Big Fish
Bumphead Parrotfish
Bolbometopon muricatum · Bony fish — family Scaridae
An oncoming herd of bumphead parrotfish sounds like road repair — the crunch of beaks shearing coral carries meters ahead of the fish themselves, olive-gray hulks with pink foreheads and pale beaks, moving in loose formation across the reef crest. They are ecosystem engineers on a heroic scale, each adult converting living rock into a yearly tonnage of white sand; entire beaches are, in part, their output. Sipadan's dawn parade of bumpheads along the reef edge is the species' showcase, and Palau protects spawning aggregations that gather at new moons. Slow-growing, communal, and easy to spear at night, they vanish quickly without protection — their presence is a reef's good-conduct medal.
Dónde y cuándo ver uno
"Residente" significa que la mayoría de las inmersiones en ese destino tienen encuentros con ellos; "estacional" significa que su presencia es fiable en los meses indicados; cualquier otra cosa es un extra, no algo con lo que contar.
| Destino | Fiabilidad | Meses | Notas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sipadan & MabulMalaysia | Resident — seen on most dives | Todo el año | |
| PalauPalau | Resident — seen on most dives | Todo el año | |
| Raja AmpatIndonesia | Resident — seen on most dives | Todo el año | |
| Tubbataha ReefsPhilippines | Resident — seen on most dives | Mar–Jun |
El mejor mes, de un vistazo
| Mes | Destinos fiables |
|---|---|
| January | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat |
| February | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat |
| March | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat · Tubbataha Reefs |
| April | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat · Tubbataha Reefs |
| May | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat · Tubbataha Reefs |
| June | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat · Tubbataha Reefs |
| July | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat |
| August | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat |
| September | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat |
| October | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat |
| November | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat |
| December | Sipadan & Mabul · Palau · Raja Ampat |
Comprendiéndolos
Hábitat: Coral reefs and lagoons; sleeps in wrecks, caves, and channels in packed herds, grazes reef flats by day
Rango: Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea and East Africa through the Coral Triangle to Micronesia and the western Pacific; scarce or gone near heavy fishing
Comportamiento: Travels in herds of a dozen to a hundred, grazing in slow bulldozer lines with audible crunches, trailing plumes of coral sand. Males headbutt audibly in dawn dominance contests — the function of the bump made literal. Sleeps communally and predictably, which made night spearfishing so devastating.
Dieta: Live coral and coralline algae — an adult crunches through tonnes of reef a year and excretes it as sand
Tamaño: normalmente alrededor de 1.0 m; documentado hasta 1.3 m (total length; the largest parrotfish, to around 45 kg).
Cómo comportarse cerca de uno
Never disturb sleeping herds on night dives — a panicked exodus injures fish on the reef. By day, position yourself beside the grazing line, not in it, and skip flash on close sleeping fish.
Conservación
Vulnerable; night spearfishing of sleeping herds emptied much of its range, and recovery is slow — protected aggregations at Palau, Sipadan, and Tubbataha are the benchmarks.
Puntos conocidos por avistamientos
Ver
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