2014 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition

Ghost Pipefish in the Bag; Ever-elusive Bobbitt Worm ... Still Elusive

A quick overview of the collection of corals, inverts, and fish that we will ship back to the Academy.

Greetings from Aniloa! After three and a half days of collecting in the field, we've amassed a nice collection of corals, invertebrates, and fish to ship back to the Academy—here's a quick overview.

The sites we've visited thus far include Twin Rocks, Devil’s Point, Bethlehem, Mapating Point, Dari Laut, Matu Point, and Anilao Pier, and we currently have 70 specimens on hand. They come from varying genera—Acropora, Fungia, Turbinaria, Tubastrea, Sinularia, and Sarcophyton—and they're being kept in a temporary field aquarium set up at the Anilao Beach Club. (Rich Ross will be blogging about that setup later, so I won’t go into it here.)

We were also able to acquire three snake anemones while on a night dive at Anilao Pier, and we'll continue our quest for the elusive Bobbitt worm tonight during another night dive at the same location. Oh, and one more highlight: On this afternoon’s dive at Matu Point, Rich was able to collect a pair of ghost pipefish, which were way up there on our list of acquisitions for this expedition.

With a couple more days of diving and collecting ahead, Aquarium Team One should be on track to collect most, if not all, of what we have set out for on this trip.

—Seth Wolters, Assistant Curator for Steinhart Aquarium