Divers find world’s rarest fish with ‘hands’

A team of divers recently discovered an extremely rare fish that has ‘hands’ and was found ‘walking’ on the sea floor.

Miles off Tasmania’s south-east coast, world’s rarest ‘Red Handfish’ (Thymichthys politus) were discovered by divers from the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) after getting a tip from a member of public. After searching for over three hours, when finally divers were about to give up, these fishes were discovered.

Bright red in color, having Mohawk-like fins on head and finger-like fins on side, the fishes were found crawling on the seabed and were eight in number. Because these fishes walk instead of swim, the area they live in is small of about the size of two tennis courts only. These fishes are hardly 5-inches long covered with small, close-set, flattened warts with most of its scales and spines completely embedded in its skin, as per Live Science.

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These fishes were initially spotted in 1800s and till now, only 20-40 of these species have been identified. “Finding a new population that is definitely distinct from the existing one is very exciting. It means there’s potentially a bigger gene pool and also that there are potentially other populations out there that we’re yet to find,” said one of the researchers Antonia Cooper.

These fishes are gravely endangered. Because they lay their eggs at the base of pieces of seaweed, thus, they can be easily knocked off by swimmers and boats. They are slow in reproduction and dispersal rates that don’t help increasing their population either, reported National Geographic.

“Finding this second population is a huge relief.  As it effectively doubles how many we think are left on the planet,” expressed marine biologist Rick Stuart-Smith.