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Scientists are considering a captive breeding program to ensure the survival of an enigmatic little sea floor walking fish found only in Hobart's Derwent estuary.
Once widespread globally, the finger-sized spotted handfish is now confined to the Tasmanian waterway and may need an insurance population after recent surveys found its numbers were at dangerously low levels.
CSIRO senior research scientist Tim Lynch says the first complete survey of handfish colonies, an exhaustive run of 100 transects this winter in bone-chilling Derwent waters, found a total of just 79 fish.
The creature looks like something straight out of Dr. Seuss. On a different note, what is it about Tasmania and extinctions?
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Rare Walking Fish Population Down to Just 79
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The last time I saw him he was walking down Lover's Lane holding his own hand.
-- Fred Allen
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday September 01 2015, @03:07AM
On a different note, what is it about Tasmania and extinctions?
An isolated pocket of life evolved from an already isolated population (Australia) cannot handle the impact of humans.
Of course that doesn't apply to all the extinctions on Tasmania:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_War/ [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday September 01 2015, @10:13AM
I dunno, I think it applies pretty well to that too.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk