A place where sex change is common — and perfectly normal

(Photos by Dennis King)

As a young marine scientist, my work involved the dissection of thousands of fish specimens as part of investigating their breeding behaviour. I sorted the specimens into groups, viz: immatures and mature females and males. I then noticed a few ovaries that appeared to have testicular tissue lying next to the female gonad, with small eggs visible. I began documenting my observations and the more I recorded this unusual issue the more it showed that at certain times of the year, and for fish over a certain…