A New Frontier for Marine Livestock Collection

Meme Purgatorio, packing and screening supervisor for the Papua New Guinea SEASMART Program, holds up a plastic cup containing a small Xenojulis species of wrasse. I can see Meme’s broad smile refracted through the seawater in the clear cup. “We call it the Gold Nugget Wrasse,” he says. The fish glimmers as sunlight streaming into the warehouse dances off a mosaic of colorful swirls and blotches. “It’s beautiful,” I say. “Where was it collected?” Purgatorio puts the cupped fish back in the holding system. “Taurama Village,” Meme says. “About an hour from here.”