A Scorpionfish Hides Among the Coral in Guam - Observation of the Week, 7/19/22

Our Observation of the Week is this Yellowspotted Scorpionfish (Sebastapistes cyanostigma), seen in Guam by @motu_vaeoso!

As a child in American Samoa, Motusaga Vaeoso says that nature documentaries were what first interested in wildlife. “I felt like an explorer as I watched the lions in Africa hunt as a team or humpback whales engage in an incredible feeding behavior called bubble-net feeding,” she says. “Nature fascinated me, and I was always curious to know what was in my environment.” 

The ocean “has been a constant in my life, and I want to do my part to protect it,” she tells me, so Motu has been studying coral reef ecosystems for years now, “and learning about how coral reef fisheries change over time because of local and global impacts.” After participating in the Quantitative Underwater Ecological Surveying Techniques (QUEST) program, she became the first American Samoan appointed as a NOAA Coral Reef Fellow for American Samoa.

Now a graduate student studying marine science at the University of Guam, Motu has been conducting coral reef surveys in Asan Beach Park, which is part of the War in the Pacific National Historical Park, and that’s where she spotted the colorful scorpionfish you see above.

I habitually carry my underwater camera with me because you never know what you may stumble on. Since I saw the Sebatapistes cyanostigma, my eyes are used to finding them now, I showed our monitoring team how to find them, and we have found more than 20.

The yellowspotted scorpionfish is a widespread species, ranging from the Red Sea into the Pacific Ocean. Averaging a few inches in length, these fish also sport toxic spines which can be medically significant for humans. Like other scorpionfish, they are ambush predators that hunt smaller invertebrates and fish at night. During the day they hide among the coral, like the one seen here.

Motu (above) joined iNat less than two months ago and plans to post her archive of nature photos to the site. She says 

I started using iNaturalist to help with my fish identification skills, but I realized that it has a lot of practical applications. I used to take many field photos and then store them on my hard drive or google drive, never using them again until I needed to look up a specific photo. With iNaturalist, I realize that I can put my photos (including the old ones) to good use by uploading them to iNaturalist to create a temporal, spatial, and taxonomic coverage record of my field photos. iNaturalist has made me more aware of nature, and I am taking notice of other marine species such as gobies and algae. As a result, I constantly find different things to learn about in the marine world.

(Photo of Motu by Natasha Ripley)

-  You can check out Motu’s research here, and follow her on Instagram!

- Motu wrote a blog post about her reef monitoring work in Guam and abotu iNat a few weeks ago, check it out!

- In this video interview, Motu and her sister Valentine discuss their work educating and inspiring students in in American Samoa. 

- iNatter @vetea_liao also studies corals in the Pacific, and his Parribacus holthuisi slipper lobster was a past Observation of the Week!

Posted on July 19, 2022 06:57 PM by tiwane