Hey guys, finally like Zem and pactrop I could say I'm checking in from Hawaii...

. This was a tremendous opportunity arriving this past Saturday, as I was able to meet up with two of the "Pacific Abyss" divers and watch the program with them. Rich Pyle invited me over to John Earle's apartment (two of the rebreather divers from the show)... it was the first time they'd seen the program themselves. This expedition was funded by the BBC and will be airing as a full three hour special in Europe. Also present was Jack Randall, a "living legend" ichthyologist that has described more reef fish species than any in history, and more fish than any other living person... he's 84 now and still at it! Here's a shot... from left to right it's Rich Pyle, me, Jack Randall, and John Earle...
Anyway, the commercial breaks in the show were fantastic... getting the inside story from these guys. Rich only got one C. abei to the few that Brian Greene got, but Rich's is the only one left alive and it looks great at the Waikiki Aquarium... after being in bad shape it's really settled in well... here's a shot I took of it on Sunday...
While this was an exciting find... the real highlight of the dive was the sapphire blue Chromis species collected on the dive... 100% unknown before that. The Prognathodes butterfly shown in the video Rich thinks is the same species he collected in Hawaii that is also on display at the Waikiki Aquarium... just a different color variant... a wide ranging species that would make it... That fish is also undescribed... Here's a shot of one of the two the aquarium has...
C. abei has been recorded in both Palau and Indonesia at depth, but earlier this year a juvenile was photographed and documented in Southern Japan at a depth of 15 feet for about two months straight... amazing when you think about it... the surface temp was 62 degrees... Charles Delbeek has done a great job with the abei at the aquarium and has slowly brought it up in temp, but it is still at 73 degrees, so if someone wants to drop the money of this fish they'll also be paying a hefty electric bill to chill its system down... C. abei's beauty comes not in its color, but its uniqueness... I had dinner with Gerry Allen, who described the species, and he said it fell almost in the middle of Centropyge and Apolemicthys... by looking at it you could tell its quite unique...
To close it off here's another shot from the aquarium... another "only one in the world on display" angelfish the Waikiki Aquarium has...
