When a clownfish and an anemone meet….
A Mermaid Scientist Film made by The Mermaid Islands Corporation
Category Archives: Photo and Video
Purple Parrotfish
Scarus niger ~Watercolor by Claudia Makeyev
Parrotfish, known as Mol Mol in Palawan, are the creators of the beautiful tropical white sand beaches. They are particularly fond of eating the algae film that grows on coral. They chomp into the coral with their beak (actually fused teeth) to get a mouthful of both coral and algae. The crushed coral helps the fish digest the algae and is then pooped out in the form of particularly perfect, soft, white sand. Next time you are relaxing on your tropical vacation, please thank the parrotfish.
These particularly pretty purple parrotfish look most like the male Swarthy Parrotfish – Scarus niger. The ones observed here have slightly different spot patterns behind the eyes but it could be a local variation or due to a shift between initial and terminal phases.
That is A LOT of beautiful tropical white parrotfish poop. Enjoy!
All Systems Go!
When I was smaller, between 300-400 cm, my dad let me sit shotgun as “copilot” in his little 6 seater. Before the prop started whirling at full capacity, we always did a checklist. Seatbelts – check! Head phones – check! Fuel – check! Wings – check! For every worthy adventure, I feel a checklist is in order. My checklist for CrowdFunding:
Project – check, Project Description – check, Rewards – check, Blogs – check, FaceBook – check, Website – check!
Despite being slow out of the gate, I have the distinct feeling of already beating the odds. My field site is in a remote corner of Busuanga on the north side of Palawan in the Philippine Islands. Beautiful pockets of coral reef and amazing fishes are abundant. Electricity and internet…. not so much. There is a handy solar panel that fuels my trusty little MacBook Air and at night sometimes we splurge and turn the generator on for an hour or more! Oh the melodious sound of power, drowning out the crowing of inbred roosters in the night. yes, the night. Dreams of coq-au-vin.
Electricity – check!
There is one lonely cell phone tower that everyone uses. You Load up with prepaid phone cards. If too many people are texting or calling at one time… well, you just have to wait your turn. The other feature on my phone is “Radio”, which I think means it streams the local Filipino station into headphones. Note: get headphones.
Phone – check!
A Dongle and MORE phone load for internet capabilities on your computer. This lets one squeeze out slow emails and leaves one with memories of what it felt like to download.
Internet – check!
iMovie, a fascinating program that enables one to put together homemade footage into a wonderfully cheese filled SciFund project PSA. My laptop has become irritated and exhausted with iMovie. Their abusive relationship has been up and down the last few days, it is apparent that they are asking too much from one another. I suspect Miss Mac has more important things to occupy her space with. The heat and power situation has tempers running hot. It ended with a 9 hour stint of “Finalizing Project”.
Video – check!
We beat the heat, the humidity, and the 3rd world rural resource availability.
All systems are go!
Finished Video:
