12/10/2020
Finally I had a shower today. Whenever I had my back to the wind I can smell something rancid.
Been researching on parrotfish almost all day. It is the kind of cute blue-green fish that I saw snorkelling at Lady Musgrave. The more I learn about this fish, the more I find it adorable. The most distinctive feature of the parrotfish is its parrot-like beak and rows of large front teeth that clatter on dead corals. In recent years, as the average temperature of the ocean rises year by year, seaweeds are growing faster and faster, gradually invading coral reefs and leaving coral polyps nowhere to settle. Parrotfish are vital to the recovery of coral colonies that are dying and bleaching in large areas, so I implore you not to catch or consume parrotfish. Don’t eat the Su Mei (humphead wrasse). This large, friendly, gentle and long-lived fish has already being eaten to extinction by humans.
Parrotfish gnaw on dead coral excreting fine white sand, and a parrotfish excretes about 200 to 300 kg of sand per year. Most of the sand on coral reefs is their excrement.
Parrotfish are very serious about their sleep, and it is said that sleeping parrotfish are unaware that divers playing with them in hands. They also spit out a film of transparent mucus “tents” to cover themselves while they sleep, probably to prevent predators from sniffing out their tracks, and then retrieve the “tent” when they wake up.
The author of a Pacific Fish book described how he often had a narrow encounter with a large parrotfish on his dives, and how he always had to back off and let the fish pass first….
In the afternoon, J saw a catamaran with a motor that didn’t seem to be working, moving into the bay entirely by the wind, he went to help with his dinghy and found out that the boat’s mainsail had ripped, with only jib they sail from Scawfell Island to here, about 60 nautical miles, must be a long day for them.
Chicken satay and eggplant for dinner.
Sea Journal 