Love the Philippine Fishes

A tourism slogan campaign is a good opportunity to educate about the biodiversity of a country. The Philippines are home to 3168 (!) species of marine fishes (source: Fishbase), making it truly the center of marine biodiversity on the planet. I get the impression that many locals & visitors alike don’t even realize what kind of biodiversity wonderland they visit when they go snorkeling or diving in the archipelago’s waters. There are more than three thousand reasons to love the fishes of the Philippines! Let’s hope that all of them, and their coral reef, mangrove & seagrass homes are still around and healthy in future decades.

It’s also really interesting to look at Philippine (bony) fish observations on iNaturalist, the citizen science platform: 1368 species (the really rare ones, and the deep sea/open ocean ones are missing here relative to Fishbase), in a total of 22768 observations, all zoomable and clickable.

#LoveThePhilippines #biodiversity

Fishes in the collage, top left to bottom right:

Anemonefish, Amphyprion ocellaris, Apo Island, Negros Oriental

Shrimp goby, Amblyeleotris steinitzi, Dauin, Negros Oriental

Cardinalfish, Siphamia majimai, Bacong, Negros Oriental

Sandperch, Parapercis cylindrica, Bolinao, Pangasinan

Cardinalfish, Sphaeramia orbicularis, Danjugan Island, Negros Occidental

Ghost pipefish, Solenostomus paradoxus, Dauin, Negros Oriental