Government intervention to save red handfish as marine heatwave strikes off south-east Australian coast.

Extract from ABC News 

ABC News Homepage

By Clancy Balen

Posted 16 hours ago

With around 100 red handfish thought to exist in the wild, the decision has been made to take a quarter of those to safeguard the population.(IMAS: Jemina Stuart-Smith)

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• In short: The Australian government has green-lit an urgent intervention to protect the estimated last 100 red handfish from a marine heatwave this summer.

• Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has given a "national interest exemption" under national environment law to allow scientists to remove 25 handfish from the wild.

• The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted above-average ocean temperatures in the coming weeks — particularly off the coast of Tasmania and Victoria.

• What's next? Scientists from the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies will house the fish in a breeding facility in Hobart until the marine heatwave has passed.

Up to a quarter of a critically endangered fish population will be removed from the wild as part of an "emergency intervention" to protect them against a marine heatwave.

The red handfish population has dwindled as its sole habitat — two 50 metre stretches of reef in Tasmania's south-east — faces ongoing degradation.

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While a captive breeding program has successfully spawned a number of juvenile fish with the aim of reintroducing a small number back into the wild, the species is facing the "risk of extinction" this summer due to warming ocean waters, according to federal Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek.

In a bid to save the species – and uphold the Albanese government's pledge of no new extinctions — Ms Plibersek has provided a "national interest exemption" under federal environment law to allow scientists to remove up to 25 handfish from its habitat in the coming weeks.

"The intervention to save the red handfish follows intensive discussions involving the Australian and Tasmanian governments and other key stakeholders including Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)," the minister said in a press release on Saturday.

In the wild, red handfish attach their eggs to formations on the sea floor; when those structures are absent, eggs can wash away in the current.(IMAS: Rick Stuart-Smith)

With only an estimated 50 to 100 handfish left in the wild, it is a major initiative to protect the species which has been listed as critically endangered since the 1990s.

The government's environment listing for red handfish describes them as "small, slow moving benthic (bottom-dwelling) fish that are mostly red in colour".

"Key biological attributes" for red handfish include that they "move by using their hands-like fins to crawl across the bottom" and the "females remain with eggs until hatching".

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Marine heatwave could wipe out entire population

Acting Tasmanian Environment Minister Nic Street said the state government would help facilitate the "short-term intervention" by issuing the appropriate permits and approvals.

"There is a very high-risk of marine heatwave and high temperatures in Tasmania this summer," Mr Street said.

"Extreme warming is predicted in the localised area the red handfish inhabits, with experts predicting population decline as high as 75 to 99 per cent during the forecast conditions."

Red handfish are so rare in the wild it has been difficult to accurately measure the entire population.(IMAS: Rick Stuart-Smith)

Scientists from the Hobart-based Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) will house the captive animals at breeding facilities, but Mr Street said he expects the removal of the fish to be a short-term intervention, with the population released back in to the wild once the marine heatwave has passed.

The Albanese government said it had committed over $300,000 to improving the handfish's habitat in Frederick Henry Bay, which has experienced seaweed loss due to overgrazing from sea urchins.

Labor said that comes "on top of" $600,000 in federal funding for the captive breeding project.