TWARS (This Week at Reef Seekers) - December 20-27

[Ken Kurtis]

Christmas approaches, Zoom Seekers, and more
(please scroll down for details)
It's getting closer . . .

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE (COVID) CHRISTMAS - This just goes to show that you CAN combine Christmas and good COVID practices. (My sister got these masks for me.) Needless to say, the situation in L.A. County - and most of Southern California - seems to be moving in the wrong direction and at a time when people are most likely to gather together, usually indoors, with masks off so they can eat, and none of that adds up to flattening the curve, despite the availability of the vaccine to some people. Remember the three Ws: Wear a mask, Watch your distance, Wash your hands.

ZOOM SEEKERS IS SHAPING UP - We now have our full Zoom Seekers speakers sked for 2021 penciled in. I'm still working on updating our website with speaker bios and topic summaries. Except for January, Zoom Seekers meetings will always be on the second Tuesday of the month starting at 7:30PM and generally finishing no later than 9PM. Here are the speakers we have lined up and when they're talking (some specific topics are still being hammered out):

January - Dan Orr
February - Jeff Bozanic
March - Mike Emmerman
April - Dr. Doug Ebersole
May - Danny Charlton & Angelique Batuna
June - Marty Snyderman
July - Bill MacDonald
August - Bill Acker
September - Pete "NetDoc" Murray
October - Jon Council
November - Renee Grinnell Capozzola
December - Doug, Lorenza, and Sam Sloss

THIS LIKELY RUINED HIS DAY - Although the event occurred a while ago, footage has only recently been released on a deep-water encounter between a grouper and a shark. Things did not go well . . . for the shark. In short, it seems the grouper ate him. The unusual action starts at the 1:35 mark of the video: GROUPER EATS SHARK.

YOU DON'T LOOK A DAY OVER 60 - There's now a new "record" for the oldest-known tropical fish when a Midnight Snapper was caught in Australia by researchers and found to be 81 years old. Now the conundrum here is that the way you determine the age of the fish is by examining their ear bones, or otoliths if you want the fancy word, and counting them like tree rings to determine longevity. But you have to kill the fish to do this. So maybe there are really older fish out there who are smarter than this one was and they avoid getting caught. But you can read about the aged (now dead) fish here: OLDEST TROPICAL FISH EVER.

And that'll do it for now. Keep your eyes (and ears) open for a bonus Christmas missive that should come your way on Christmas Eve. Regardless of whether you're a Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or whatever person, have a great week, wear your mask, wash your hands, and let's go diving soon.

- Ken

 

[drrich2]

I didn't know any sort of grouper lived that deep, and the name Atlantic wreckfish was new to me. And they can approach 7 feet. Wow.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

I didn't know any sort of grouper lived that deep, and the name Atlantic wreckfish was new to me. And they can approach 7 feet. Wow.

Yup.

"The wreckfish are a family, Polyprionidae in the suborder Percoidei of the order Perciformes. They are deep-water marine fish and can be found on the ocean bottom, where they inhabit caves and shipwrecks." (Wikipedia)

I want to say it's only be relatively recently (but that's also a relative term could be within the last 20 years) recognized as a family sub-grouping of fish that we'd normally consider to be Groupers or Seabass. Out here on the west coast, our Giant Sea Bass (formerly known as Black Sea Bass) is a Wreckfish.

There's a nice summary on the NOAA website: Wreckfish.

 

[drbill]

Nice line-up of speakers, Ken!

Yet another source confuses a wreckfish with a grouper (family Serranidae). Sigh. Glad you know the difference.

Interesting on the 81-year old midnight snapper. Having filmed them in several different regions, I would never have guessed they could reach such an exalted age!