Bali fish, coral discoveries

This video is called United Nations TV – Bali’s Coral Reefs.

From daily The Guardian in Britain, with photos there:

Fish species discovered in Bali

A two-week marine survey conducted by scientists with Conservation International (CI) in Indonesia, along with local partners, led to the discovery of eight potentially new species of fish and a potentially new species of coral in the waters surrounding Bali island.

The team observed that commercially important reef fish were severely depleted. In over 350 man-hours of diving, the team observed a total of three reef sharks and three Napoleon wrasse – a stark contrast with a healthy reef system where a diver would expect to encounter this number of large reef predators in a single dive.

Conservation International reports:

Among the potentially new species documented were two types of cardinalfish, two varieties of dottybacks, a garden eel, a sand perch, a fang blenny, a new species of goby and a previously unknown Euphyllia bubble coral. Further study will need to be done to confirm the taxonomy of each species.

In Pictures: Top ten new species: here.

East Timor’s coral reefs threatened: here.

Scientists hope to restore Abu Dhabi’s coral reefs: here.

Human Excrement to Blame for Coral Decline: here.

August 2011: A map of the world’s corals and their exposure to stress factors, including high temperatures, ultra-violet radiation, weather systems, sedimentation, as well as stress-reducing factors such as temperature variability and tidal dynamics has been created by Wildlife Conservation Society researchers and other marine scientists: here.

Cleaner fish feed in male-female pairs by removing parasites from larger ‘client’ fish. While providing this cleaning service, cleaners may get greedy and bite clients rather than sticking to parasites. This cheating by cleaners causes mealtimes to come to an abrupt end as the irritated client fish swims off: here.

Captive breeding could transform saltwater aquarium trade and save coral reefs: here.

October 2011. A U.S. Virgin Islands company has been sentenced for knowingly trading in falsely-labeled, protected black coral that was shipped into the United States in violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act, according to the US Department of Justice: here.