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Tracking reef fish

An orange anemonefish (Amphiprion sandaracinos) hides among sea anemones at a reef off Restoff Island in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. In April 2005, WHOI biologist Simon Thorrold and colleagues from Australia and France used a novel tagging method to track two populations of fish on coral reefs in Papua New Guinea. The scientists found that young of both species made it back to their home reef about 60 percent of the time⎯a surprising result for fish larvae that had dispersed from a small reef habitat into a large area.

(Photo by Simon Thorrold, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)