Diario del proyecto Australasian fishes

23 de marzo de 2024

Male Leafy Seadragon with parasite gives birth

Jens Sommer-Knudsen, @jenssommer01, took this wonderful photo in January 2024.
Janine Baker, @marinejanine, manages the Dragon Search South Australia project. She stated, "This is such a special photo, because it shows a newly hatched baby seadragon, on top of the algae-covered egg cups. Very rare to see a hatchling captured in the same image as the father."
The adult seadragon was named 'Xiaolong' by diver Kerry Neil. Xiaolong means 'Little Dragon'. In her own words Kerry is a "passionate marine scientist working within industry to ensure sustainable development of coastal infrastructure."
Jens provided us with the following information. "A dive buddy from URG NSW and I had travelled to South Australia with the main aim of seeing and photographing Leafy Seadragons. Peter Corrigan from Sea Dragon Dive Lodge was kind enough to take us for a dive at Rapid Bay Jetty to help us find some; the photo in question is of a leafy that he showed us just next to the old jetty. We saw a number of leafies during the dive as well as more on a subsequent dive. We observed Xiaolong towards the end of the dive and while the egg mass is obvious, I must admit that I didn't notice the babies and the parasitic isopod (See another journal post about parasitic isopods) until I looked closer at the photos after the dive."
Thank you Jens for uploading this terrific observation.
P.S. For all you movie trivia buffs, American martial artist and actor Bruce Lee's Chinese name was 李小龍 (Li Xiaolong).
Publicado el marzo 23, 2024 07:34 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

