Fish Research

The Smithsonian researchers have arrived, and their fish sampling project is underway. I went out with them to a small patch reef at East Bay this morning to do some collecting. The method we used was primarily anesthetization using a chemical called quinaldine sulfate (I have no idea if that's spelled correctly). Apparently it has no effect on coral and, so long as no predator gobbles them up while they're dazed, the fish recover completely - except, of course, the ones we collect. We squirted the stuff from plastic bottles into the reef crevices and waited a few moments. The fish that got hit by it floated out and we scooped them up in our nets. This method works really well for all the small species that rarely come out of their holes. Today, since it was the first time they have ever sampled in this area, we were pretty indiscriminate. They're looking to take about 3 of each species they can find.

Several species of Grunt.

Among my catch were several Cardinal Fishes, a juvenile Four-eye Butterflyfish, a Blue Tang, a Blue-Stripped Grunt, and a Surgeonfish. I partially anesthetized many other fish that were still able to evade my net, including a few Sharpnose Puffers! One of them was probably dazed enough for me to get, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. (shh, don't tell the others, they'll think I'm soft). Sharpnose Puffers are pretty common, but they're one of my and Jessee's favorite fish. I was worried somebody was going to see me rooting for it to get away and be upset, but fortunately they didn't (now, of course, my secret is published on the internet). I also squeezed about half a bottle into one hole only to have a young Green Moray come darting out. It startled me at first, but it just found the nearest (uncontaminated) place to hide. They're not dangerous, just scary looking. It was small as far as Green Morays go (about 3 ft), but I asked before I collected it. They weren't sure whether or not to take it, but finally decided against it.

Nassau Grouper, Schoolmaster, Gray Snapper, Squirrelfish, Blue Tang, and two Surgeonfish.

When we ran out of quinaldine I decided (after all) to give one of the spears a try. The others had already been doing it and it felt like a fairly controlled setting. Spearing is much more selective. You target a single fish, so (in my opinion) it's less disruptive. I fired it off a couple times at the sandy bottom just to get the feel. Then I picked out a small Blue Tang and gave it a try. Bad shot, I missed. I watched the more experienced people get a couple fish, and as we were heading out, I lined up on a medium-sized brown fish that was camouflaged against the bottom, and released. It turns out that it was some sort of Puffer because as soon as I hit it, it started to inflate. I must have hit it just right so as not to puncture its belly because it grew to be the size of a softball. I quickly swam it over to our float and put it into the fish bag (we kept the speared fish in there rather than on us so any sharks in the area would take interest in the float and not us). When we got back to the shore, however, I learned that that particular fish bag had a hole in it! My first ever speared fish was lost. I felt bad that it was going to waste (at least with respect to the project - I'm sure some Barracuda was quite happy that it was left behind).