May 2010    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 25, No. 5   What's this?

Death to Flamingo Tongues?

from the May, 2010 issue of Undercurrent  

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While diving in St. Kitts, Carol Ziller (Littleton CO) noticed that Dive St. Kitts divemasters were pulling flamingo tongues from sea fans, and either broke them up or buried them in the sand. They claimed there was a proliferation due to the last hurricane, and that the little animals are killing the gorgonia. Ziller told us she saw as many as 20 on a single sea fan and wondered if this was a kosher practice.

We asked Paul Humann, author of the superlative Fish, Critter and Coral ID book series, who told us, “I’ve heard of this. Under normal circumstances, flamingo tongues do not seriously injure sea fans and other gorgonians upon which they feed. The living tissue they feed on is quickly replaced by the colony, and no permanent damage is done. The number of flamingo tongues on any colony is normally held in check by unknown mechanisms. In fact, in many parts of the Bahamas and Caribbean, flamingo tongues are endangered because of over-collection by unknowing divers who don’t realize the beautiful pattern is not part of the shell but is instead the mantle, which will disappear when the animal dies after being removed from the water. ...