So far. That’s right, not only have divers Rob Lower and Ron Tubbs succeeded in collecting two one masked angelfish, Genicanthus personatus, but it looks like they are aiming to collect a few more before the expedition to this dive spot is completed. The first two masked angelfish caught, a sizable female, has already been sold to EZ Marines Taiwan for a cool wholesale price of $6500. We gather that a male specimen would command upwards of $8000 to ten grand and there’s no telling which way the scale would go if they succeeded in catching a tiny one.
This first personatus angel is the first to be caught at a new location a short flight away from Honolulu where Rob and Ron succeeded in in finding the species at the reasonable diving depth of 257 feet. Apparently the divers are at least within cell phone signal as these cell phone pictures were sent via MMS. We imagine that Rob and Ron spent a lot of time scouting out the right location, finding this population and coming up with a game plan to catch them as these fish swim very differently than bandit angels.
We wish the divers the best in collecting a few more specimens of this near god-like angelfish species and we’ll keep you posted if any of them make it towards the continental US. Thanks to Rob for the pictures and information.update: we were misinformed about the number of G. pesonatus, turned out to be only one.
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