I have heard stories of pygmy sea-horses ( Hippocamus Bargibanti ) being reported on the northern section of the GBR's Ribbon Reefs for years but only recently decided to look for them closer to home.
You can imagine my delight when I managed to locate these little guys on two different fans in the space of 5 minutes - the interesting thing is that they are located at Ribbon reef #10 which is the home of the giant potato cod who have long been the stars of the " Cod Hole " dive offered by many of the local operators.
I counted 3 on the first fan and 4 on the second so the population looks healthy.
Given they were located reasonably deep @ 36 metres it is not too likely they will have a lot of visitors.
Both images uncropped with an old style 105- second image with a macro mate added.
1/160 - F25
That was a well kept secret - until now.
I'm wondering if there may be multiple populations there as both times I have seen them was just under 30m.
And to think I was there in Dec. Wouldn't have mattered anyway as I flooded my camera on my first dive. Didn't even get photos of the potato cods.
Nice captures
Nice pygmies!
Question: Are pygmies always deep? The ones we saw in Anilao were at 95 feet (29 meters).
is that any where lizard island?
awesome pics!
Cal
Pretty well due east of Lizard.
Out in the gutters behind the main reef - they are an area not usually visited by tourist divers who are on a Cod Feed program
I have just spent a week ID'ing likely fans and now the guides will monitor them up & down the ribbons. ( actually almost down to cairns )
With some luck we will continue to find more colonies. So far the shallowest have been at 29 meters - not sure but depth could be a function of temperature.
Nice pygmies!
Question: Are pygmies always deep? The ones we saw in Anilao were at 95 feet (29 meters).
Not always, I've shot them as shallow as 40-45 feet in Puerto Galera and 60 in Anilao. They do tend to move once they've been harassed enough by photographers. I've seen instances where the photographer will shake the fan or even tap the poor thing with a pointer to get it to move. Usually shots taken under those circumstances have the traumatized animal curled up tight against the coral and facing away from the camera. My buddy and I have worked out a good technique that's much less invasive and it's so simple I wonder why less shooters do it....selfishness to get the shot I guess. You simply need to work with a shooting buddy or guide to have their spotting light on the seahorse (preferably a smaller less bright unit like a UK SL4/6 or one of the Suprema 44 LED jobbies) while the shooter is on the other side of the fan. This usually will get the seahorse to face away from the light at the same time, the lit edges of the animal make it easy for AF points to lock on to them.
s.
Joking aside, this was a pretty well kept secret. At least one operator has known about them at that site for over 2 years. They first showed me in August 2006 and I don't know how long they had known before then. I believe it was a Japanese guest that found them.
They only showed me on the condition I wouldn't tell. I obliged by stripping off EXIF data from any shots I had (in case someone linked that to my dive logs).
They are extremely concerned about the sort of photographer Stu mentions as well as unscrupulous aquarium collectors who may decide they could make a fortune selling them.
Question: Are pygmies always deep? The ones we saw in Anilao were at 95 feet (29 meters).
Definitely not - I've seen the H. bargibanti as shallow as 15', H. denise as shallow as 10' and the as yet named weedy pigmies as shallow as 15' in Raja Ampat. I'd say the best place on the planet for these little beauties has to be the Raja Ampat. I thought there were lots around Wakatobi untill I started to dive Irian Jaya a lot, now I see this is the best place to see these tiny little critters...
So that's were you are peter...nice.......
What to swap a pygmy experience with a Whale Shark one.
Question: Are pygmies always deep? The ones we saw in Anilao were at 95 feet (29 meters).
Like many of the members I have experienced a variety of pygmies in Lembeth & Rajah Ampat at a variety of depths - many times in the 10 - 15 mtrs range which was a real surprise to me as all the ones ( the only ones ) I had seen in New Britain 20 years ago were at 30 meters plus and so had come to believe ( wrongly so ) that they were always deep.
Some of the fans we have identified on the southern reefs are between 15 - 25 mtrs so it will be good to see what results this survey produces. We will visit these sights constantly over the next 6 months and report back the findings.
We have a had a yet to be verified sighting at a southern reef about 60 NM north of Cairns - I saw one there a few years ago but haven't been back to the location there for a while.
Happy to hear of any other new sightings / reports of these little guys on the GBR.
What's I find interesting in all this is that it was on the GBR that the first ever H. bargibanti was found many years ago.
Hey thanks for the info! Great news. Hope that people look after them.
