Victoria Vaughan Straits Times 30 Oct 10;
CRITTER hunters have scoured the coral reefs of the Pacific to find and photograph species, many of them new, for an identification book launched in Singapore this week.
Dr Tan (above, left) with a crab specimen, and Mr Deloach pointing to a photo of the same species in his new book. PHOTO: JOSEPH NAIR
Americans Ned Deloach and Paul Humann have spent more than 20 years recording life in the oceans for their identification books, which are renowned among the diving community as a spotters' guide to what's beneath the waves.
Their latest 500-page book - Reef Creature Identification: Tropical Pacific - documents more than 1,600 animals from Thailand to Tahiti and took five years to compile.
Although about a third of the critters - from shrimps to crabs - are thought to be new species, the findings are merely 'scratching the surface' of what has yet to be discovered, said Mr Deloach, who was in Singapore for the book launch.
His sentiments were backed up by the recent Census of Marine Life, a 10-year global study that discovered more than 6,000 new species.
Seeking out the tiny creatures - many of them camouflaged to avoid becoming prey and some only half a centimetre long - was a lesson in patience for the authors.
Mr Deloach, 66, and his wife Anna, 56, along with Indonesian guides, would dive from 6pm to 11pm, five days a week for five months of the year. For each dive, they would spend nearly two hours underwater in one spot hoping to catch sight of the rare creatures.
Speaking at the book launch, Mr Deloach singled out a shell mimic shrimp as his favourite find. It was spotted in the Lembeh Strait near Sulawesi, Indonesia.
The Texan said: 'I was running out of air, but I saw one of the dive guides, Sarindah, waving his torch wildly... His eyes were as big as saucers in his mask and he was pointing at this tiny shell on the reef.
'I thought it was stupid but just to humour him, I took four shots.'
When they got to the surface, the photos revealed that it was more than just a shell. Only two such shrimps have been seen before and both had scientific papers written about them.
'This is the last great natural history on Earth. We are the first generation to be able to go down there - the tradition is to dredge to get species up - and see it with our eyes,' said Mr Deloach.
Although 75 per cent of the photos were taken by the authors, local underwater photographers Mathieu Meur, Indra Swari Wonowidjojo and Ivan Choong, as well as Wild Singapore blogger Ria Tan, contributed to the book.
'The underwater realm is largely undescribed. Taking images of new species or simply documenting the variety of species present in a specific location is a rewarding activity, as it helps further our knowledge of the underwater world,' said Mr Meur, 35, who works at engineering company Meinhardt Group.
The project bridged the gap between the artistic and the scientific, as many of the species in the photos were identified with the help of scientists at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
'Taxonomists don't work from photos but dead specimens. We wanted this book to bridge the science and the diving, as these guys don't get much chance to be out in the field,' said Mr Deloach, who e-mailed photos to 44 scientists around the world to help with the identification.
Live specimens, however, are still needed for the recording of new species.
NUS crab taxonomists Tan Swee Hee and Jose Christopher Mendoza were able to identify many of the elbow crabs in the photos for the book.
For Dr Tan, it was the first time he got to see photos of the creatures in living colour.
'The photos give us a sense of the colouration and allows us to give a more comprehensive description, although it may vary within the same species,' he said.
Echoing his sentiments, Mr Mendoza said: 'It's really amazing to see these things for the first time in living colour in their natural habitat. It's very informative for scientists specially, as we have seen them only in specimen bottles.'
Related links
Launch of Reef Creature Identification Tropical Pacific on wild shores of singapore.