13 de marzo de 2024

Member profile - Susan Prior

It is usual with these Bio Blurbs to highlight a project participant who has contributed significantly to the project. This Bio Blurb, featuring Susan Prior, @susanprior, who is listed at No 18 on the project Observer Leader Board with 2,356 observations is certain one such participant. She’s a strong supporter of iNaturalist with 3,643 observations recorded.
Some Bio Blurbs also feature Australian locations, where project participants would find the natural environment both interesting and unusual, often full of exotic marine life. This Bio Blurb is one of those as well, as Susan lives at a place most dream about visiting, Norfolk Island. A place rich in both environmental and historical contexts.
Finally, Susan is a skilled, professional writer, so there is very little I could add to her Bio Blurb, as it is a rich and rewarding write-up of her interest in nature and her love for the island. The following are her own words.
“If I was to give you a quick list of what I am, this would be it: a science communicator, an interpretation researcher, content developer, writer, editor, project manager, community engagement practitioner, publisher, storyteller, and environmental and coral reef advocate. And I am about to embark on a PhD, studying Norfolk Island’s marine environment. I am also a mum to two adopted daughters, a grandma to one grandson and a granddaughter who is due very soon.
I was born in the UK, and emigrated to Australia with my then husband 40 years ago, in 1984. I’ve loved being in the water since I was a child, so it was natural for me to take up the opportunity to go scuba diving and ocean swimming in Australia. We moved as a family to Norfolk Island in the late 1990s, for a period of almost five years. I then returned to the island to live permanently in 2018.
In the 90s, I’d squeeze my daily swims around part-time work and being a mum. I’d swim out to the reef, often with a small child – or two – hanging onto my back so they could peer into the depths and see the amazing wonders there as well. I recall pointing out moray eels, cheeky smoky pullers and colourful wrasse.
Fast forward twenty years, I returned as an empty nester with more time. Working as a freelancer gave me the flexibility to resume my swims but when I got in the water, I was immediately struck by the changes I thought I was seeing – less fish, both in variety and numbers, and diseased and algae-covered corals. I didn’t return to diving, though. On Norfolk, we are lucky enough to be able to access the reef by wading in off the beach. All my photos have been taken while snorkeling, which I normally try and time to around low tide. As I only use a small camera and no additional lighting or other equipment, low tide conditions mean I can get closer to the subject and stay still enough to get a reasonable shot.
I had no evidence to support my hunch that the reef was struggling and when I searched for resources about Norfolk Island’s reef, I could find very little. Norfolk Island was almost like a research frontier – yet to be really discovered. I decided I had to do something. In January 2020, I drew a line in the sand and began taking photographs. But the trouble was, I didn’t have a clue what I was photographing. I had zero knowledge, none whatsoever, of fish or corals. Heck, I even confused a flowerpot coral with an anemone! I would Google, for example, ‘black and white fish, horizontal stripes, yellow tail fin’ and then trawl through the photos until I found something that looked vaguely similar. That led to me discovering iNaturalist and it grew from there.
Norfolk Island’s reef has long been overlooked, overshadowed by the stunning beauty and intriguing history of the island above water. Yet, Norfolk Island’s lagoons are unique and I wanted to raise awareness of them. Not only does the island feature one of the most southerly coral reefs in the world, but it is uniquely surrounded by an Australian Marine Park up to the high tide mark, while directly abutting the World Heritage Australian Convict Property of Kingston. This is relevant in that this history has contributed to many of the detrimental changes we see on the reef today.
As many freelancers will relate, I was booked for a six-week job that never eventuated, so with my growing catalogue of images, I decided to use the time to build a website and blog. It’s by no means perfect, but it is a start. On there, and with the iNaturalist window always open to help me ID species, I catalogued every kind of fish – as well as corals, anemones, nudibranchs, turtles and much more – that I’d seen in the last four years while doing my ‘lap’ swimming. This website is updated regularly as I get better images of different species or write another blog post.
In summer 2020, as I was just getting going recording the reef, Norfolk Island experienced a severe drought. It broke with devastating consequences for our marine environment. Since then, I’ve used the website and my Norfolk ISLAND TIME social media pages to raise awareness and to pressure (nicely) the various levels of government to help us tackle our water quality issues. In those four years, there have been some small improvements to the catchment, research undertaken and reports tendered, but there is still much to do if we are to fix the problem properly and build a resilient reef – resilient enough to withstand the other impacts that are coming at it, such as climate change. Time is marching on, and I fear we will lose the reef as we know and experience it today before we achieve any serious improvements to the island’s wastewater management.
In this journey, iNaturalist and Australian Fishes have proved to be an amazing resource, but I think the thing that has struck me the most throughout this whole, very steep, learning curve, is the enthusiasm and helpfulness of other fish and coral enthusiasts, both amateur and academic. So many people have kindly helped to correct my aberrant IDs and offered advice and supportive comments. Even better, I can’t quite describe the thrill of being the first person to identify a species in an area. I think I am up to eleven now. Silly, I know. Childish, possibly. But it’s a great buzz.
As a citizen scientist, I have more than 100,000 images of Norfolk Island’s reef and its inhabitants: four years of information, observations and evidence. I keep everything, and I also keep different versions of the best photos. This means I have the right file size and type ready to go for any particular platform, be it my website, the book I am writing, iNaturalist.org records, Facebook or anything else I need. And keeping everything (and filing them in a logical way) means I can go back and compare images of the same coral bommie, for example, taken in 2020 to ones taken in 2024. I believe this resource is and will continue to be invaluable in helping to protect Norfolk Island’s reef. It is my advocacy tool. We may forget, but photographs don’t.
I have to thank Malcolm Francis, @malcolm_francis, who is based in New Zealand and who maintains a comprehensive fish species database for Norfolk Island, the Kermadecs and Lord Howe. He has been a wealth of wisdom and information. I’d also like thank and acknowledge two other very significant people on this journey: coral researchers Associate Professor Tracy Ainsworth and Associate Professor Bill Leggat. It is because of them that I have now, at 64-years-old, decided to embark on a PhD to try and fill in some of those research gaps”
I certainly want to pay Susan a visit and buy her a coffee, on the island of course. For those interested in learning more about her work or the unique natural environment found on Norfolk Island, I encourage you to examine her website, blog and Facebook page.
This journal post was written by Australasian Fishes member, Harry Rosenthal.
Publicado el marzo 13, 2024 05:51 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 5 comentarios | Deja un comentario

