From Fish Lab to the Ocean, Four Seasons Resorts Maldives, Marine Savers

Fish Lab

Throughout August we saw seven spawns from our Clark’s Clownfish (Amphiprion clarkii) breeding pairs, and a further three batches from the Maldivian Clownfish (Amphiprion nigripes). By the end of the month we had 522 Maldivian and 187 Clark’s juveniles.

Phytoplankton production – all the algae that we are growing in culture batch are doing very well, from the 100ml bottles to the 18 litre buckets. During August we produced 992 litres of Nannochloropsis and 1295 litres of Tetra.

Zooplankton – All three rotifer buckets are growing well, although the concentrations are slightly lower than we would like, at 220 per ml.

New Arrivals in our Fish Lab :

juvenile squirrelfish (Neoniphon Sammara)

Big-eye Dusky-Cardinalfish – Apogon savayensis

green clown goby (Gobiodon histrio)

Black Clown Goby – Gobiodon ceramensis

Spiny lobster – Panulirus versicolor

Clark’s Clownfish (Amphiprion clarkii)

Yellow Coral-Goby – Gobiodon citrinus

Maldivian Clownfish (Amphiprion nigripes)

Excursions

Recent megafauna sightings have included:

Spotted Eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari), White-spotted Eagle Ray (Aetobatus narinari)
Porcupine sting ray (Urogymnus asperrimus).
Whitetip reef shark (Trianodon obesus), blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus),
Napoleon Wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus),
Hawksbill Turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata)
Nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum)

Spinner Dolphins (Stenella longirostris) were encountered most frequently, in pods of between 25 and 250 individuals, along with one sighting of Bottlenose dolphins, and another sighting this year of the rarely seen Risso’s dolphin (a large species up to 4m, which prefers deeper waters outside the Maldivian atolls).

Our divers at Kuda Huraa were treated to an encounter with a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) at Gamadhoo reef. The individual was an 8 metre long immature male, and was observed for several minutes as it cruised at a depth of 10m.