Always something new - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 244

often found in association with large objects, such as floating logs and
seaweed, or even large sharks and turtles. One species of jack, the black
and white-banded pilotfish, has made this association a career, spend-
ing its entire life in the close company of sharks. I think if we'd made
a hole in the receiver the little fish would have gone inside, but then,
of course, the fish inside would have come out. We needed golden jacks
for our exhibit, and after chasing the speedy little fish round and round
the receivers, we managed to catch some with our hand nets. In they
then went with their future tank mates.
As I'd learned from my previous trips to the Gulf of California,
each species requires a method of collection suited to its environment
and its behavior. Some, like the goatfish, butterflyfish, and angelfish,
are easier to collect at night; others, like the squirrelfish, during the
day. The rainbow and sunset wrasses we collected during the day in
my usual way, with sea urchin-baited glass jars. This was an excel-
lent opportunity for the new people in our group to learn all of these
techniques.
THE DETERMINATION OF A MORAY
We needed three big Panamic green morays ( Gymnothorax castaneus )
for our exhibit, and Gilbert and I had spotted a nice one living in a
very shallow reef just o¤ the beach. So one night, we went out to see
if we could locate and catch it. The plan was to slowly waft some of
the fish anesthetic quinaldine into the eel's lair until it became groggy.
Then we'd reach in, pull it out, and slip it into our net bag.
We found the eel, and, using my hand, I started to waft the anes-
thetic into its hole. Things were going well, when all of a sudden the
moray shot out of its hole right between us and hightailed it down the
reef. We, of course, took o¤ in hot pursuit, hoping it would duck into
another hole and stop. We almost kept up with it, but the eel must
have been a bit younger—certainly more athletic—than we were and
we lost it. The fact that it was dark didn't help. All was not lost, though,
because a few days later two other morays were successfully collected;
these we put in an underwater cage for safekeeping until we were ready
to head back to Monterey. Or so we thought.