In 2015 a team from the California Academy of Science set out on a expedition to the Philippines to explore the Coral Triangle’s biological treasures. The trip was aimed at exploring the Verde Island Passage, a stretch of water between the…
Search Results For: mesophotic
Oblique Butterflyfish Is The Coolest Fish You’ve Never Heard Of!
The Oblique Butterflyfish, Prognathodes obliquus, is a rare species from St. Paul’s Rock in the middle of the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Although few mere mortals ever make it to this extremely isolated rocky islet, thankfully super-scientists like Dr. Luiz Rocha always…
Birdnest Coral Shows Us How Reefs Might Recover From Massive Bleaching
With all the news that the Great Barrier Reef is dying, and has suffered very substantial damage and countless corals lost, it can be quite depressing to be a coral or reef lover. But if there’s one thing the media…
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…
Sacura parva Pictured and Filmed Alive For The First Time
Sacura parva is a gorgeous little anthias that we’d only seen in pictures of dull, freshly dead preserved specimens. But thankfully, there’s a few intrepid ‘biofreaks’ like ourselves who actually leave the comfort of their armchair to bring us face…
Grammatonotus xanthostigma & G. pelipel, Two New Splendid Deepwater Basslets
Grammatonotus xanthostigma and G. pelipel were just described from specimens collected in Pohnpei. Grammatonotus is a genus of deepwater basslets containing some fantastic species, and today we’ve got news of two more. It was just a few short years ago…
Grammatonotus brianne is a Gorgeous New Basslet Species
Grammatonotus brianne is the latest species of deepwater anthias basslet to be described, having been discovered from profound depths in one of the epicenters of the Coral Triangle. The new spade-tailed Grammatonotus brianne was collected by expedition members of the California Academy of Sciences…
Researchers from the Philippines to map seafloor up to 200 meters’ depth
There is so much we don’t know about the ocean, with the ‘twilight zone’ quickly becoming the next frontier in ocean exploration. Technological advances in ROV and camera technology is allowing us to go deeper longer and explore these unchartered…
A Deeper look into Mokupapapa Discovery Center’s Aquarium
We recently visited a very unique aquarium at the Mokupapapa Discovery Center in Hawaii. The mere size of this aquarium is not what makes it impressive but the beautiful and extraordinarily rare fish that it contain. While there are many…
Prognathodes basabei, or orange margin butterfly, now officially described
Although known to exist for over 20 years and even referenced quite a few times here at Reef Builders, a new species of deep-water butterflyfish from the mesophotic reefs of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument was finally described today by…
