Calvin Beale

I check what dive and travel companies publish about the ocean.

Marine ecologist with a PhD from Murdoch University, a diver for 25 years, based between the UK and Bali.

Raja Ampat is home to 1,8131,577 species of reef fish.

1,813 is the count for the wider Bird’s Head Seascape. Raja Ampat’s own count is 1,577 (Erdmann, to end-2018).

The Coral Triangle holds 76% of the world’s coral speciesreef-building coral species.

The 76% figure covers reef-building corals only: 605 species. It does not apply to all corals.

Two errors that turn up again and again in dive marketing copy, corrected.

See the review service

About me

Calvin Beale smiling on a viewpoint above forested limestone islands and turquoise lagoons

My PhD at Murdoch University studied the diving behaviour of large marine planktivores. I have been diving for 25 years and am a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer.

I founded the Marine Megafauna Conservation Project, a UK charity, and do public outreach through the Raja Ampat Manta Project. I also work as expedition staff on voyages with Heritage Expeditions.

I wrote and maintain FishDiveR, a package for the R statistical language, available on CRAN.

Contact

For review work: [email protected]

For anything else: [email protected]