Paramount Importance

Octopuses are some of the most remarkable animals in the ocean.

With three hearts, blue blood and eight arms capable of exploring their surroundings almost independently, they are built very differently to us.
But perhaps most impressive is their behaviour. Octopuses can solve problems, explore objects, learn from their environment and rapidly change their colour and appearance to communicate, camouflage themselves or respond to what is happening around them.

The more you learn about an octopus, the stranger they become.

Presented: Kurt Krispyn
Edited: Kelly

Mudskippers are fish that seem to have forgotten they’re supposed to stay in the water.

Found across tropical mangroves and mudflats, these incredible amphibious fish spend much of their time out of water, moving across the mud using their modified pectoral fins, defending territories and even interacting with each other on land.

Watching a fish move across land, disappear into a burrow and then pop back out of the mud is a pretty incredible reminder of just how diverse and adaptable fish can be.

A huge thank you to Penelope Penelope Taira Dantas for all the information and plenty of laughs in the field!

Presented: Kurt Krispyn
Edited: Kelly

I finally bought a proper underwater camera and have been loving every moment with it. It has taken my enjoyment of being in the ocean to another level.

This footage came from my first couple of dives using the camera. Slowing down and filming has made me notice so much more, the small, weird and wonderful life that is so easy to swim past.

Everything in this reel was filmed around Albany. I hope that sharing what lives beneath the surface gives others another reason to care for it, because what we learn to notice, we become less willing to lose.

Filmed, presented and edited: Kurt Krispyn

They are blue, red or grey, but all three belong to the morwong family.

Blue, Redlip and Dusky Morwong may share a name, but their diets, behaviour and life histories are surprisingly different. Some spend much of their time feeding close to the reef floor, while their ages also tell very different stories, with Redlip Morwong reaching around 30 years old and the maximum age of Dusky Morwong still largely a mystery.

Presented, filmed & edited: Kurt Krispyn
Additional footage: Kelly

Before they become the morwongs we recognise on the reef, they spend months drifting through the open ocean in a completely different form.

Known as the paperfish stage, these young fish are incredibly thin, silvery and laterally compressed, allowing them to remain pelagic for far longer than the larvae of many other reef fishes.

Blue Morwong, Redlip Morwong and Dusky Morwong all pass through this stage before eventually settling into reef or seagrass habitat and transforming into the adults we know.

But once they settle, their lives take very different paths.

Presented, filmed & edited: Kurt Krispyn

When scientists looked at what they eat, they found they often had just one fish in their stomach. But that one fish was usually a large meal.

They are not just eating one fish because that is all they can find. Their diet seems to be shaped by energy. One large prey item gives them a high return, reduces how often they need to hunt, and may even reduce competition with other harlequin fish.

Interestingly, their diet was linked more strongly to prey size than prey family. So they are not just targeting one type of fish, they are targeting the right-sized fish they can overpower and swallow.

Their colours also tell a story. Juveniles and females have yellow spots, but as males mature, those spots shift through green and become blue. During the spawning season, that blue can intensify, likely playing a role in courtship or competition between males.
So behind the colour is a predator shaped by energy, timing, and reproduction.

From what we know, harlequin fish do not appear to be under heavy fishing pressure, but they also have not had the same level of stock assessment as our major fisheries.

Filmed, scripted & edited: Kurt Krispyn