Reef Creatures

Marine Bucket List

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 17 Every marine biologist has a bucket list of creatures they want to see during their life underwater. I am no exception and during the BIOT missions I seemed to have amazing luck, with the …

Bountiful Butterflyfishes

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Expedition Log – BIOT Day 16 We’ve been seeing a great diversity of butterflyfishes here in BIOT, around 18 different species. Butterflyfish belong to the family Chaetodontidae and are consequently known as chaets by their most avid fans and researchers. …

The Rays of BIOT

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 15 The science team is always eager to see rays during any dive, and diving in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) hasn’t disappointed us when it comes to majestic ray encounters. During our first …

Day of the Octopus

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 11 It wasn’t long after we started our surveys of the Chagos Archipelago that we noticed that the Day Octopus (Octopus cyanea) was quite common here. Usually an intelligent creature like an octopus is enough …

A Diversity of Decapods

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 10 The first thing you notice when stepping onto the islands of the Chagos Archipelago are the many crabs. From the rock crabs at the water’s edge to the plodding hermit crabs and scurrying ghost …

Grouper Aggregation

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Expedition Log: BIOT – Day 9 Blacksaddled Groupers (Plectropomus laevis) are aggregating in Chagos. Groupers are usually solitary fish, except when it comes to spawning, when small groups or larger aggregations form to release large quantities of eggs and sperm …