06 de marzo de 2024

The Australasian Fishes project has a new look

You may have noticed that the Australasian Fishes project looks different.
We've converted from a traditional project to a collection project. Why did we do this? The primary reason is that we were going backwards. At the time of conversion, we had a stockpile of over 11,000 suitable observations that needed to be added manually. Despite having a team of people adding observations, the situation was unmanageable.
Now when you add your observation, it is automatically uploaded to the Australasian Fishes project, assuming it passes the project rules.
So what does this mean to you? The project still has the same functionality but when you upload your new observations you don't need to choose to add them to the project. They will go in automatically.
We're going through a testing phase at the moment. Please let me know if you have any problems.
Thank you to Scott Loarie, @loarie, for his help making this change happen.
Publicado el marzo 6, 2024 10:29 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

28 de febrero de 2024

Barred Knifejaw - a new species record for Australia

This Barred Knifejaw, Oplegnathus fasciatus, is a new record for Australia. It was speared by Angus McCook in June 2023 off Tea Gardens, New South Wales.
Thank you Vin Rushworth for uploading the observation.
Prior to this observation only one species of Oplegnathus was known from Australia -Oplegnathus woodwardi.
Luckily for us, Angus' fish is an adult male that has the distinctive black colouration around the mouth and eye typical of the Barred Knifejaw. The species also has more vertical bars than O. woodwardi, a high soft dorsal fin, and dusky coloured pectoral, pelvic and caudal fins.
Interestingly the species has also been recorded as an introduction to New Zealand. It also occurs in Japan, Korea, Taiwan. Hawaii and the Mediterranean Sea, where it has been introduced.
Angus stated, "I was competing in the Australian pacific coast championships. I had just lost a large yellowtail kingfish and decided to scrounge for some smaller species in Esmeralda Cove on Broughton Island. While scoping around a large boulder edge where I had previously found a variety of species, I approached a school of Black Drummer swimming out in the open. As I got closer, I noticed one fish looked different to the rest, later realizing what it was as my father couldn't stop raving about this same fish from a previous dive in the same spot just a few months prior. Once I approached the school, the Knifejaw became very skittish, swimming erratically, separating itself from the school. I slowly followed along the surface until it eventually sought refuge in a cave. I patiently hid out of sight on the other side of the cave and waited for the fish to emerge. After spearing the fish, at the competition weigh-in I found out how unknown this fish was and the likelihood of it being an Australian record. It makes me very proud to be a part of history."
References:
  • Nakabo, T. 2002. Fishes of Japan: with pictorial keys to the species. Tokai University Press. Pp 2428.
  • Roberts, C., Stewart, A.L. and C.D. Struthers. 2015. The Fishes of New Zealand. Te Papa Press. Pp 1748.
Publicado el febrero 28, 2024 04:12 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 5 comentarios | Deja un comentario

22 de febrero de 2024

Holy Cow! Harry's book has been published.

As most project Journal readers know, I have been writing bio-blurbs of project participants for some time. To date we have featured almost 50 project participants over the years and will continue to do so. The Journal has also highlighted significant project discoveries, observation statistics, important project information and updates.
My New Year’s resolution for 2023 was to write a self-published book on the background of the Australasian Fishes Project and citizen science. I was successful in meeting my goal, by publishing on Amazon, Holy Cow! I am a Citizen Scientist. It is 197 pages of often humorous information about today’s Golden Age of Scientific Discovery, the role of citizen science in professional science and features bio blurbs of many familiar Australasian Fishes project members and contributors. Of course, there’s a bit of personal information about me, and the road I travelled to reach citizen science, with plenty of wrong turns, detours and flat tyres.
For any participants interested in how the project was envisioned and originally organised by Mark McGrouther and friends, this book will provide valuable insight into the early days of Australasian Fishes and its growth over time. The book contains numerous examples of information about development and achievements of Australasian Fishes to date and some possible directions I hope the project may take in the future.
Finally, the book provides insight and tips for those wanting to start up their own citizen science project, from lessons learned from watching Australasian Fishes grow and mature over time. It is a significant project we can all be extremely proud to help to support, and which I am proud to highlight in this book. In some ways, it is the story of all of us in the project. It has also served as the background to presentations I have made at local Sydney dive clubs, and I would be happy to present to any groups interested.
The book is available in paperback and Kindle versions and can be found at Holy Cow! I am a Citizen Scientist.
This journal post was written by Australasian Fishes member, Harry Rosenthal.
Publicado el febrero 22, 2024 03:02 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario

