Have you seen any RARE species at Catalina??

[OCdiving Deb]

ANNOUNCING A NEW PROJECT!!

Dear Catalina Island Divers,

I am pleased to announce a new project operating under the umbrella of Catalina Conservancy Divers (CCD) in which all of you can participate! The new Catalina Species Archive (CSA) will document sightings of rare and uncommon marine species found in the nearshore waters surrounding Santa Catalina Island.

Many of you are experienced divers who can recognize easily what is common or uncommon at Catalina. If you see (or have seen) an uncommon marine plant or animal at Catalina Island, please help us document it with some simple data.

Here are the data that CCD's CSA would like you to document if you see (or have seen) an uncommon species:

Common and scientific names of organism
Location
Date and time
Depth
Temperature
Size of organism
Photos if you have them (1MB or less for now, please)

Your dive experience (years, number of dives at time of sighting, etc.)
Your marine species ID background (novice, experienced amateur, professional)
Contact info of anyone who assisted you with the ID of your organism

Catalina Species Archive appreciates your efforts to document rare species. The data will eventually be made available to the public and our hope is that it will be useful (and fun!) not only for the diving community but also for the marine resource community.

**CSA may withhold from public viewing location data for at-risk species**

If you send photos, please send files that are less than 1 MB. CSA may ask for higher resolution files later.

Email your sightings to rare@OCdiving.com please.

Thank you!

--
Debbie Karimoto
CCD Catalina Species Archive (CSA)
"Documenting uncommon marine species of Catalina Island"
rare@OCdiving.com

 

[drbill]

I think this project is a great idea! We have thousands of eyes that can keep watch in the waters of the island. Such sightings can be very important, since they may reveal exotic species entering our system which could pose an ecological threat (such as the Sargassum muticum, Sargassum filicinum, Undaria pinnatifida and Caulerpa taxifolia which I believe were all first spotted by divers.

They can also reveal the pulses of El Nino immigrants including the Guadalupe cardinalfish, finescale triggerfish and scythe butterflyfish.

It is great that Debbie and the CCD have developed this project.

 

[David P]

Bill, I knew of the Caulerpa but never knew that there was a brobles with sargassum growing locally... I will have to keep my eyes open.

 

[drbill]

Sargassum muticum has been around Catalina for a long time, but Sargassum filicinum was just discovered here recently per Kathy Ann Miller of the UC Herbarium.

S. muticum often forms little forests in our waters this time of year. Goat Harbor and Torqua Springs have beds.

 

[archman]

This is a good tool to track Humboldt Squid movements. It would take a real crackpot diver to misidentify one of those things...

 

[OCdiving Deb]

Kudos to ChrisM who has already sent in the first entry to the Catalina Species Archive with his well-documented sighting of an eel never before found in US waters - Muraena argus.

ChrisM found it and documented it 3 years ago. Dig out your old pix and log books, divers!

This will be a long-term project so you don't need to drop everything to submit your long-ago-spotted critters and plants. Just keep it in mind for that next rainy or red-tide day when you've some spare time.

I am sure glad ChrisM has gotten our CSA project off the ground, however! Thanks!

--
Debbie Karimoto
CCD Catalina Species Archive (CSA)
"Documenting uncommon marine species of Catalina Island"
rare@OCdiving.com

 

[Frank O]

Sargassum muticum has been around Catalina for a long time, but Sargassum filicinum was just discovered here recently per Kathy Ann Miller of the UC Herbarium.

S. muticum often forms little forests in our waters this time of year. Goat Harbor and Torqua Springs have beds.

Speaking of Sargassum muticum, I've always wondered about this distinctive "little forest" that I came across freediving near Blue Caverns in June 2004:

It looks close, but bushier and not as wiry as the example photo in "Seaweeds of the Pacific Coast." Any thoughts?

Also, while we're on sea plants that prompted head-scratching, here's something from Little Geiger in November 2004 that I could never be sure I'd pegged definitively:

(I'm not thinking that any of this is relevant to the Catalina Species Archive project -- just a minor thread hijack to mull a couple of pieces of sea greenery.)

 

[OCdiving Deb]

(I'm not thinking that any of this is relevant to the Catalina Species Archive project -- just a minor thread hijack to mull a couple of pieces of sea greenery.)

No worries about a thread hijack Frank O. This might be the perfect place for it. ID of marine algae are difficult! This is a good place to help each other out if they are Catalina finds.

 

[drbill]

When I was in grad school, I took my Catalina marine algae collection in to Dr. Mike Neushul (a world authority on seaweeds who passed away while serving as my major advisor). He brought in several other algae experts and it was amazing to see the number of algae that they could not agree on... most of the collection!

Often algal ID requires cellular and reproductive analysis. In addition, morphology can be very plastic (changeable) depending on environmental conditions.

Your forest does look like Sargassum muticum though.

 

[SeaDana]

Common and scientific names of organism: Finescale Triggerfish Balistes polylepis
Location: Indian Rock, Catalina Island
Date and time: 8/12/05 11:00 a.m.
Depth: 40 feet
Temperature: 67 F
Size of organism:40 centimeters long
Photos if you have them (1MB or less for now, please)

Your dive experience (years, number of dives at time of sighting, etc.): at the time, 30 dives, 2 years, advanced open water cert.
Your marine species ID background (novice, experienced amateur, professional): experienced amateur marine species ID/researcher. Certified with Reef Check in both Jamaica and California. (Plus, triggerfish are pretty easy to ID...)
Contact info of anyone who assisted you with the ID of your organism: Bryan Murray - (I'll e-mail you his contact info.)