Marine Creatures of Amami

On the west side of Amami Oshima, the effect of a warm northerly flowing current has formed a coral reef at a higher latitude compared to others around the world.

The coral that forms to build this reef sustained significant damage due to whitening and mass outbreaks of Crown of Thorns Starfish, but is now in recovery and nurturing many kinds of marine life.

These include fish that use the coral as hideouts, kobushime cuttlefish that lay eggs to adhere to the coral, and the Japanese parrotfish species known in dialect as erabuchi that inhabit the coral reef and are also caught for food.

These fish consume algae clinging to coral boulders by biting chips off the rock they chew and spit out as sand.

This sand builds sandy beaches where the concave land hermit crab and ghost crab can live and that become nesting grounds for sea turtles to lay eggs.

The coastline of Amami Oshima is extremely varied, with reef areas, mangrove areas, bays and straits in what is a truly diverse environment.

Each of these locales are home to diverse creatures suited to the environment, and new species of living things are discovered almost every year.

2012 marked the widely-publicized discovery of the Amami Starry Sky pufferfish (Torquigener albomaculosus), which creates a circular, geometrical nesting ground in sand on the seabed in the Oshima strait.

Called “mystery circles”, these nesting grounds have become a sightseeing destination for many scuba divers.