with a foundation of Allen's and Steene's extensive collections of fish photos, Humann and DeLoach set out to complete the set, traveling throughout the region over a period four years, adding fish, one photograph at a time. Some, of course, were easier to get than others.
Get It
Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific, 457 pp., is available from New World Publications, (800) 737-6558; www.fishid.com. Price: $45.
