I had a great trip but I must admit I’ve been really looking forward to my holiday. Even though it was my fifth commercial boat I still saw one species I haven’t seen before, plus I got some better photos of a few species I’ve only seen occasionally. The new species was Allothunnus fallai, a tuna.
You can tell it’s a tuna by the shape which is really streamlined. The body is really smooth with no scales to speak of and there is a keel on the caudal peduncle (the ‘pinch’ between the body and the tail). (I don't know why this photo won't rotate properly, but you can still see the bit i'm on about, even if it is sideways).
The only really interesting other species I got is the yellowbelly (Paranotothenia magellanica). The species is mis-named as it’s not got a yellow belly – it’s the branchiostegals (the ‘frills’ of skin that go under the gill cover) that are yellow, not the belly. They are a beautiful dark blue on their back which fades to white on their belly. 
I got a lot of invertebrates on this trip. Starfish, sea urchins and sponges were the most common taxa, but I also got a few less common species, including a sea slug (nudibranch) that I’m going to try and identify. It’s unusual as it’s got a hard surface made of something like scales (unusual as far as I know, I’m not an expert in sea slugs but the ones I’m aware of are all soft).
Well that’s it really. After almost a year of being here it appears that I’ve seen most of the species that are commonly found here and have shown most of them here!
Comments