Neville Coleman's TROPICAL MARINE FISH ID SPECIALTY COURSE
for Scuba Divers and Snorklers is the most comprehensive PADI/SSI marine fish identification course available in the Asia/Indo - Pacific region.
It has been designed at a tertiary education level of participation and based on easily understood primary, common sense language and the latest Australian Government issued common names.
Textbook for Neville Coleman's TROPICAL MARINE FISH ID SPECIALTY COURSE, this book was developed as a general Fish ID guide, the aim of which is to provide the average person a means by which a basic level of information can be referred to and systematically absorbed.
The object is to bring the fantastic diversity of marine fishes into focus, so that everybody can easily identify sea fish in a way that is reliable and provides simple, easy reference arranged as a constant system that is easily followed.
THE HISTORY
Born and bred to sustenance fishing on the Lane Cove River in Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, I was already familiar with the few sea fish species I'd caught, jagged, trapped, netted, or speared with a torch along the shores at night.
I knew leatherjackets, bream, catfish, conger eels, flathead, mullet, blackfish, scorpionfish, garfish, hardyheads, yellowtails, slimy mackerel, tailor and sharks.
I was brought up to be very keen on fish and fishing. For our family it was a matter what could be scrounged, or caught from the local river and foreshores as to whether we ate, or went hungry. I was a good learner.
My "Solvol Fish Book" gave me the first impressions of an ocean of marine fishes beyond even a small boy's imagination; bizarre shapes and forms, complex patterns and a kaleidoscope of colours.
There were dangerous sea fish, venomous sea fish, poisonous sea fish, shallow water sea fish and those which lived in the abyss. Fantastic sea creatures of which so little was known; I wanted to catch them all...
This was my first idea of a Marine Life ID guide.
By the time I had been scuba diving for a few years I realised just how easy it was for a few good spearfishermen to decimate the inshore reefs of fish, and my attitude to fishing altered.
On my Australian Coastal Marine Expedition ( 1969/73) I worked on every type of fishing vessel to get experience and I saw how much incidental catch there was, and how tonnes of non saleable Marine Life and sea creatures got shovelled overboard from the trawlers every night.
I was totally blown away and thought that if I could bring attention to sea fish as living animals of nature, perhaps humans ( including myself) might have a better understanding and not be as destructive.
In 1973 I managed to persuade a publisher to take on the first Underwater Photographic Marine Fishes ID book published in Australia. it was published in 1974.
I was so proud of it and noticed that the local Newsagent shop had 4 copies for sale. I went in made myself known and asked if they might like me to sign them?
I was crushed by the answer...... "Don't touch the books, if you sign them they will be damaged and we can't get our money back when we return them."
I didn't catch all the species in the Solvol Fish Book by a long shot, but I did pioneer the first Australian Underwater Photographic Fish ID Guide in 1974.
Years later, I still hadn't caught many species with a line, BUT I certainly
"Captured a lot of Marine Fish by Camera"
Australian Sea Fishes South 30 [degrees] and Australian Sea Fishes North 30 [degrees[ (1980) sold over 45,000 copies.
I also completed and published the first Australian photographic fish books on biology and behaviour, Australian Marine Fish ( Biology) 1992 followed by Australian Fish Behaviour (1993).
Since those early years marine science, underwater photography and living fish ID has made rapid progress, with a host of scientists, fish taxonomists and underwater photographic naturalists following in my footsteps.
Today, there are a number of good fish books available with a range of visual aids, including underwater photography, paintings, aquarium photography and taxonomic photography, all adding to our knowledge.
However, the majority of these books do not provide an easily referenced visual structure for teaching Tropical Marine Fish ID Courses in the classic systematic approach required for higher education in schools, universities, Marine fish ID education classes and/or basic Scubadiving/Snorkeling Underwater Naturalist Marine Fish ID Courses.
Present teaching systems
I can remember, not too many years ago, getting a Fish Identification Course structure from one of the Scuba Diving Instruction Agencies.
Really keen that someone had at last made some sense of Marine Fish ID, I sat down and viewed the details of how to teach Marine Fish Identification.