18 de febrero de 2024

Yellow Spotted Trevally out of range

On the east coast of Australia, the Yellow Spotted Trevally, Turrum fulvoguttatum, is recorded as far south as the Clarence River, New South Wales (29o23'S). View the species page on the Australian Faunal Directory. The fish in Pete Mcgee's observation was photographed over 500 kilometres south of this.
Pete(@petemcgee) stated, "2023 had been a good season for juvenile tropical species sightings around Sydney. I was diving around the jetty at Chowder Bay when I saw a jack species I wasn't familiar with next to a black-spotted goatfish. The visibility wasn't great, but I managed to get a couple of shots from a distance before the two swam off. I wondered if it may have been an Onion Trevally (Turrum coeruleopinnatum), and a friend initially suggested it may be a Greater Amberjack (Seriola dumerili), before the identity was confirmed by experts on iNatualist as Turrum fulvoguttatum."
As well as being observed well south of its recognized range, this observation is the first record of the species from Sydney Harbour. View the 2022 Sydney Harbour fish paper by DiBattista et al.
Thank you Pete for uploading your observation.
Publicado el febrero 18, 2024 07:07 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

11 de enero de 2024

Scalloped Ribbonfish in Cabbage Tree Bay

This is the 180th Australasian Fishes Project journal post since the project's inception in 2016.
Those journal posts have covered a range of topics including new records for Sydney Harbor, new distributional range extensions and member profiles. This post doesn't fit into any of those categories. Instead, it just features an amazing fish and I thought it worth sharing with everybody.
The fish is a Scalloped Ribbonfish, Zu cristatus. The species occurs off northwestern Western Australia and down most of the east coast to Tasmania (view distribution).
This observation, which was made by Peter Barfod (@fiftygrit), is the 4th of the species for the Australasian Fishes Project, but the first of a live fish showing its spectacular fins.
Peters stated, "I often swim at Cabbage Tree Bay and always take a camera. I have seen some rare critters there and this may have been the rarest. Whilst swimming, I saw people grouping and looking in the water and anticipating that they saw something interesting, I approached and did not see anything but floating seaweed. I asked what they saw and they said look again. It took me a a few seconds to refocus but as soon as I saw it, I suspected it was some sort of oar fish because its orientation was vertical in the water. Out came my camera and I snapped away. It did not move. Was it alive? Surely it would go deep with the 4 people around it. Looking very carefully, I could see the dorsal fin move slightly. This fish was very committed to its camouflage. Afterwards, I knew the fish was special and anticipated loading the observation on iNaturalist.".
Strictly speaking, the Scalloped Ribbonfish (Family Trachipteridae) is not an Oarfish (Family Regalecidae) although both fishes are classified in the order Lampridiformes (view the classification). Fishes in this order show extremes of body form, from the deep-bodied Opah to the Oarfish, the longest of all fishes.
Publicado el enero 11, 2024 12:28 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

14 de diciembre de 2023

Sixbar Wrasse in Jervis Bay

The last journal post was about an observation of Orangespotted Glidergobies in Jervis Bay.
This post features another observation made in Jervis Bay. This time the observer is Henrick Michael and the fish is a juvenile Sixbar Wrasse, Thalassoma hardwicke.
The 'official' distribution of the Sixbar Wrasse reaches south to Sydney on the east coast. Henrick's observation was made about 140km south of Sydney.
Henrick stated, "The juvenile Sixbar wrasse was foraging along the surge zone with a few other Thalassoma species, and initially I thought it to be a juvenile parrot fish, but on closer examination I noticed subtle red stripes and an ocellus. It was somewhat difficult to photograph as there was a strong southerly current pushing against the rocky reef that day. After some time, the small wrasse dove into a sand gutter under a cluster of long-spined urchins, presumably for some safety. It was definitely unexpected to encounter one!"
As many of you would know, identifying juvenile wrasses can be challenging. Thank you to Rudie Kuiter for confirming the identification of this juvenile fish.
Publicado el diciembre 14, 2023 03:00 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 4 comentarios | Deja un comentario

