Sunday 29 May 2016

KML: Bermuda Sea Chub

Hey guys,
Our week at the Keys Marine Lab was absolutely amazing and such an adventure.  Within 4 days we got to snorkel in 10 different locations and observed so many types of fish and corals and even a sea turtle (highlight of my day).  But the the one species that I found interesting was the Kyphosus sectatrix also known as the Bermuda Sea Chub.  This fish is classified under the class Actinopterygii, order Perciformes, family Kyphosidae, genus Kyphosus, and species Kyphosus sectatrix.  This species sparked my interest with its unusual fearlessness, and would swim right up to us in the water. The Bermuda Chub is a subtropical, reef associated fish and typically swims within a depth range of 1-10m, but can extend to 30m down. They can reach lengths up to 76cm long and weigh an average of 6kg.  The Chub is generally all gray with a forked caudal fin shaded black, but when reproductively active they appear dark with spots.  They are distributed throughout the Atlantic ocean, on the western coast they stretch from the Gulf of Mexico down to the Caribbean and on the eastern edge they are found as far north as Morocco and as far south as the Gulf of Guinea.  
The Chub diet consists of plants, benthic algal, small crabs, and mollusks. Fun fact: the even feed on spinner dolphin species. Another interesting observation was in the coral reefs of Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles where researches noticed a school of Chub being cleaned by Goby fish species. 

Going to miss my buddies by time to move on to the next stop. I'll be back though!
Goodnight!

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