Diario del proyecto Australasian fishes

Archivos de diario de agosto 2017

15 de agosto de 2017

Another new species record for Sydney Harbour!

John Turnbull has done it again!
Nine months ago John's photograph of a Clown Toby enabled us to add the species to the Sydney Harbour fish list. Just a few days ago John did it again.
This time John has photographed a Whitespotted Dragonet, Orbonymus rameus at Clifton Gardens, Sydney Harbour. We first saw this species earlier in the year when Dave Harasti's observation documented a major range extension for the species.
John's observation has extended the southern distribution south again by more than 140 km from Nelson Bay.
In Australia, the Whitespotted Dragonet occurs in marine waters from the Houtman Abrolhos Islands in Western Australia, around the tropical north of the country, and on the east coast south now to Sydney Harbour. It usually occurs on sandy or rubbly seabeds.
The species was named in 1926 by Australian Museum Ichthyologist Allan McCulloch
.
Publicado el agosto 15, 2017 07:01 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 4 comentarios | Deja un comentario

25 de agosto de 2017

Queenfish at Lord Howe Island

I was blown out of the water when Emma Henry emailed me this image of fish caught at Lord Howe Island.
Emma, who is a Marine Parks ranger at Lord Howe Island, was contacted by Campbell Wilson who caught the fish on hook and line.
Campbell's catch is a Lesser Queenfish, Scomberoides lysan. It was caught in the evening of August 15 at the southern end of Blinky Beach. This observation is the first time the species has been recorded from Lord Howe Island. Its previously recognised distribution within Australia was from the central coast of Western Australia, right around the tropical north and down the east coast to central New South Wales.
Randall and co-authors in their 1997 book state that the species is, "found in shallow lagoons to offshore areas from [the] surface to 100 m".
Four species of Queenfishes are known from Australian waters. Despite their superficial resemblance to Mackerels, they are in fact classified in the family Carangidae (Trevallies and Jacks). Clearly visible to the left of Campbell's left hand (click on the image to see a larger version) are two anal fin spines that are detached from the rest of the anal fin. These are one of the features of the Carangidae.
Thank you very much Emma and Campbell for your submitting the observation and thereby increasing our knowledge of Australia's fish fauna.
Reference:
Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557.
Publicado el agosto 25, 2017 01:54 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 4 comentarios | Deja un comentario

30 de agosto de 2017

Citizen Scientist in the News

The Australian Museum launched Australasian fishes, a citizen science project in late 2016. Like all such projects it is fuelled by interested individuals, who share a passion for nature and a willingness to contribute to the global knowledge of our marine environment and its sustainability. There are few projects which illustrate this dynamic as clearly as Australasian Fishes, as its recent success clearly shows.
Starting with an empty page in October 2016, the site now contains more than 15,000 images of fishes, all photographed, geo-located and classified, from around the region. Due to the dedicated work of nearly 550 citizen scientists, Australasian Fishes currently records almost 1,600 species . These volunteers not only capture images, but assist the project in the classification and identification of unusual species and unique events. The site’s journal contains stories about range extensions of Australian fishes, unusual mass congregations and requests from international scientists for specific images.
One of the project’s most active members, John Turnbull, was recently featured by the ABC as part of a project on the regrowth of crayweed in Sydney. This important project focuses on the re-establishment of critical underwater habitat, which had disappeared from many areas in Sydney and is a finalist for a Eureka Prize.
John is a well-known contributor to Australasian fishes, adding 1186 observations to the site and assisting with almost 400 fish identifications. He has discovered new species records for Sydney Harbour on more than one occasion and is a keen marine photographer and member of the Underwater Research Group.
There are many motivated and generous individuals like John who participate as citizen scientists in Australasian fishes. Future journal posts will feature some of them in order to recognize them for the contribution they make to better understand our environment.
This journal post was written by Australasian Fishes member, Harry Rosenthal.
Publicado el agosto 30, 2017 04:14 MAÑANA por markmcg markmcg | 6 comentarios | Deja un comentario