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Why
Saba? Hot off
the press... Other good stuff...
All in the Family Seahorses and Pipefish are in the Syngnathidae Family. Seahorses are classified in the genus Hippocampus, and most Pipefish are classified as Syngnathinae or Doryrhamphinae. Both seahorses and pipefish have bony plates on their bodies with elongated snouts allowing them to consume crustaceans, their favorite food. A keen eye may spot either family member in shallow reefs, or in algae and grass beds. Most of these fish are found in small groups but they can sometimes be more solitary. Most Seahorses and Pipefish have the ability to change color to match their environment, reducing the risk of being spotted by a predator. The Tale of the Pygmy Discovery We can't attest to the validity of the story, but the version we heard of the discovery of the the world's smallest seahorse is a good one. About 20 years ago, a team was sent to collect gorgonian species from New Caledonia for a large aquarium facility. Once the coral was established in its new home, somebody noticed something moving on the purple polyp-covered branches of the gorgonian. So small you almost need a magnifying glass, Hippocampus bargibanti, commonly referred to as the Pygmy Seahorse was introduced to the world. In the past few years, yet an even smaller seahorse has been discovered. A new species? Read more below...Also, see John's notes on the left to understand the difficulties in photographing such a small subject. How many different seahorses are in the world? Seahorses' talent for costume changing has fooled the scientific community with over 120 named species of seahorses “on the books”. Preliminary research by Dr. Hall of Project Seahorse and her colleagues suggests that the actual number is actually closer to only 32.
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Did you know?
-Each Seahorse is 'one of a kind' with a crown or coronet on the head as distinctive as a human thumbprint? -A Seahorse has no
teeth but use their snout as a straw to suck up 3000 brine shrimp or
plankton everyday? Seadragons live only along the south coast of Australia in the Southern Ocean. South doesn't always mean warm...The Southern ocean has the shoreline of only southern Australia and the continent of Antarctica--read: cold and rough! Networking through friends in the industry (pre-internet), we located Jim Thistleton on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. Our hotel turned out to be a sheep farm, complete with huge swarming flies but a wonderful family and great food. We off-roaded in a decommissioned military truck (wheel base of 5 feet) to get to Jim's small boat each morning. New to tourism, Jim purchased two generic-sized drysuits for our arrival...only to find Lynn's was too small so she dove wet and a bit cooler than John. Jim only used a wetsuit--but that's because he did a quick bounce dive with us to point out the incredibly camouflaged seadragons...then quickly ascended to prepare hot chocolate. Lynn maxed at 40 minute dives and after managing to intake some hot chocolate (half was spilled from her shivering), would recover enough to do 2 dives each day. After years of travel, the Leafy Sea Dragon remains as John's favorite photographic subject. Hurricane Lenny and the purchase of two boats afforded the opportunity to name one of them after this creature--contrary to some people's belief that it's named after Lynn :-) The Lembeh Straits (Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia) is one of a number of places to do superior muck diving. Muck diving is the unofficial term for diving any area considered "muck" or rubble or less visibility--any area not known to typically dive to see pretty things. We even muck dive on Saba at our overnight moorings. But if you're headed to Lembeh, unless you're a muck enthusiast (visibility and pretty things are low on your list and weird critters are high on your list), we will normally suggest you combine a trip to this area with more typical reef diving found in the Bunaken Marine Park. Our first trip was in August 2001 and we returned in February 2004. A photographer's goal is to always capture a creature as "full frame" as possible. When photographing the images on this page, John used an Nikon F3 in an Aquatica housing. When shooting something as small as a Pygmy Seahorse (approximately 1 cm tall), special considerations must be made to achieve the full frame goal. By using a 105mm macro lens, a 2x converter and a #4 Nikon close-up lens, the image produced is at a large enough ratio to be worthwhile on film. However, there was no way to control your F-Stop (aperture) and focus. Knowing the goal was an ideal Pygmy Seahorse photo, John spent time in his workshop on Saba before our second trip to the Lembeh Straits. With a lathe, he fabricated extension control rods for the aperture and focus controls of his housing. In 2006 with the advance of digital SLR technology, more advanced optics can be put in front of your housing port to achieve the same result.
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