Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
A pair of honeycomb morays soliciting the services of the little blue-
and-white cleaner wrasse. (Photo by author)
many of the wrasse family, that have a harem arrangement, with a dom-
inant male and a number of females. If something should happen to
the male, the dominant female in the group changes sex—as well as
size and appearance, often quite dramatically—and becomes the male
of the harem. We humans find that a bit kinky, but it's a fairly com-
mon reproductive strategy in the world of fish.
One type of animal was conspicuously absent: on all the dives we
made we didn't see a single shark. Perhaps the Comoran pirogue fisher-
men had fished them all out over the years. Not that we really missed
them; it was a pleasure not having to think about what might be com-
ing up behind you.
In sharp contrast to the beauty we saw underwater were the living
conditions of the Comoran people. Most of the arable land was owned
by the French and used for growing vanilla beans for export to France,
an industry that did little to benefit the Comorans. When we were there
the islands were on the verge of gaining independence, but they would
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