This Angelfish could be described as "pretty" and it swims around reef but that hardly determines its family, or species characteristics.
Something better was required. The fact that with very little experience in underwater fish identification, a scuba diver, or snorkeler can easily learn to identify this species in the wild, just by knowing what determines its family ( Pomacanthidae - Angelfish) " body shape and spine on the lower gill cover".
Upon learning that the specific criteria of distinguishing one fish from another was that "It was pretty and swims around reef" I realised the joke was on me.
Even if an interested party ( ME )was serious in their efforts to educate divers it was very difficult to come up with a standard system based on the present teaching materials available.
Too many bloody fish?
Although at first glance, this scene may appear chaotic, with a lot of species of hard to identify species all milling around.
In reality, even though there may be over 100 fish in the picture, there are only 11 familys represented and with a little knowledge, as shown in this course, ALL, can be easily identified. ( Photo: Jorina van der Westhuizen)
The Indo-Pacific region has around 5,000 species of marine fish and for
most student scuba divers and snorklers it seems like an impossible task sorting them out.
When I first snorkelled and scuba dived on the Great Barrier Reef in 1963/64 what I thought I knew of the fishes down south, was of no consequence.
There, I was faced with an array of fish species beyond my comprehension, all going this way and that, schools, singles, pairs, shapes, patterns, colours and designs all mixed up amongst a background of intricate coral reef structures that seemed to go on forever.
It all seemed impossible to separate anything into any order, or learn how to ID one form of Marine Fish from the other, so I endeavoured to categorise habitats, for example;
(1) Bottom-dwelling sea fishes:
Fish that sat on the bottom, or burrowed, or lived in holes.
(2) Reef-dwelling sea fishes:
Fish which spent most of their time swimming, or hovering close to the bottom amongst the reef
(3) Above-bottom sea fishes:
Fish which swam higher off the bottom, yet fed on reef-dwelling animals and plants
(4) Cave-dwelling sea fishes:
Fish which lived in caves, or under ledges during the day. (Many species of which are nocturnal)
(5) Mid-water sea fishes:
Fish (generally schooling species) which swam in the water column, feeding on plankton or other fish
(6) Surface-living sea fishes:
Fish that fed on plankton or other fish just below the surface during the day
(7) Open ocean sea fishes:
Fish which generally inhabited open ocean waters
Of course, this simple process did not cover every family, nor did it try and deal with interaction between species, seasonal differences, multiple habitats, or micro-habitats within territories.
However, it did provide me with an easy learning method model which covered 85% of the shallow water Marine Fish families.
Having a simple guide to Habitats and Major Niches, and a Visual Menu for each species in the book gives an instant window into understanding the fish's lifestyle and its implication to humans.
Sorting out the Families
Process of elimination
If I looked at bottom-dwelling fishes, I found that there were only around 20 families and many lived on sand, or rubble. Those that lived on sand and rubble had very specific shapes (flathead, soles) or lived in a particular niche (shrimp gobies in a hole).
Those that lived on reefs (scorpionfish, blennies) both have eyes high on their heads, but scorpionfish had a huge mouth and gills and long dorsal spines, where as blennies were small, secretive and ate algae, or plankton.
So, by dealing with simple specifics of Sea Fish Identification such as habitat, shape, size, position of eyes, tail shape, schooling, or solitary behaviour, feeding/mouth types and day, or night habits, it was possible to categorise most common marine fish to a family.
When approached in this way it is surprising just how easy fish identification to family can become, for example, to separate triggerfish (Balistidae) and leatherjackets (Monocanthidae) which are closely related, there are many numbers of descriptive features described in the texts.
However, there is a much simpler visual ID method to separate these families.
Triggerfish have their eyes aproximately midway between their mouth and dorsal spine;
TRIGGERFISH - BALISTIDAE
Pink - tailed Triggerfish (35 cm) PNG
Melichthys vidua ( Solander, 1844)
Qld, GBR, WA, Japan, Asia/Indo - Pacific
Leatherjackets have their eyes directly below, or close to the dorsal spine.
