November 20, 2020: Juvenile Boxfish

Portrait of a juvenile boxfish, 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) long, collected by a bluewater diver in the top 30 meters (98 feet) of the Celebes Sea water column.

Image courtesy of Exploring the Inner Space of the Celebes Sea 2007 Exploration, NOAA-OE. Download larger version (jpg, 144 KB).

Portrait of a juvenile boxfish, 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) long, collected by a bluewater diver in the top 30 meters (98 feet) of the Celebes Sea water column.

The Celebes Sea lies to the south of the Philippine Islands and is the center of an area known as the “Coral Triangle,” which also includes the waters around Malaysia and Indonesia. Surrounded by much shallower ocean waters, the Celebes plunges to over 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) depth, and in these waters there may well be species that have evolved in isolation from other surrounding waters, waiting to be discovered with modern exploration tools.

Learn more about the “Coral Triangle and Marine Biodiversity.”