Our partners at the The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation continue their Global Reef Expedition, a worldwide survey of coral reefs, reporting their findings to the world as they go. In the Acteon Group of French Polynesia, they found excellent coral cover, but a surprising lack of fish. The question is, why? ~ Ed.
During our surveys in the Acteon group we saw very few fish. There were few sharks or other large predators and even large herbivorous fish such as surgeonfishes and parrotfishes were noticeably low in number. The fish community was dominated by small-bodied species such as damselfishes, wrasses, and butterflyfishes.
So why are the fish communities in such a pristine and isolated coral reef in such poor condition?…