clinton's Favorites

Saw these in 2017 and couldn't find any information about rock skippers in Niue so went back prepared this year. Seen commonly in most snorkel sites at tidal interchange. This individual was captured and held for several minutes to enable macro-photography. This species appear noticeably different to the images for this species. With Niue's isolation they may well be a separate sub-species. I tried to take sufficient photos without stressing the fish to enable those with more knowledge/interest to have some detailed imagery to look at. This rock skipper was found at the Limu pool, the snip of the video was taken at the Avaiki cave on an adjacent rock, on an in-coming tide. Happy to share 8 sec video if any further interest, can't upload it here.
They freely skip across the coral/rock faces and can spring across the water surface for several feed.
Happy to answer any further questions if I can.

These spines, vertebrae, and teeth were taken from the stomach of the decomposing young Short-finned Pilot Whale reported at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/226893415 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/227898254 , when the skeleton was salvaged for a mammal research collection, with a federal permit. The digested/decomposed stomach material was collected, rinsed and screened. Based on the 5 spines (photo #1), 3 dogfish sharks were eaten. Photo #2 shows a small sample of the vertebrae, but none of the other skeletal elements. The teeth are a small sample of the 55 whole and partial teeth that were found in the screened material.

Individuo con una longitud de 1.10m.. (sin cola) fue capturado por pesca incidental la arte de pesca es (palangre o espinel) los pescadores oriundos del Cantón Duran prov del Guayas, manisfestaron que durante su estadia por la zona han captura un total de 5 individuos obviamente sin vida, la disposición final utilizan para carnada.