Red handfish have been returned to the wild, after scientists rescued them this summer to protect their fragile population from record high sea and atmospheric temperatures.
Scientists at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) collected 25 red handfish from the wild in January and cared for them in captivity. The team also set to work on habitat recovery, removing the native urchins that have overgrazed the seaweed and seagrass handfish rely on for their survival.
“Red handfish are facing many threats, and with their extremely limited population and a severely degraded habitat, we considered the additional threat of high temperature was a possible extinction risk,” said marine ecologist Dr Jemina Stuart-Smith, who co-leads the red handfish research and conservation program at IMAS.
To read the full article, follow the link below: Back to the wild: rescued red handfish returned to the sea – Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies | University of Tasmania (utas.edu.au)