04 de diciembre de 2023

Orangespotted Glidergoby way out of range

A journal post in May 2023 reported on an Orangespotted Glidergoby, Valenciennea puellaris, observed by Eric Schlogl for the first time in Sydney harbor. The observation documented a massive range extension of the species down from One Tree Island, Queensland, over 1100 kilometres to the north.
Also in May, Naomi Springett uploaded the above photo of two Orangespotted Glidergobies. The photograph was taken at Jervis Bay, about 140km south of the observation made by Erik.
Naomi stated, "I first saw this species while working as a divemaster in a different area of the same dive site (The Nursery) and took note as I had recently seen photos of them from Sydney and was intrigued as I knew seeing them in Jervis Bay was unusual, but I couldn't photograph them at the time as I did not have my camera. A few weeks later I was able to get in the water with my camera and spotted this pair hanging around a hole in the sand and was excited to be able to photograph them. I am not sure if it is the same pair I had spotted a few weeks before, but it was interesting to watch them. They were not here for long, when I next managed to return to this dive site the hole was unoccupied. I will be keeping an eye out for them again when the water warms up and our tropical visitors return, this site is one of my favourites so it's always interesting to see something new turn up!"
Thank you Naomi for uploading your observation and documenting yet another tropical species well south of its 'official range'.
Many thanks also go to goby expert Dr Doug Hoese for confirming the identification of these fish.
Publicado el diciembre 4, 2023 03:06 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario

