There was a LOT of excitement on the back deck when the fish team came across these two lovelies in the collections. And the excitement levels got even higher when no-one could identify one of them – which means it is quite possibly a species that is new to science! The final verdict will have to wait until the experts in that group of fishes have a look at it, but in the meantime here’s a sneak preview of the ‘orange spot’ pipefish as it’s been nick-named.
Without a name: a pipefish found by the Kermadecs expedition team could be a new record for science but until it’s official it has been nicknamed the “orange-spot pipefish” © C. Struthers
And second, this beauty is a new fish record for New Zealand – the saddled snake eel’s dramatic black and white stripes make it look like a sea-snake. And that is exactly what it’s trying to do – mimic a more dangerous animal so that other critters avoid it.
Brand new record for New Zealand: the small saddled snake eel © C. Struthers
By the way both these photos were taken by Carl (from the Te Papa team) and are high quality images that will lodged in the museum collection along with the specimen.
