The next time you find yourself luxuriating in some exotic, Instagrammable vacation spot, thank a parrotfish.
The next time you find yourself luxuriating in some exotic, Instagrammable vacation spot, thank a parrotfish. That white sand slithering between your toes? It consists mostly of their excrement.
But here’s another thing for which we can be grateful: our enhanced understanding of their environment’s system chemistry and system ecology.
In a study focused on the chemistry of the consumption and excretion of the bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum), UC Santa Barbara marine scientists sought to understand the relationship between the the massive, coral mega-consumers and the reef environments that serve as the fishes’ habitats as well as their sources of sustenance.
“They’re underwater elephants,” said Grace Goldberg, lead author of a paper published in the journal Coral Reefs. Similar to the huge land mammals, bumphead parrotfish are enormous. Reaching 1.4 meters in length, they are in fact the largest fish of their type and among the largest of coral reef fishes. Like elephants, the individuals consume a large volume — between 4.48 and 5.69 tons annually — of relatively low-quality food and subsequently excrete copious amounts of waste, the sheer amount of which shapes their environment, and, in the case of the tropical fish, gives nearby white sand beaches their defining feature.
Read more at University of California - Santa Barbara
Image: Bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum)
Photo Credit: DOUGLAS J. MCCAULEY
