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Have fins, will travel

The paddletail snapper (Lutjanus gibbus) gets around. Its habitat is reefs, and it can be found in tropical marine waters from the Red Sea, throughout Micronesia, north to Japan and south to Australia. This particular example was spotted by WHOI biologist Simon Thorrold, director of the Ocean Life Institute, in the coral reefs of Kimbe Bay on the north shore of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Thorrold studies how fish populations disperse; such information is essential for identifying critical marine habitats that should be set aside to protect fish populations.(Photo by Simon Thorrold, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)