LEATHERJACKETS - MONACANTHIDAE
Speckled Leatherjacket ( 18 cm) Indonesia
Cantherines fronticinctus ( Gunther, 1886)
WA, PNG, Philippines, Japan, Asia/Indo - Pacific
It becomes so easy when you learn how to "see"!
Once your eyes have been opened,
Marine Fish ID is a cinch!
Family features
If one looks at fish families instead of species, the numbers are reduced from 5000 species to around 300 familys of which only 50 familys might be relevant to the area you are diving in, so it makes sense that families are easier to learn first.
The fact that on any normal dive, the majority of fish seen may only represent 10 families, simplifies the possibilities all around.
Once an easily absorbed formula is followed, 5,000 unknowns begin to make sense.
"Too many bloody fish" comes down to a decision on one, or two familys which can then easily be looked up in any Marine Fish ID Guide Book..
With each species related to in this way, it becomes a very simple process to learn and even more so to gain experience with each new family, or species referenced.
This species lives in the vicinity of CORAL REEFS and ROCKY REEFS.
It is generally found around caves , or under ledges.
It is seen out during the day.
The fish is edible( but this does not necessarily mean that people other than South Pacific islanders make a practice of eating them)
The Emperor Angelfish is generally seen at depths around 20 metres. All this information appears for every species and where applicable, male, female, or juvenile characters are also displayed.
Tropical Marine Fish ID Courses for Scubadivers, Underwater Photographers and Snorklers
Yes, there are a few Tropical Fish Famlies that are a little more difficult than others to recognise, BUT Goatfish ( Mullidae) is not one of them. If its a long skinny fish with two barbells under its chin, its a Goatfish!
Most Tropical Fish family IDs are just as simple, once you know the easy ID recognition features.
Over the many years I have put into learning about fish and endeavouring to share the knowledge I have come up with a basic ABC to a Tropical Marine Fish ID Course.
However, it soon became apparent that the Indo-Pacific Marine Fish ID books available were not purpose - designed to teach this course.
So I set out to write and design a simple all-purpose Tropical Marine Fish ID Guide book that fitted the criteria of the course.
In the four years it took to develop the Indo - Pacific Sea Fishes concept, design and write the book, many of my original ideas have been further refined and applied.
Once scubadivers and snorkellers become more proficient at family and species recognition, the importance of keeping records and participating in Marine Life Inventorys and surveys of dive sites may not be as "pie in the sky" as some in the past might have thought.
ANGLERFISH - ANTENNARIIDAE
Warty Anglerfish (10 cm) Philippines
Antennarius maculatus (Desjardins,1840)
GBR, PNG, SI, Japan, Asia/Indo - Pacific.
Anglerfish are bottom- dwelling with a globular, compressed body which has a modified first dorsal fin which acts as a lure. What could be more simple?
Indo-Pacific Sea Fishes - Northern Australia - Great Barrier Reef
With the availability of this book it is now possible for anybody to learn, or teach real Tropical Marine Fish ID Courses based on the simple common sense practical information, photographs, visual family keys and the specific distinction pointers, showing the identity features of each species of Tropical Sea Fish.
SEAHORSES & PIPEFISH - SYNGNATHIDAE
Thorny Seahorse ( 15 cm) Philippines
Hippocampus hystrix
Japan, Indonesia, PNG, Asia/Pacific.
Seahorses are well known due to their charactistic features. However, most Tropical Fish Families also have very characteristic features which, once known, become just as easy as Seahorses to recognise.
Indo-Pacific Sea Fishes Northern Australia - Greater Barrier Reef is one of the most comprehensive Photographic Tropical Marine Fish ID guide of its kind for Northern Australia and the Great Barrier Reef.
Over 1,400 pictures
10,700 illustrations
Featuring over 105 fish family identi-kit body shape profiles
Major habitats - natural histories - zoogeography - family names (pronunciations), scientific names, common names, authors, dates and sizes
Dangerous fish, venomous fish, edible fish, poisonous fish, aquarium fish
Male/female/juvenile examples
Format follows traditional classification and tertiary teaching systems.
Click here for Course Program and details