Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
behaviors, or even, as I discovered, to find a totally new species. You
simply have to dive in the same old place, but at an hour when sensi-
ble human beings are engaged in more normal activities—like sleep-
ing. We made our dives close to midnight, and we saw nocturnal crea-
tures never visible during daylight hours.
The Monterey Coast Guard breakwater is a mass of granite boul-
ders piled over fifty feet high from the bottom. This structure creates
myriad homes for animals that shun the light of day, emerging only in
the dark of night to forage for food. The beautiful but highly secretive
fish the red brotula (
Brosmophysis marginata
), for example, could be
seen close to the bottom of the rock pile, its bright red color visible
only when illuminated by our bright underwater lights.
You wouldn't believe it possible to encounter an unknown fish in a
frequently dived area like Monterey, yet on a number of night dives I
collected specimens of what turned out to be a genus of fish totally
new to North America. Described by the late ichthyologist Bill Follett
of the California Academy of Sciences and me, this interesting-
looking, eight-inch-long fish was given the name masked prickleback,
or, in scientific parlance,
Ernogrammus walkeri,
after Boyd Walker, my
UCLA professor of ichthyology. Unfortunately, all attempts to display
it in an aquarium failed. Being strictly nocturnal, the poor fish hated
light and would try to hide under any object it could find. If there was
one little rock in its tank, it would wiggle under it and be out of sight.
I suppose I could have taken everything out of its exhibit, but I felt
that would be cruel and no doubt would have traumatized its dark-
loving psyche. Training it to wear tiny sunglasses would have been a
challenge.
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