Save Our Seas Blogs

Diving in the Shark Reef Marine Reserve is different from most other places foremost because of the number of sharks. By sharks I mean especially bull sharks that can show up in packs of up to 50+ individuals on some days. Add the ocasional tiger shark and you will understand that their presence somewhat distracts from focussing on the smaller creatures that live on the reef. And there are plenty of them! For example, tiny little juvenile sharksuckers that are looking for a host or already found one. Very little is known about the behaviour and ecology of sharksuckers generally and even less about their juveniles. Have you ever noticed small juvenile sharksuckers of 5 cm lenght on larger host species? This size class can be regularly seen on, for example, giant trevallies or the fast moving rainbow runners in the Shark Reef Marine Reserve. Ivan and I have published a little piece of information about small juvenile sharksuckers in the journal Coral Reefs. Send me an email if you want a PDF copy of it.