Amami's Sea Creatures
New Species Discovered: White-spotted pufferfish Torquigener albomaculosus Matsuura
The Oshima Strait in southern Amami Oshima is a unique combination of calm waves along a complex shoreline with good tide flow and home to large numbers and varieties of unusual species of living creatures. Scuba divers appreciate the strait for relatively shallow depths that make for great views of ocean life.
Strange, geometrical circle patterns 2 meters (approx. 6 feet) in diameter have been found on the sea floor at depths of 15 to 30 meters (approx. 49 to 98 feet) for thousands of years. The impressive designs have left most observers in awe at what they discovered, but no one has ever understood who made them and why.
In 2011, underwater photographer Yoji Okata happened to dive at a site of one of these circles, and found a small, 10-cm creature making a design. Okata succeeded in capturing the creature on film.
Egg-laying nest created by Amami hoshizora fugu (Photo / Kimiaki Itoh)
Experts called it a “new, never-before-seen discovery” that was featured in the NHK natural science program Darwin’s Amazing Animals. The news reverberated around the globe. Media representatives from BBC in the UK and TV stations in the US and other countries started to visit the following year.
In 2014, the fish was designated a new species by honorary professor Keiichi Matsuura of the Tokyo National Museum, and Matsuura named the Torquigener albomaculosus species Amami hoshizora fugu in Japanese.
Torquigener is the scholarly name for the Torquigener brevipinnis, and albomaculosus means “white spots.”
The geometric circles serve as an egg-laying nest the male makes to attract a female to come lay eggs. Finished patterns differ slightly by individual, which is believed to affect whether the nest attracts a female.
Amami hoshizora fugu was chosen as one of the World’s Top 10 New Species in 2015.
It is clear that the waters of Amami still conceal many more such unusual creatures to discover.
Amami hoshizora fugu (Photo / Kimiaki Itoh)
The Oshima Strait of Amami Oshima (Photo / Futoshi Hamada)
★BBC https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=hpdlQae5wP8
★Mr. Hiroshi Kawase of the Umi no Hakubutsukan at Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba presents a paper in Switzerland in 2017
https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/2/3/14
https://tetraodon.jimdo.com/
Text / Marine Station Amami
