Bristol Underwater Photography Group talk
This week I headed off to Bristol to give a talk to Bristol Underwater Photography Group about using biology to inform your photography. It was a great turn out and lovely to give a talk where the audience were clearly natural history buffs. I did get groans from the audience when I mentioned thinking 18˚C water was cold, but since they had just been diving in Scotland where the water was 7˚C, I can understand. Anyway, here is a little précis of the talk I gave:
Dr Richard Smith – Using Biology to Inform your Photography
Richard’s aim is to encourage divers to get more from their diving through an appreciation of the marine environment around them. His talk ‘Using Biology to Inform your Photography’ began with his own journey that started with his PhD research on the diminutive pygmy seahorse. He was the first to observe and record the entire lifecycle from birth through to mating, with an unexpected ménage a trois along the way.
His work taught him important lessons in observing marine animals without disturbing them and an appreciation of the importance of getting to know and understand an animal: its preferred habitat, its geographical range and how best to approach it.
This intimate access to an animal’s day-to-day life also allows us to fill in the gaps in their biology (which in many cases is very poorly known), from the egg pouches of ghost pipefishes to the brooding habits of isopod parasites.
Richard leads group trips where divers learn more about the reefs around them and how this can be used to get more from their own diving experience: www.OceanRealmImages.com
Apart from my talk, the other main reason for my visit to SyngBio was to attend the first meeting of the 
Bargibant’s (Hippocampus bargibanti)| Bargibant’s pygmy was the first species to be discovered. A researcher at the Noumea Museum in New Caledonia accidentally found the first pair when he collected a gorgonian coral for the museum’s collection. The species was named after him in 1970, but divers weren’t regularly seeing them until the 90’s. Bargibant’s pygmies only live in association with Muricella gorgonians and are covered in tiny bumps that mimic the coral’s closed polyps.
Denise’s (H. denise)| This is another gorgonian-living, and commonly seen species in Raja Ampat. They can be distinguished from the closely related Bargibant’s species, by their more slender shape and longer snout. They are also much more cosmopolitan than Bargibant’s: so far I have found them living on ten different types of gorgonians. As a result of them inhabiting such a variety of habitats, their colours and surface textures are much more variable than Bargibant’s. I have seen various hues of yellow, red, pink and even white. Raja Ampat is also known for an, otherwise rare, red and white variety that inhabits Melithaea gorgonians.
Pontoh’s (H. pontohi)| In 2008, the two species of free-living white and brown pygmies were given the names, Hippocampus pontohi and H. severnsi respectively. However, it appears that scientists may have jumped the gun. Genetic evidence has since shown that they actually represent two colour forms of a single species. The name ‘Severn’s’ is being dropped and Pontoh’s will be retained into the future. Like many seahorses, this new evidence shows just how much variability there can be within a single species of seahorse. Camouflage is so important to pygmies that they generally match their surroundings very closely. White ones are most often seen around Halimeda algae, and brown ones around hydroids.
Satomi’s (H. satomiae)| This is the least common of the Bird’s Head’s pygmies, and in fact is currently only known from Indonesia. It is also the smallest pygmy, not even reaching across a dime. Very little is know about this species, but it seems to become active around dusk and is generally found slightly deeper than the other free-living species. When I have seen them, they’ve often been attached to soft corals and hydroids beneath a large over hang. There are beige and dark brown colour forms, and all are very active swimmers.