Team Member Peter Wirtz

Many years ago, Peter started as a blenny expert. During travels all along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and West Africa (from Morocco to Cameroon), he detected 10 of the 50 species currently known in that area (plus one from the Cape Verde Islands, which he is currently describing).

Looking around (under water and on land), he noted many other fascinating critters and has now written papers on rather a lot of different species, from protozoans to Homo sapiens.

He spent many years on the Azores and on Madeira Island, travelled frequently to the Cape Verde Islands, and participated in a National Geographic expedition to São Tomé Island. This resulted in numerous papers on the marine fauna and flora and the biogeography of these Atlantic islands

On Ascension, he would particularly like to work on the following groups in co-operation with the experts mentioned:

• Mysid shrimps - Karl Wittmann, Vienna, Austria.


• Brachiopoda - Bernhard Cohen, Great Britain, and Carsten Lüter, Germany.


• Gobiesocidae (Pisces) - Ron Fricke, Stuttgart, Germany.


• Lygdamis (Sabellariidae) - Eijiro Nishi, Japan.


• Zoantharia - James Reimer, Japan.


• Corals - Helmut Zibrowius, France, and Bert Hoeksema, Holland.


• Opisthobranchia - Michael Schroedl, Munich, Germany.


• Eulimidae (Gastropoda) - Anders Warén, Sweden.

For this, he plans to do some night-time snorkeling in large tide pools (when cryptic opisthobranchs emerge) and to dive in caves (if any can be found).