There are 13 other species of handfish known in the world, but they’re all endangered due to pollution, habitat loss, and the spread of invasive species. The smooth handfish is actually the first marine fish known that has gone extinct in modern times. And the really awful thing is, the only reason people stopped dredging for oysters and scallops is because they’d been so overfished that there basically weren’t any left. As a result, it was restricted to only specific areas and when those areas were destroyed by dredging, the fish was driven extinct. Handfish eggs hatch into teeny baby handfish, not larval handfish. The reason the smooth handfish was so vulnerable to habitat loss is that it didn’t have a larval stage where newly hatched fish could disperse to new areas by floating on currents. And now it’s the only specimen we have to study. It was described in 1802 from a single specimen caught by a French naturalist, but that’s the only smooth handfish anyone ever bothered to collect for science. But the area where it lived was dredged so intensively for oysters and scallops up until 1967 that the fish’s habitat was destroyed. It was reddish-brown with darker brown markings, and it grew to about 1 3/4 inches long, or 4.4 cm. The smooth handfish used to be a common fish that lived off the coast of Tasmania in warm, shallow water. Simon sent me an article about the smooth handfish specifically, and it’s a sad article because the smooth handfish has been declared extinct. I hate when I make mistakes.Īnyway, back to the fish! We’ll start with the handfish, which happens to be a suggestion by Simon. AND thanks to Simon who also let me know that the striped hyena lives in the Middle East and Asia as well as Africa. They’re in the family Hyaenidae while canids are in the family Canidae, although both are in the order Carnivora along with cats and walruses and raccoons and weasels, etc. Hyenas aren’t even very closely related to canids at all. In the hyena episode last week I called the hyena a canid, and it’s not! Yikes, that was a major blunder on my part. This week we’re going to learn about two interesting fish, but first a CORRECTION! Apparently it’s a birthday party thing to do in Japan: These are real lumpsuckers on a real balloon in an aquarium. You’d be angry too if there were fewer than 100 individuals left in your species (photo by Rick Stuart-Smith): In case you were wondering why it’s called a handfish (this one is a spotted handfish):Ī red handfish. The only smooth handfish specimen in the whole world: Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker making adorable faces The Handfish Conservation Project – Name a Fish! This week we have two more listener suggestions, so thanks to Rosy and Simon! They both suggested small but intensely interesting fish! Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:32 - 10.6MB)
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