More than you want to know about barracuda...

As part of the centennial of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR), the Bermuda General Post Office issued four postage stamps that reflect BBSR's research mission. Release date was February 4, 2003. My photograph of a spotfin butterflyfish (Chaetodon ocellatus) was the basis for the 70-cent stamp, the stamp that covers basic air-mail service from Bermuda. I had no idea that the stamp was in the works — I'd have pushed for a barracuda! Happy hundredth birthday, BBSR.

Article: "BBSR stamp issue honours 100 years of ocean science" from The Royal Gazette

Barracuda on Television

If you're interested in this subject, you can catch my favorite predators and I in Living Color in two hour-long television documentaries currently playing around the world.

The UK's Partridge Films (now Granada Wild) produced an hour-long documentary, titled Barracuda!, for Discovery Communications that debuted on the US version of the Discovery Channel on Monday, September 10, 2001 (at 8 PM Pacific and Eastern time in the US), with a repeat airing four hours later that night and its next appearance at noon on September 15. The film aired as part of Nigel's Wild, Wild, World (that is how it may be listed in TV guides, etc). The film made its UK debut on Decemer 26, 2001, on a broadcast channel (Channel 5 at 8 PM). It's difficult to tell when it will air again, in the US or elsewhere, but I'll try to post further details regarding air dates as they become available. The Discovery Channel has a brief description of the film on its Web pages. The production is an impressive one that includes a cast of human characters that carries the film's progression across many aspects of the mythology and science surrounding these toothy predators. The film's primary focus is on great barracuda and it includes some incredible underwater footage of barracuda feeding and being fed upon. The film was shot during 1999 and 2000 in Papua New Guinea, the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and at the Tennessee Aquarium. Barracuda! won Partridge Films a silver medal at worldmediafestival, a German film festival, in March, 2001 (presented on May 9 to Partridge Films).

The other film is a French-produced documentary, titled Mission Barracuda, that has aired most widely on Animal Planet Europe (many times since at least September, 2000). Discovery Europe tells me that it is scheduled for transmission on Animal Planet Europe through 2004. The film may also have shown on a German TV network during 2000 and, more recently (June 2, 2001), on the French network La Une, independent of its run on Animal Planet. The film may have aired, perhaps under different titles, on other European networks during 1999 and 2000. This film focused primarily on my research on barracuda behavioral ecology (mainly in Papua New Guinea). If you visit this page you can see just over two minutes of footage from the film, shot during 1999.

Magazine articles

A few of my recent magazine articles that have recently been featured on the Web:

Guardian of the Sea — Mahonia na Dari (Ocean Realm (now no longer published))

Dream come true (Times of the Islands)

The Sounds of Silence: Into the (Really Noisy) Silent World (Times of the Islands)

Amazing technicolour dreamcoats of the reef: the Tao of fish colour (Times of the Islands)