Read on Twitter
Delighted to share our new paper - the first detailed study of deep coral reef fish in Raja Ampat, West Papua - amongst the most biodiverse reefs in the world.
Paper here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-02020-7
Brief
(1/7)
Paper here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-02020-7
Brief
(1/7)
We found Raja Ampat's exceptional fish richness already documented in the shallows extended into the #mesophotic zone (reefs deeper than 40 meters) - recording over 150 fish species from the deep. (2/7)
Coral reef fish species and what they eat normally changes based on depth. On most previously studied deep reefs the majority of fish feed on plankton – but that’s not what we found on Raja Ampat’s deep reefs, where there were many predatory fish! (3/7)
We also investigated fishing impacts at different depths, and found that grouper and snapper on reefs from 15 - 30 meters depth were particularly vulnerable to fishing in the region. (4/7)
Surprisingly, however, the most remote reefs showed greater impacts of fishing. This raises the interesting idea that growing dive tourism (pre-pandemic) may have helped protection of reef fish in more accessible areas. (5/7)
Thanks to all the organizations that made this happen: @WWFscience @ConservationOrg @OxZooDept and Universitas Papua, and fantastic coauthors: @GAhmadia @crmitchie @ColinLuigi @moronicunicorn @CatherineHead14 & many not on twitter! (6/7)
And here’s a link to the paper again: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-02020-7 (7/7)
