TRIP TO GALAPAGOS
Maritha and I chartered Lammer Law in the Galapagos for fourteen days from 4 June 2006 to 18 June 2006. Read about our trip by taking the link below.
2006 Galapagos Trip Report
Read about one of our other Galapagos trip here.
New Sea Star First Found in 2005.
While diving with Paradise Watersports on Rhone Reef off Salt Island
in the British Virgin Islands, Odile Scheiner poked her head into a small
sky-lit cave and saw a strange sea star crawling along the wall.
She recalled at the time that it looked very Pacific and not at all like
the ones normally seen in the BVI. Her husband Jim is the owner-operator
of Rainbow Visions on Tortola. Olile (now passed away) together made thousands
of dives in the BVI.
Jim took a digital photograph and compared it to the Studded Sea Star
in Paul Humann’s Reef Creature book. The book described it as a rare
and possibly “undescribed” species! There was a notation in the book
that anyone who found this sea star should contact the Reef Environmental
Educational Foundation. An email was sent off to REEF and the reply
indicated that it may indeed be a new species.
Jim can be contacted through www.RainbowVisionBVI.com and Paradise
Watersports at www.bviwatersports.com.
Randy found another one of these rare and unusual creatures at Painted Walls on Sunday (October 2009)! That makes one every four years.
A “Century” of Diving/Fishwatching
The Reef Environmental Educational Foundation recently sent out an email containing a snippet of information about a Hawaiian member who recorded one hundred different species of fish on a single dive. This really got me thinking. Hawaii has about 1000 species of fish the Caribbean about 600. As a single fishwatcher I’ve gotten 100 species over two dives on the wreck of the Rhone but could we do it on one 50 minute dive?
As a Field Station for REEF with three ardent fish surveyors on staff, Paradise Watersports has decided to take up the challenge. Using the REEF survey protocol, Paradise Watersports staff members began surveys of local reefs in an effort to record 100 species at a single site during a single 50 minute dive. Our first try was on a site known as Rainbow Canyons and resulted in 104 different species and a hawksbill turtle. Stay tuned for more results.
