Rare Braun’s wrasse sighted in Western Australia kelp forest
A report from Theguardian says marine biologist Océane Attlan and researchers from the University of Western Australia’s Oceans Institute encountered Braun’s wrasse, a tiny iridescent reef fish last recorded in 2009 near Albany and not seen since. The sighting came on the final dive of a four-day kelp forest survey.
Attlan did not have a camera, but fellow researcher Dr Albert Pessarrodona managed to take two photographs before the fish slipped back into the seaweed. Attlan described the fish as six to seven centimetres long, brightly coloured with lines radiating around its eyes, and very cryptic and shy.
The species has one of the smallest geographic ranges of any temperate fish in Australia and lives on the rocky reef near Albany within the Great Southern Reef, which stretches 8,000km along Australia’s southern coastline from Kalbarri to New South Wales.
Australia, Albany