Sixteen species of native Australian freshwater fish discovered this decade will most likely be listed as threatened and will need to be protected, a senior Victorian government scientist says.
A senior scientist at the Department of Sustainability and Environment's Arthur Rylah Institute, Tarmo Raadik, has discovered 16 additional species of galaxiids, which are small, scaleless freshwater fish found in mountain streams.
The discoveries occurred in 2003, before which it was thought only one species, the mountain galaxias, existed in Australia.
Advertisement: Story continues below Mr Raadik made the discoveries while researching for a PhD. He started his PhD course in 2001 and is expected to finish it this year.
The populations were found in isolated areas in mountain river streams, mostly in the East Gippsland area.
Eleven additional species were identified in Victoria and five in NSW.
Mr Raadik said the fish, which measure about 10 to 15 centimetres in length, are found in small isolated populations.
"Because of that, they are under threat," Mr Raadik said.
"If you have more wildfire or drought, they can eliminate these small isolated populations."
Mr Raadik said the species would most likely be listed as threatened and therefore plans would be needed for their conservation.
"If you get another nine threatened species listed in an area of Victoria where they weren't that many threatened species previously, obviously we're going to have to put some more conservation effort into that area," he said.
Mr Raadik said the discovery of the additional species also pointed to the health of the streams.
"It's quite a good report card that these species of fish have been still able to survive," he said.
"Some of those areas have been burnt by wildfire in previous fires, yet the fish have survived.
"That shows that the water quality of the streams is quite good."
Mr Raadik said galaxiids were found only in the southern hemisphere - in Australia, South America, New Zealand and South Africa.
Most of the species look the same and this is why the variations had not be discovered earlier, he said.
Mr Raadik used genetic techniques to confirm the different species.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/boffin-discovers-new-fish-species-20101103-17dkf.html
11/20/2010, 12:05 pm
