The Carmarbi Marine Research Station has reported that Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease has reached the southern Caribbean island of Curacao. Dubbed the deadliest and most devastating coral disease ever recorded, SCTLD first appeared off the Southeast Coast of Florida…
Birdsongichthys rectus and Robinsichthys nigrimarginatus are two new deepwater gobies from the Caribbean
Two new gobies have been collected and described from deep waters in the Caribbean Sea. New species Robinsichthys nigrimarginatus becomes only the second member of the genus Robinsichthys, while Birdsongichthys rectus is given both new genus and new species status. …
Proteus Is An Ambitious Underwater Research Station Planned For Curaçao
Proteus is an ambitious underwater research station that could one-day welcome scientists and researchers 60 feet below the sea in Curaçao. The project is spearheaded by aquanaut Fabien Cousteau and industrial designer Yves Béhar and is conceived as the underwater…
New ocean zone added to coral “Twilight Zone”
Mesophotic, meet your new neighbor rariphotic. The deep sea Twilight Zone of coral reefs and some insanely beautiful fish has another zone names the rariphotic zone thanks to the Smithsonian Institute’s marine science team that has been studying these depths.…
Will the REAL Apricot Basslet Please Stand Up?
Plectranthias are one of the funnest and prettiest group of small and rare reef fish. Besides P. inermis, the majority of the other species are only found in deep water and it’s always a treat when we get to see…
Healthy Reefs Produce More Baby Corals
A recent study from Curaçao has shown that healthy coral populations can produce up to 200 times more juvenile corals than degraded coral populations. Researchers found that healthy corals had a higher percentage of successful parents which produced up to…
New Fire Goby Was Lionfish Food Before It Was Ever Discovered!
Palatogobius incendius is a new species of deepwater Caribbean goby that was discovered, unsurprisingly, in the mesophotic reefs of Curacao. But what is surprising is the circumstances surrounding how this fish was first collected. The newly described incendiary or Fire goby was…
Plectranthias sp. Curacao is in the good hands of Blue Harbor
The new species of Plectranthias that was recently collected from Curacao is probably the first of its kind to make it into a home aquarium. We first featured this fish with a post from Joe Oliver at the source, and…
Curacao Sea Aquarium Deep Sea Display update
After 4 years in Curacao and some of the most amazing fishes known to man, I thought I had seen it all and was beginning to have doubts about whether we would find a new species that is as unique…
The deep sea is on display in Curacao
To most people the Mesophotic Zone is an entirely unknown part of the ocean that very few study and even fewer have physically visited. Yet these areas are more diverse than anticipated and contain a cornicopia of life from the…
