Fish on Vauxhall Reef Mar 22, 2024

Videos taken on March 22, 2024 as I crossed the Reef Flat, the Reef Crest & Seaward Slope zones of Vauxhall Reef provide a 0ne-time snapshot of what’s there and readily visible  fish-wise. (Zones are those  defined by Lewis, 1960, except that the Reef Flat includes also Lewis’s Diploria-Palythoa zone.)

The Vauxhall Reef  is a moderately healthy reef, in contrast to most of the fringing reefs in the MPA which are highly degraded with very low living coral cover. (See Video Transects of Vauxhall & 2 Degraded Fringing Reefs).

Approx.  Route

About the Vauxhall Fish Videos
– There are 3 separate videos on the Vauxhall Reef representing respectively the Reef Flat, Reef Crest and Seaward Slope zones.
– Video speed of the videos were reduced (circa 50%)
– Videos were taken 10:15 am (begin first clip) to 10:52 am (end last clip)
– I selected areas en route with some aggregation of fish but I did not deviate from the route to look for them.
– Fish density & diversity was more or less typical of last several months; one can see more fish at feeding times (early or late in day), or at certain places (close to breaking waves). Notably missing compared to last year: Filefish, however I have noted their absence in a particular year before.

There are two versions of each video:
A YouTube version: fast loading but poorer quality
A versicolor.ca version: slower loading but original quality retained
The version makes a difference, e.g.  if you wish to ID fish or corals, def. view the Higher Quality version


Fish on Vauxhall Reef: Reef Flat
(3 separate video clips):
On YouTube (Lower Quality)
On versicolor.ca (Higher Quality)

Fish on Vauxhall Reef: Reef Crest
(5 separate video clips)
On YouTube (Lower quality)
On versicolor.ca (Higher Quality)


Fish on Vauxhall Reef: Seaward Slope
(6 separate video clips)
On YouTube (Lower quality)
On versicolor.ca (Higher Quality)


Also view these subpages:

Fishing Expedition 1 and Fishing Expedition 2
Fishing Regulations & my impressions of their impact