20 articles
The banded morwong is a slow-growing, site-loyal grazer of Tasmania's kelp reefs — a fish that can live for generations and taught fisheries a hard lesson.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
The black-and-yellow rockfish is one of the most boldly patterned fish of California's shallow kelp reefs — dark as kelp shadow, patched with shout-yellow.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
The brown rockfish is the shallowest of the Pacific rockfish — a dusky, bay-loving homebody of kelp beds, pier piles and eelgrass edges from Alaska to Baja.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
The cabezon Scorpaenichthys marmoratus is the largest sculpin on the Pacific coast — an egg-guarding ambush predator of kelp reefs with famously toxic roe.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
The gopher rockfish is a mottled, hole-dwelling resident of California's shallow kelp reefs — sedentary, long-lived and beloved of reef divers.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
The halfmoon (Medialuna californiensis) is a blue-grey sea chub that grazes kelp on Southern California and Baja reefs — ID, diet and habitat.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Kelp greenling are the kelp forest's most colourful small residents — blue-speckled, sex-changing-looking, nest-guarding. Biology, fishery and where to see them.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
The quillback rockfish is a long-lived, deep-bodied resident of Pacific kelp reefs — orange-freckled, fiercely site-loyal and one of the slowest fish to grow old.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
The rainbow seaperch is the most colourful fish in California kelp — a live-bearing surfperch in red, blue and gold that gives birth to fully formed young.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Rosy rockfish (Sebastes rosaceus) is a small, pink-blotched rockfish of low rocky reefs from Washington to Baja. Identification, habitat, diet and ecology.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
The bluebanded goby is a thumb-length fish in neon red and electric blue, and it can change sex both ways. Meet California's most dazzling reef resident.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Meet the eastern blue groper, the friendly, urchin-crunching giant wrasse of New South Wales reefs — every adult blue male began life as a female.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
A diver's deep dive into the blue-banded goby's metre-scale world — colonies, ledges, nests and predators, and how to watch Lythrypnus dalli up close.
Tom Okafor ·
Portrait of the Port Jackson shark: Australia's gentle, crested egg-layer that crunches sea urchins and returns to the same reef year after year.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
The sailfin sculpin is a banded-eye, flag-finned reef fish of the North Pacific — famous for the courtship wave of its tall sail-like first dorsal fin.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
The scalyhead sculpin is a tassel-headed, fully scaled cottid of Pacific kelp beds — a small ambush hunter whose males turn crimson over guarded egg masses.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
The whitespotted greenling is the North Pacific's chameleon reef fish — a male in red camouflage, a female in grey speckle, and both ferociously territorial.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Meet the kelp greenling, a shy Pacific reef fish of extraordinary colours — and learn why males turn midnight-dark to guard their egg clutches for weeks.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
The striped trumpeter is Tasmania's celebrated hand-line fish — a kelp-reef juvenile, a deep-reef adult, and a lesson in how long-lived fish repay patience.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Meet the western blue groper — Western Australia's giant blue wrasse of the kelp reefs, an urchin-eating patriarch that can live more than half a century.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·