Introducing the Rabbitfish

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Siganus Fuscescens:

While I started the trip underwhelmed by the concept of these little rabbitfish, I have come to be quite fond of them, despite their failure to conform to our expectations. I guess, as always, I grow to have a thing for the underdog, and their refusal to do what our hypothesis says can only endear them to me.

We have about 20 of them brought in from the first day of seine netting. Our attempts at further nettings have not yielded any of these happy moments, although I got to pull a pajama squid and a pregnant seahorse out of the net and release them back to the bay. So cute.

Here are a couple photos of low tide across the street from the research station to compare with the first day photos. We walk across those mudflats, dragging the wagon with the 50m (164ft) seine net and several tubs to hold fish in. This morning, our 4 AM seine was postponed to 6 AM (blessedly), but we had to walk out in the dawn to again scuttle through the cold muddy water in a chain-gang.

That mangrove tree in the right was the same one in the picture from the previous post.

I have not had many moments to take a lot of pictures. Part of it comes from my having grown sensitive to how frequently members of our lot will hold up the world to horde in for a picture, including demanding to keep fish and other sea life up out of the water suffocating in order to capture the moment. Therefore, I have become a bit more of an opportunist for esoteric little snaps.

Here are some birds I have happened upon:

Rainbow Lorikeets love the banksia flowers in the yard of the research station.

We thought he might be a really well done statue until he started hissing and growling.

My new friend who watches the communal eating area and keeps most of the other birds from boldly attacking our food.

Everyone else tended to be creeped out by him standing over their dinner plates, so we bonded.