Rare fish rediscovered off Albany
A marine ecology researcher diving off Albany has had the thrill of a lifetime after spotting a tiny fish so rare it has been officially recorded only once since its discovery in 1996.
The vividly coloured Pictilabrus brauni, known as Braun’s wrasse, is found nowhere else in the world and has one of the smallest geographic ranges of any temperate fish in Australia.
It has been spotted in only a handful of locations along WA’s south-west coast since first being described near Albany in 1996 and was last recorded during a scientific survey in 2009.
Océane Attlan, a PhD candidate with the UWA Oceans Institute, said that despite years of targeted surveys in the region, the species – which grows to less than 7.5cm in length and is extremely shy – hadn’t been seen since.
“The marine heatwaves that have struck south-west Australia in recent years had raised concerns that the species had gone extinct, making this confirmed sighting particularly important,” Ms Attlan said.
The surprise sighting came last week as Ms Attlan was conducting scientific surveys in kelp forests off Albany with four other UWA researchers from the Wernberg Lab within the Oceans Institute.
The group was on the final dive of a four-day expedition to chart any changes in the region following the series of marine heatwaves.
The lone fish was around long enough for fellow researcher Dr Albert Pessarrodona to snap just two photographs, before it quickly disappeared back into the kelp forest.
The researchers later posted the images to a site which helps identify fish species, with two curators from the Western Australian Museum, along with the Tasmanian-based researcher who last spotted the species near Albany in 2009, confirming it was the Braun’s wrasse.
Ms Attlan said the scarcity of Braun’s wrasse sightings may be partly explained by the species’ exceptional camouflage, but also by the limited number of ecological surveys conducted along large sections of WA’s coastline.
