Fish Geek Week Day 1

This afternoon we kicked off ‘Fish Geek Week’, featuring Dr. Gerald (Gerry) Allen and Dr. Mark Erdmann here at Lembeh Resort. Throughout the following week Gerry and Mark are going to be giving a series of presentations.  We are super excited to have the “world’s foremost expert on marine species of the Pacific” and “a great protector of Indonesia’s coral reefs” sharing their experiences with us.

Gerry started the week off with an introduction to their work including scientific and conservation projects called “Fish and Ships”. It was an informative session including facts on fish collecting and the science behind it. Gerry explained “it’s not always glamorous”, since coming to work with Conservation International, their work on reef assessments, fish species and the marine environment in general have taken them to some pretty remote places.  Gerry and Mark usually set up mobile labs on whatever boat, ship or tub they could get to take them where they needed to go. Sometimes they had to rough it, like the time they took a rusty old postal barge for studies, where they had plenty of space, but you also had to climb a 2 story rope ladder to get on the boat (have you ever tried to climb a rope ladder?). Sometimes it was the complete opposite, like when the owner of the largest privately owned sailboat invited them aboard for research, that time they were too nervous to bring the lab aboard (who wants fish odor on their Persian carpet?), so they did all their studies kneeling down on the dive platform.

Gerry’s excitement about fish and the discovery of fish is contagious and his knowledge is encyclopedic. Mention your favorite fish and he can probably tell you a great story about it (well, a fish geek story anyways). He and Mark hope to make some new discoveries here in Lembeh Strait, see some old friends underwater and educate some fellow divers on the joy of this somewhat forgotten group of “critters” here in the muck diving capital of the world. The dive guides at Critters@Lembeh, ever eager to learn, may have some new additions to their “must see” list soon.

We will be adding regular updates on Critters@Lembeh Facebook and will open an “Ask the Expert” post. Although we may not be able to answer all the questions, we will reply to 1 or 2.

You are welcome to send in questions about fish, please be as specific as you can.

(e.g. Question: Lembeh Resort guests want to know, why are the anemone fish in Lembeh Strait so aggressive?)….stay tuned for the answer.