09 de noviembre de 2023

Scientist Member Profile - Amanda Hay

For many, museums were always places of wonder and mystery. I suspect many of us spent numerous hours wandering through museum wings, looking into display cases of rare artifacts with little white cards affixed. The cards provided limited information about the item, but for many in the project, provided the initial spark which started them on lifelong careers or hobbies in nature, history and museum science. This Bio Blurb is about one such person, Amanda Hay, of the Australian Museum. Amanda, who is familiar to all, took over as the Collection Manager of Ichthyology at the Australian Museum, after the retirement of Mark McGrouther.
Her interest in the natural world started from a very young age, evidenced by her school reports, from about the age of six years, which would typically read, “Amanda has a great interest in science and nature.” She recalls, “Growing up our family spent a lot of time swimming in the pool, or the ocean, playing at the beach, fishing and riding bikes in the bush. The marine environment really was a happy place full of curiosity, so I guess that progressed to wanting to do that for a job and I was lucky enough to meet ‘my people’ when I was studying at university. Then by happy accident, I met the fish people at the Museum and fell in love with Ichthyology. She says, “In my final year of University, I volunteered for a fish conference, it was here I meet the Fishos of the Australian Museum. They seemed like such a passionate and great team, I said I’d love to learn more and that lead to me volunteering and eventually gaining some casual work, which has ultimately and luckily lead to me being Collection Manager of Ichthyology.”
Her ‘people’, of course, were others with a passion for nature and a love of museums. She tells us that converting that love into an actual full-time job is a challenging process. For example, in the beginning of their museum careers, most future museum staff worked at their institution as volunteers. Unpaid, but still expected to assist in the conduct of museum research and activities. For the most resilient and persistent, sometimes there were casual, temporary, poorly paid jobs. The source of such soft money might have been limited research grants or the result of an unspent budget. The volunteers were sometimes paid, then went back to being volunteers. Frequently these opportunities to be paid came and went several times, with grant money unexpectedly arriving and drying up over time. Her ‘people’ were those who could endure the employment uncertainty, until eventually a full-time role would open at the museum, and often individuals from the volunteer cohort would be hired. Amanda knows of many people who could not tolerate the roller-coaster ride needed to eventually work in a museum, and as a result sought careers in other fields.
She tells us, "My early days of working at the Museum were with Jeff Leis and focused on larval fishes, their taxonomy and ecology with a little bit of collection management thrown in, including sorting and registering incoming specimens and helping out with fieldwork. Today, one of the most common parts of my (our) job at the Museum is identifying fishes. Mark McGrouther spent many years trying to get a website going to help the punters and us identify fishes, when he was introduced to iNaturalist it was a lightbulb moment. Having a resource where people can get their fishes identified via a community including experts and AI and add to our scientific knowledge was an easy sell to me.”
When asked what to her is the most difficult category of fish to identify, she responds, “There is a family of fish called Bythididae, common names include Cusks, Brotulas, Blindfishes. There are some species that occur on shallow rocky reefs, they are almost never observed underwater but sometimes collected in scientific research. They are identified by the male copulatory organ and head pores and head scale patterns. I have tried a few times and end up very frustrated, I usually ask someone who knows more than me when I come across these little frustrations.”
While busy with the management of a very important fish collection, Amanda finds time for her own research. She tells us, “My current area of research is the taxonomy of Weedfish, Clinidae, I love our endemic temperate reef fishes. However, I am quite opportunistic and am happy to assist my colleague Joey DiBattista with his eDNA research or any colleague who needs data from our collection. My early career was the taxonomy and ecology of larval fishes. Overall, I feel very much like a generalist in my job, I know a little bit about a lot of things, but importantly I know who to ask to get the most expert opinion. Like all of us there is a lot of admin in my role, but aside from that I correspond a lot with colleagues nationally and internationally requesting data and specimens to loan. Identifying fishes from public enquires, putting away specimens and registering specimens into the collection area also much of my routine.”
One of the more interesting aspects of Amanda’s relationship with the project is the incorporation of the data base in her own work. Having a database of over a quarter of a million observations of fish around Australia and New Zealand, has become a useful tool in both her research and her role of Collections Manager. Being at the Australian Museum, she frequently receives requests from various sources such as Fisheries, marine science institutions or the general public, to identify unusual or uncommon fish. While in the old days, people would bring their samples to the museum, today, they just send photos of the fish in question. As there is a great deal of variation in species, the project has become a useful visual reference to compare the photos submitted to her. Having a range of literally hundreds, of images of a single species is extremely helpful in ensuring the identification is ultimately correct. It provides secondary identification of fish which may have a wide variety of colours or shapes depending on stage of life or location.
In addition, due to iNaturalist’s geolocation and mapping function, she can check the known and observed ranges of the fish, which is also useful in her searchers. For example, a particular fish, observed at Lord Howe Island, can be verified and confirmed using the iNatrualist data base. It also works both ways, as her frequent use and review of the Australasian Fishes data, allows her to make corrections, when she notes errors in the project’s observations. Using the geolocation mapping, also highlights any irregularities, which results in further investigation as to whether the sighting is an actual range extension or simply an anomaly. It has become an excellent source for cross checking. Amanda tells us, “It is expanding our knowledge of species distributions, providing photos of species that have never been photographed before, assists scientist who are researching certain species, for us we have used it to publish a checklist of species for Sydney Harbour. It will be used in ways we haven’t even thought of yet. I find it inspiring to see some of the species and incredible images people post.”
The Federally funded project, Atlas of Living Australia, mines data from everywhere, including Australasian Fishes. Like iNaturalist, the Atlas’s data is available to everyone, and it’s a recording of data from various sources is a matter of public record. The Atlas requires the data to be accurate, and therefore routinely uses reliable sources such as museum records, and research collection data. It is quality controlled, and all observations must be identified to the species level. Australasian Fishes observations meet the test for reliability and accuracy and are mined by the Atlas along with other data sources from the Australian Museum, providing yet another set of eyes review our data. Eventually, the Museum’s contributions to the Atlas are reported, illustrating for example, how much data from the Australian Museum was downloaded by the Atlas. It is a metric the museum employs to measure its success in contributing to the knowledge of species in Australia and indicates the role the Museum plays in furthering knowledge of our fauna.
Amanda’s passion for fish and Australasian Fish is infectious. She summarizes by saying, “I love the project, I love iNaturalist! I use it to identify all sorts of fauna and flora. The project is adding to our understanding of the natural world. At the simplest level, for someone who loves natural history, it can identify something for you, it can give you an indication of where to might be lucky enough to see things that interest you, albeit a Sydney Pygmy Pipehorse, Fanbelly Leatherjacket or Bump-head Sunfish.”
This journal post was written by Australasian Fishes member, Harry Rosenthal.
PS. A new species of wrasse, Amanda's Flasher Wrasse, Paracheilinus amanda, was recently described by Dr Yi-Kai Tea (@kaithefishguy). The species was named after Amanda in recognition of her 25 years of experience in ichthyological collections and research.
Publicado el noviembre 9, 2023 02:27 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario