DIVE DRY WITH DR. BILL #735: LIGHTNING IS STRIKING AGAIN... AND AGAIN...
Back in 2012 an unidentified juvenile fish was sighted in the Casino Point Dive Park by Ken Kurtis of Reefseekers. I went out over the course of several weeks, filmed it and identified it as a whitetail damsel (Stegastes leucorus). The identification was confirmed by experts including Dr. Milton Love of UCSB and Professor Giacomo Bernardi of UCSC. This turned out to be the first sighting of this species in the state of California. Milton, Bill Powers and I coauthored a paper on that find which was published last year.
Could lightning strike twice? Having grown up in Chicago where lightning was one of my biggest fears, I can say yes. It struck one side of the locust tree outside my bedroom window one year and the other side of the tree a few years later. Well, it looks like I may have a second time regarding a new fish species in our waters.
Local SCUBA instructor Ruth Harris had located two individuals in the dive park that she couldn't identify. Based on her descriptions, neither could I. Later, I independently encountered a fish that I quickly recognized as a Panamic fanged, or large banded, blenny (Ophioblennius steindachneri). I used to work winters as marine biologist and underwater videographer on Lindblad Expeditions eco-cruise ships, so I had observed and filmed this species many times in the Sea of Cortez. Upon seeing my images, Ruth confirmed that was the critter she had seen.
I sent still images of it to Milton Love for verification and he confirmed the ID. I did preliminary research on the species' geographic distribution and found no confirmed sightings in the state of California so I thought this may be yet another first occurrence. I was a bit concerned when I read a Google search summary indicating a sighting of it on Santa Cruz Island, but they mentioned it was on coral and I realized they were referring to the island in the Galapagos.
Milton asked if I wanted to write it up for scientific publication or if I'd be willing to have him co-author the paper. Since Milton, who I worked with on early Jean-Michel Cousteau programs in the 70s, is a highly respected expert on the fish of the West Coast; I was honored to coauthor another paper with him.
The generally reported range of the Panamic fanged blenny is from Guadalupe Island and the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, to as far south as Peru and includes Cocos Island and the Galapagos. In most places within its distribution, it is considered abundant. It is a bottom-dwelling fish inhabiting shallow reefs exposed to surf and surge, usually living in crevices and holes in the loose rock or coral down to a maximum depth of about 60 feet. This blenny is strongly reef-associated and defends its territory. It must have thought I was a hungry predator because it kept trying to hide from me. Hungry, yes... blenny filet, no.
This species is a "giant" among combtooth blennies, reaching a maximum length of about seven inches! The one I filmed was of a fairly uniform chocolate brown color, but they may also have wide banding of different colors especially along the front of the body. One diagnostic character I used in identifying it was a dark eye spot or ocellus behind the real eye. In addition, the forehead is steeply sloped. I encountered one web page that referred to it as the horseface blenny! There is a blue edge on the pectoral and anal fins.
They are healthy eaters, mixing seaweed salads with bottom dwelling invertebrates for added protein. They use their incisor teeth to scrape the algae off the rocks. These blennies also have a pair of "large" canine teeth in the back of the lower jaw.
Males and females form distinct pairs. Eggs are laid on the rocky bottom using an adhesive, filamentous pad. Once they hatch, the larvae enter the plankton. They have a relatively long planktonic existence of about 50 days, allowing the larvae to disperse over relatively long distances... even "way up north" to Catalina!
Now as I've often said in my videos on "munching and mating," for a species to actually survive in a new location requires a mate. An individual may survive the conditions there, but eventually die. For the species itself to persist requires successful reproduction. Sometimes water temperatures are too low for that, or food supplies insufficient to ensure egg and sperm production. I have not seen but this one individual, although Ruth says she has seen two. I did see a female largemouth blenny (Labrisomus xanti) in the same rock structure as the Panamic fanged blenny, but even if they could mate they would not produce more Panamic fanged blenny offspring!
So, unless this one can find a mate before it kicks the bucket, the species' presence here may only be a temporary phenomenon. As ocean temperatures increase and El Niños become more frequent in the coming years as predicted, we may see increased immigration from these subtropical and tropical fish (and no travel ban or INS will stop them). It is changes like this that make diving the same region, our Channel Islands, over many decades never boring!
UPDATE: Later Ruth located a video on YouTube of a Panamic fanged blenny filmed in Catalina waters a year ago. I contacted the videographer, Rob Anslow, and he gave me additional details. The sighting was in shallow water at Sea Fan Grotto near the Empire Landing Quarry. Initially Rob thought the fish was a gunnel but later got a correct identification. So we are not the first to spot this fish in California. But I'm going to qualify this. I am the first Harvard-educated septuagenarian single male marine biologist who is a grandfather and has lived and dived on Catalina for nearly 50 years who has seen it and known what it was. Whew!
© 2017 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 700 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Panamic fanged blenny from Los Islotes Island off LaPaz back in 2003 and ours in the dive park; image showing blue edged fins and close-up with mouth open.
