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First Sighting
T E X T B Y N E D A N D A N N A D
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L O A C H
P H O T O S B Y N E D D
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L O A C H
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oldy Rumengan slips over a
coral ridge and eases down
the slope, heading for a
patch of algae and hydroids
at 50 feet. Although unappealing to
the eye, such dreary scraps of coastal
terrain are prime real estate for critters,
as the veteran dive guide has learned
through years of experience. Rumengan
ranks among the finest critter hunters;
over the decades his talents have teased
out a carnival of eye-popping animals
from similar tangles, but none are as
deliciously unimaginable as the pair
of pin-sized pipehorses he is about to
discover here in Lembeh Strait.
It is difficult to convey the patience
required to find a tiny, well-camouflaged
animal underwater. Rumengan carefully
sorts through the snarls of algae stem
by stem, constantly on the lookout for
the slightest movement and the telltale
outlines of eyes and claws. Minutes or
possibly a half hour later his eyes lock
on a twitch. Leaning closer, his mind
struggles to make sense of a crusty strand
dangling from the growth. The thread
unexpectedly lifts free and floats as light
as a feather toward a neighboring stem,
where it reattaches just above a second
thread of similar size and shape. A sense
of joy overcomes him as he contemplates
from only inches away the pair of
unfamiliar little life forms. Could this be a
new species, possibly a pygmy seahorse? If
so, what a prize!
By the time Rumengan’s motorbike
rattles him back across the northern
isthmus of Sulawesi separating Lembeh
Strait, the site of the discovery, from
his home in Manado, it is approaching
midnight. The late hour doesn’t deter him
from sharing his discovery with longtime
friend and dive companion William Tan
in Singapore. Tan is an accomplished
artist with both camera and violin. When
away from the Singapore Symphony
Orchestra, he is usually underwater, most
often diving with Rumengan. The years
of teamwork have paid big dividends,
producing a plethora of peerless marine
wildlife images for magazines and large-
format books.
A week later the partners tumble
out of a skiff and retrace Rumengan’s
descent to the patch at 50 feet. Now
armed with a search image, Rumengan
quickly locates the pair not a hand’s
length away from where he left them.
Even though thoroughly briefed,
the one-inch animals’ slight frames
take Tan aback. Compounding the
challenge of the photographic mission,
strings of vegetation keep drifting in
front of his lens, and the shy subjects
invariably turn away. It is only later,
after the dive, when viewing the fish
on a computer screen that the unique
nature of their body shape becomes
apparent. The animals don’t appear to
be seahorses but rather close relatives
in the same family, Syngnathidae.
They’re pipehorses — a cross in form
between the stocky and more curved
seahorse profile and the thin, nearly
straight bodies of pipefishes.
Days later, images of Tan’s and
Rumengan’s mysterious pipehorse
flash across Rudie Kuiter’s screen in
Seaford, Australia. The Syngnathidae
expert doesn’t have to scrutinize the
photos for more than a minute before
feeling confident he is looking at a
new species. Even more exciting, the
anatomy of the little fish is so novel
that the animals could represent a new
genus to boot.
If Tan were a dancing man, he would
have broken into a jig after reading
Kuiter’s congratulatory note. But the
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