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.
どこで・いつ見られるか
「常駐（Resident）」とは、そのダイビングスポットでのほとんどのダイブで遭遇できることを意味します。「季節限定（Seasonal）」とは、記載された月に確実に見られることを意味します。それ以外の出会いはボーナスであり、計画の前提にはなりません。
| 目的地 | 信頼性 | 月 | メモ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sipadan & MabulMalaysia | Resident — seen on most dives | 年間を通じて | |
| PalauPalau | Resident — seen on most dives | 年間を通じて | |
| Raja AmpatIndonesia | Resident — seen on most dives | 年間を通じて | |
| Tubbataha ReefsPhilippines | Resident — seen on most dives | Mar–Jun |
ベストな月、一目でわかる
| 月 | 安定して出会える目的地 |
|---|---|
| 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 |
理解を深める
ハビタット: Coral reefs and lagoons; sleeps in wrecks, caves, and channels in packed herds, grazes reef flats by day
分布域: 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
生態・行動: 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.
食性: Live coral and coralline algae — an adult crunches through tonnes of reef a year and excretes it as sand
サイズ: 目安は 1.0 m; 確認済みの最大記録 1.3 m (total length; the largest parrotfish, to around 45 kg).
出会ったときの正しいふるまい方
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.
保全
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.
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