The Djibouti Fish Watch mission has now ended. 19 Peau-Bleue ecovolunteer divers conducted fish censuses in four different sites, helped by officials from the Environment ministry and the Djibouti university, together with several local amateur divers.
Alltogether, 266 different fish species were recorded, with a maximum of 161 species in a single habitat.
Thanks to all!

 

The Fish Watch mission field work is about to start in Djibouti. Our diver team lands today. Scientists and students from Djibouti, and representatives of several Djiboutian ministries and agencies, will join us for the underwater fish censuses.



 

The next Peau-Bleue Underwater Biology trip will take place in North Sulawesi (Indonesia) in April 2012(6th to 22nd).
Ecovolunteers will participate in UW scientific research in Lembeh Straitand in the Tumbak region, some 70 Km south.



 

The worm pipefish also exists in the Mediterranean !
Our Hippo-ATLAS project received two photos of Nerophis lumbriciformistaken in Sausset-les-Pins and Sète (Southern France). These records confirm the 2002 record made by Patrick Louisy in Cap d'Agde (and mentionned in his book "Guide d'identification des poissons marins - Europe et Méditerranée").
A team of Peau-Bleue divers recently explored again the Cap d'Agde area, and found the species again!
These new records can be seen here.

Hippocampes d'ici et d'ailleurs : this conference will be proposed in Bouzigues, a village on the Thau lagoon shore, famous for its oysters. If you happen to be in the Languedoc region on october 13th - and if you understand French - then you can join !

Speakers: Patrick Louisy (Scientific manager of our association Peau-Bleue) and Murielle Alexandre (from SMBT, an important managing structure in the Thau Lagoon).

Conference at 7:00 am on october 13th. Place : Maison des gens de l'Etang, in Bouzigues (in front of the "Musée de l'Etang de Thau"). Free entrance.

In partnership with the Grouper study group (Groupe d'Etude du Mérou - GEM), Peau-Bleue contributed to a poster meant to help identify Mediterranean and European grouper species. This poster was published in the 2011 issue of Marginatus, the GEM journal. It is a tool for a better knowledge of these fish, that may encourage divers and fishermen to send relevant information to the GEM.

You can download this poster (in French).

In its edition issued september 8th, the newspaper "La Dépêche du Bassin" published a report on the survey made by the young scientist Damien Grima for the Arcachon Bay Marine Natural Park project. This work was run in partnership with our association Peau-Bleue.

You can download this article (in French) here.

All the records and photos sent to the Hippo-ATLAS project since 2005 are now integrated in our new database and online pages (see Hippo-ATLASin the summary on the left).

Many thanks to all present and past contributors. And if you have other seahorse or pipefish records to send us, please do! Here is how to proceed.

The short-snouted seahorse was said to be present in the Thau Lagoon (although much less common than the long-snouted), but we lacked recent proofs. Until yesterday, when Hélène Caillaud took photographs of this species close to Sète.

These photos can be seen in the short-snouted seahorse Hippo-ATLAS photo gallery.

You know where to find seahorses or pipefishes underwater? You wish to contribute to the scientific study of their habitat? Hippo-HABITATprotocol has been designed for you.

This new method allows for a statistical analysis of habitat observation data. It can be used by any amateur diver or snorkeler without previous training. There is only one constraint: you need to dive with an UW digital camera.

For the time being, only information in French is available (Click here), but we will try to present an English version as soon as possible.

Pipefishes belong to the same family as seahorses (the Syngnathidae), and some might even be more vulnerable. They also need to be better known, in order to assess possible needs of preservation.

This is why the Hippo-ATLAS now includes all Europe and Mediterranean Syngnathid species. Don't hesitate to send your photos and records!

We received the study report made by Damien Grima during his mission on Arcachon Bay seahorses in relation with the Arcachon Bay Marine Natural Park project (see 22/04/2011 news).

This document provides a synthesis of the available information on the two seahorse species occurring in the area.

Download the report (in French).

NB This work received help and support from Peau-Bleue.

Our Hippo-THAU project will appear on a report to be broadcast on July 8th (ARTE channel France, 19h50).

 

 

Two French diving magazines published, in their summer issue, papers on our scientific programs and actions.

PLONGÉE MAGAZINE features a report on our seahorse studies in Thau lagoon (south of France). OCTOPUSpublishes an interview of our ichthyologist Patrick Louisy about the fish census we ran in Djibouti in 2010, and reviews present and coming actions of our Seahorse Quest program (EnQuête d'Hippocampes).