“For years we were guessing what sexes we had in the tanks. Back then there was no way to tell the sexes of the fish they had, so it was a case of hope, wait and see. She’s hoping for success, having also done this in 2017. She and the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium recently received some new wild spotted handfish and will both attempt to breed them in coming months. The owner of Seahorse World, north of Launceston, has helped rear red handfish in captivity and treasures a sense of achievement at handing 18 of them back to researchers for release a few years ago. The feeling of privileged awe the researcher describes is familiar to biologist Rachelle Hawkins, who has been breeding seahorses for research, public and private aquaria for the past 25 years. We sat there, watching these fish, for 10 minutes or so just to make sure they were ok. Four of them swam out really quite peacefully but there was a fifth that didn’t … It was like a kid that didn’t quite want to leave but it did eventually. “I remember tipping the bag up and thinking, ‘out you go, welcome to the real world’. “Now, you have to search for hours and be very, very good at finding them to find one, with only 10 in the space of probably a soccer field. In the absence of a dedicated long term study tracking their decline, that’s what resonated with me.” “The site that has 10 fish left … back in the ’90s was quoted to have hundreds of red handfish to the point you had to be careful where you stepped in the shallows,” he says. His conclusions are sobering. It’s estimated there are roughly 10 red handfish at one of the sites and 90 at the other. Threatened species ecologist Tyson Bessell says it’s a complicated business attempting to unravel the secrets of an animal while simultaneously trying to save it from extinction.īut the work he has done for his PhD, including efforts to establish a baseline estimate of how many are left, is helping plug some of the gaps. But a team of dedicated researchers has been toiling for years to ensure the survival of the grumpy-looking creature, about which little is known.
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