That’s a wrasse! Rare fish spotted for first time since 2009 in kelp forest in Western Australia | Environment

The chances of encountering this rare reef fish were so unlikely that it took marine biologist Océane Attlan seconds to time what she was seeing.

“All of a sudden I saw this fish. You know when you recognize a familiar face, but you can’t give it a name. That’s the feeling I had,” she said.

The small iridescent fish, known as the Braun’s Wrasse, has only been sighted once since its discovery in 1996. It was last seen in 2009 near Albany, on the southern tip of Western Australia, and has not been seen since.

So when researchers at the University of Western Australia’s Ocean Institute set out to study the region’s kelp forests, the idea of ​​spotting one seemed almost fanciful.

“We were kind of joking about it,” Attlan said. “Keep your eyes peeled in case we see that fish!” »

The exciting encounter took place during the final dive, on the last day of the four-day expedition.

“I was very excited,” Attlan said. “But out of nine dives, this was the only one where I didn’t have a camera with me, so I had to find a buddy to quickly try to take a few photos.”

Fortunately, fellow researcher Dr. Albert Pessarrodona was nearby and was able to take two photos before the fish disappeared into the kelp.

Attlan said Braun’s wrasse was quite small – between six and seven centimeters – and beautiful, brightly colored, with radiating lines around its eyes.

“It’s a very enigmatic and shy fish,” she said. “He was just hiding among the seaweed.”

The species has one of the smallest geographic ranges of any temperate fish in Australia.

Its habitat, on the rocky reef near Albany with its “luxurious kelp forest”, is part of the Great Southern Reef, a gigantic ecosystem that stretches 8,000 km along Australia’s southern coast, from Kalbarri in WA to New South Wales, Attlan said. “This ecosystem has so many species that are not found anywhere else in the world. That makes the ecosystem very valuable.”

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The researchers then posted the two images on a fish species identification platform, where two curators from the Western Australian Museum, along with the Tasmanian-based researcher who last spotted the species in 2009, confirmed it was Braun’s wrasse.

The sighting was particularly important, Attlan said, because it allayed fears that the species might have gone extinct due to recent marine heatwaves that hit southwest Australia.

Spotting rarely seen or undiscovered fish has always been exciting, said Macquarie University fish ecologist Professor Culum Brown, with hundreds of new species described around the world every year.

“I tell my students this, and everyone I take snorkeling or diving with: The more time you spend underwater, the more you sit quietly and watch and see what’s going on, there’s a very good chance you’ll find or see something that no one has ever seen before,” said Brown, who was not involved in the investigation.

“That’s simply because we know so little about the underwater world in general.

“I dare say it could spark quite a bit of interest: divers are spending more time looking specifically for this fish.”