Foreword

Summary

Late in the summer of 2012, Camilo Mora emailed me out of the blue. He pointed out that I had published a substantive review of reef fish ecology in 1980, the edited book, The Ecology of Fishes on Coral Reefs, in 1991, and a second book, Coral Reef Fishes, in 2002. He therefore deduced that 2013 would be the year for the next effort, and offered to co-edit. I've known Camilo Mora for a few years now, was not swayed by his impeccable logic, and replied that I was done editing books on reef fish ecology. I suggested he do it himself. About a month later, he sent another arm-twisting email and convinced me I had better compose a Foreword. Now, I see what he has assembled, and I am very pleased he asked me.

The field study of fish behavior and ecology has had its greatest successes on coral reefs. It began earlier, but flowered with the advent of SCUBA, as scientists discovered the many advantages of working in reef habitats. Coral reefs provide a rich diversity of fish species living in an environment with clear water and comfortable working conditions. Bathing yourself in warm, relatively shallow water, while idly watching fishes cavort is a great way to earn a living. Further, the fishes, for the most part are small, and either quite site-attached or remarkably pedestrian, repeatedly following predictable paths through the reef as they go about their daily lives. This makes it easy to get to know individual fishes, to make repeated observations, and above all to carry out simple field manipulations of the type enjoyed by every intertidal ecologist who ever lived. Calling this approach to science underwater bird-watching is quite accurate, and the early research contributed fully as substantive a body of research results as did terrestrial bird-watching from which it stole the occasional ecological concept, sometimes to discard it later.