Back in 2012 an unidentified juvenile fish was sighted in the Casino Point Dive Park by Ken Kurtis of Reefseekers. I went out over the course of several weeks, filmed it and identified it as a whitetail damsel (Stegastes leucorus). The identification was confirmed by experts including Dr. Milton Love of UCSB and Professor Giacomo Bernardi of UCSC. This turned out to be the first sighting of this species in the state of California. Milton, Bill Powers and I coauthored a paper on that find which was published last year.
Could lightning strike twice? Having grown up in Chicago where lightning was one of my biggest fears, I can say yes. It struck one side of the locust tree outside my bedroom window one year and the other side of the tree a few years later. Well, it looks like I may have a second time regarding a new fish species in our waters.
Local SCUBA instructor Ruth Harris had located two individuals in the dive park that she couldn't identify. Based on her descriptions, neither could I. Later, I independently encountered a fish that I quickly recognized as a Panamic fanged, or large banded, blenny (Ophioblennius steindachneri). I used to work winters as marine biologist and underwater videographer on Lindblad Expeditions eco-cruise ships, so I had observed and filmed this species many times in the Sea of Cortez. Upon seeing my images, Ruth confirmed that was the critter she had seen.
I sent still images of it to Milton Love for verification and he confirmed the ID. I did preliminary research on the species' geographic distribution and found no confirmed sightings in the state of California so I thought this may be yet another first occurrence. I was a bit concerned when I read a Google search summary indicating a sighting of it on Santa Cruz Island, but they mentioned it was on coral and I realized they were referring to the island in the Galapagos.
Milton asked if I wanted to write it up for scientific publication or if I'd be willing to have him co-author the paper. Since Milton, who I worked with on early Jean-Michel Cousteau programs in the 70s, is a highly respected expert on the fish of the West Coast; I was honored to coauthor another paper with him.
The generally reported range of the Panamic fanged blenny is from Guadalupe Island and the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, to as far south as Peru and includes Cocos Island and the Galapagos. In most places within its distribution, it is considered abundant. It is a bottom-dwelling fish inhabiting shallow reefs exposed to surf and surge, usually living in crevices and holes in the loose rock or coral down to a maximum depth of about 60 feet. This blenny is strongly reef-associated and defends its territory. It must have thought I was a hungry predator because it kept trying to hide from me. Hungry, yes... blenny filet, no.
This species is a "giant" among combtooth blennies, reaching a maximum length of about seven inches! The one I filmed was of a fairly uniform chocolate brown color, but they may also have wide banding of different colors especially along the front of the body. One diagnostic character I used in identifying it was a dark eye spot or ocellus behind the real eye. In addition, the forehead is steeply sloped. I encountered one web page that referred to it as the horseface blenny! There is a blue edge on the pectoral and anal fins.
They are healthy eaters, mixing seaweed salads with bottom dwelling invertebrates for added protein. They use their incisor teeth to scrape the algae off the rocks. These blennies also have a pair of "large" canine teeth in the back of the lower jaw.
Males and females form distinct pairs. Eggs are laid on the rocky bottom using an adhesive, filamentous pad. Once they hatch, the larvae enter the plankton. They have a relatively long planktonic existence of about 50 days, allowing the larvae to disperse over relatively long distances... even "way up north" to Catalina!
Now as I've often said in my videos on "munching and mating," for a species to actually survive in a new location requires a mate. An individual may survive the conditions there, but eventually die. For the species itself to persist requires successful reproduction. Sometimes water temperatures are too low for that, or food supplies insufficient to ensure egg and sperm production. I have not seen but this one individual, although Ruth says she has seen two. I did see a female largemouth blenny (Labrisomus xanti) in the same rock structure as the Panamic fanged blenny, but even if they could mate they would not produce more Panamic fanged blenny offspring!
So, unless this one can find a mate before it kicks the bucket, the species' presence here may only be a temporary phenomenon. As ocean temperatures increase and El Niños become more frequent in the coming years as predicted, we may see increased immigration from these subtropical and tropical fish (and no travel ban or INS will stop them). It is changes like this that make diving the same region, our Channel Islands, over many decades never boring!
UPDATE: Later Ruth located a video on YouTube of a Panamic fanged blenny filmed in Catalina waters a year ago. I contacted the videographer, Rob Anslow, and he gave me additional details. The sighting was in shallow water at Sea Fan Grotto near the Empire Landing Quarry. Initially Rob thought the fish was a gunnel but later got a correct identification. So we are not the first to spot this fish in California. But I'm going to qualify this. I am the first Harvard-educated septuagenarian single male marine biologist who is a grandfather and has lived and dived on Catalina for nearly 50 years who has seen it and known what it was. Whew!
© 2017 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 700 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Panamic fanged blenny from Los Islotes Island off LaPaz back in 2003 and ours in the dive park; image showing blue edged fins and close-up with mouth open.
