Photos by Peter Southwood	Comber Serranus cabrilla seen by Peter Southwood, at Percy's Hole, close to Rooi Els. Comber are part of the rockcod family (Serranidae, subfamily Serraninae). While they occur all the way from the Mediterranean Sea, around the Cape to KwaZulu-Natal, it is not a common species. This adult, and a juvenile (not shown), are the first sightings SURG is aware off from Cape Town. Recently we saw a koester (Acanthistius sebastoides, also a rockcod family member, see elsewhere in the news section) here as well. The very quick drop-off to 14m and the prevalent dark, murky waters, allows sighting of animals normally occuring in deeper waters, but neither fish species is a particularly deeper reef species, so it is a bit puzzling why we have not seen either species on the Simon's Town side of False Bay, although both sides get equally warm towards and in summer.
References: Smiths' Sea Fishes, MM Smith and PC Heemstra, 1986. More reef fishes and nudibranchs, D King & V Fraser, 2001.
Previous	News Index	Next