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Tracking Nemo and his relatives

A pair of clownfish (Amphiprion percula) shelter among anemones in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. These coral reef fish — the same species as Disney’s famed Nemo — are the focal species in research by WHOI biologist Simon Thorrold and colleagues from Australia and France to track the dispersal of larvae among designated marine reserves in Kimbe Bay. Using a technique related to DNA fingerprinting called DNA parentage analysis, the team mapped and calculated the dispersal of 122 clownfish with detail never before achieved in the marine fish populations.

(Photo by Simon Thorrold, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)