300 Actinopterygii in a year

At the start of the year my goal was to get to 200 research grade Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) for the year. My travel schedule, due to my wife and I turning 40 this year was conducive to such a lofty goal as I was going to be spending time in the eastern pacific (Galapagos), south central pacific (French Polynesia), my adopted home of California and what I consider my real home, Jamaica. The plan was simple: 70 species in Jamaica, 30 species in California, and 50 species each in Galapagos and French Polynesia. However, the plan went much better than expected as I was able to observe 92!! research grade Actinopterygii in French Polynesia and thus by the end of June I had already surpassed my goal and was at 249 species for the year. So…I decided to change the goal to 300 species for the year, which at the start of the year would seem like a pipe dream (at the end of 2023 I was at 279 research grade Actinopterygii lifetime), but with 6 months to get 51 additional species, the new goal seemed within reach. I decided to increase my snorkel trips in California (not the most comfortable place to go looking for fish giving the water temperatures, especially for someone who grew up in the tropics), donning all the gear (wetsuits, gloves, booties and hoods) with the hope of getting closer to that magical number of 300. I was able to reach my goal with about 68 days to spare (so in 298 days), which actually turns out to be a little more than a species per day. I would like to thank all my 87 Actinopterygii identifiers for helping to achieve this goal (I literally couldn’t do it without you!!!)
Special shout out to @socal_angling, @zachfrat for California/Eastern pacific based Ids, @jbrasher, @uconnbirdfish, @coralreefdreams, @sue1001 for my Caribbean based ids, @onefishyboi, @billybs, @rpillon for my Galapagos based ids, @francoislibert, @clairegoiran for my French Polynesia based Ids and @maractwin for IDing all over the place.

Here is the breakdown by order for those who are curious:

And finally here is the list of 300 :)

Publicado el 24 de octubre de 2024 a las 06:47 PM por muddphoto