Scientists On A Mission To Rediscover Small, Ugly Angler Fish

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Scientists on a mission to rediscover small, ugly Angler Fish

The World Today - Tuesday, 24 April , 2007 13:05:00

Reporter: Lindy Kerin

ELEANOR HALL: Now to the infuriating case of the one that got away.

When scientists first discovered a mysterious fish in Sydney Harbour in the 1980s, they probably didn't expect to be still scouring the seabed looking for it more than 20 years later.

A small ugly fish, which scientists believed to be part of a new genus, was caught in Sydney and sent to the United States for formal identification.

But on the way, it was lost. Now buoyed by several recent sightings, a team of scientists is on a mission to rediscover it, as Lindy Kerin reports.

LINDY KERIN: It's ugly predator that lives on the seabed.

But Associate Professor Rob Harcourt from the Sydney Harbour Institute of Marine Science says that's about all that's known about the unusual looking anglerfish.

ROB HARCOURT: It's a beautiful little fish, but it's hideously ugly. It's got a small, little coloured piece of, what look like a bit of, a small piece of flesh that floats just above its mouth and that's what it does to lure it's prey.

Fish swim up to try and grab the lure and then it gulps them down.

LINDY KERIN: When the mystery anglerfish was first spotted in 1984, a specimen was sent to the United States, but it somehow disappeared.

Eleven years later, Rob Harcourt and two of his colleagues rediscovered the fish. This time, instead of catching it, photos were taken and sent to the Australian Museum. But it still left scientists baffled.

Rob Harcourt has now enlisted the help of one of the world's experts on fish, Professor Ted Peitsch at the University of Washington.

ROB HARCOURT: He came back incredibly excited because they had once before had a specimen of this fish from 1984, but it was accidentally lost in the interim.

And they'd given it up for never being found again, so he immediately got back to us and said, please, can you try and find some same samples.

LINDY KERIN: Professor Ted Peitsch has dispatched one of his students from the United States to help find the mystery fish.

He says it's an exciting project.

TED PEITSCH: It's not only a new species, but from what we can tell it's a new genus, which means it's a larger category, a larger taxonomic category, so it's really extremely interesting and rare to find something new at that taxonomic level

LINDY KERIN: Some have described it as an ugly fish. What do you think of that?

TED PEITSCH: Well, I think that's all a matter of perspective. When you look and see how beautifully these things are adapted to their environment, how they mimic pieces of coral, and especially pieces of sponge, they sit next to sponges or next to pieces of coral and blend in perfectly, and unless you're trained you can't see the things.

LINDY KERIN: Professor Peitch says if a new discovery is made, it could finally solve the mystery that's left him puzzled for more than two decades.

TED PEITCH: One of my graduate students was over there in Sydney more than 20 years ago, this was 1984 and he discovered or collected on of these right out of the harbour there and brought it here back to Seattle.

And immediately I was struck with how different it was from everything else previously described and we set about to write a paper but the fish disappeared.

So for 20 years - more than 20 years - I've been hoping and hoping that we might we might come up with another one.

LINDY KERIN: But that might take some time. Rob Harcourt says because of its camouflage, the fish is extremely difficult to find.

ROB HARCOURT: It looks exactly the same as the background, and you could swim over it 100 times without noticing it, unless you had very keen eyes.

LINDY KERIN: Is it possible that it's not there?

ROB HARCOURT: It's possible, but probably not that likely. I mean we've swum over the same ground previously and not seen them before, but you have to really look hard, but it is possible, I mean, we've been looking for quite some time and not seen any in the last few months.

ELEANOR HALL: Good luck to him. Associate Professor Rob Harcourt from the Sydney Harbour Institute of Marine Scientists ending Lindy Kerin's report.