Diario del proyecto Australasian fishes

If you cast your mind back 4 years you may recall a journal post called Rays gettin' some Rays. The page included a stunning photo (above left) taken by Javier Delgado Esteban (above right) that shows three Mangrove Whiprays in shallow water at Magnetic Island. Also included in the post was a link to a video in which a clicking sound made by a ray is clearly audible.

Javier initially posted an image of the rays on Instagram where it was seen by Australasian Fishes Project member Lachlan Fetterplace (below right).

After 4 years and some impressive work Lachlan and co-authors have written a fascinating paper about sound production in wild stingrays in which they acknowledge the Australasian Fishes Project.

The authors state, "While it is clear that elasmobranchs can hear and many can also respond to sound in various ways, hearing capacity is not necessarily linked to the ability to produce acoustic sound (Mélotte et al. 2018), and until now there has been limited evidence to suggest that any elasmobranchs have the ability to actively produce sound themselves."

"Here we present the first records of voluntary active sound production in the wild by three individuals of two species of stingray: the mangrove whipray Urogymnus granulatus and the cowtail stingray Pastinachus ater. "

"The sounds recorded from all three individuals were characterised by a series of very short, broadband clicks and were associated with movement of the spiracles and cranial area. In all recorded observations, the ray commenced producing sounds in response to an observer approaching closely, and ceased sound production when the distance between the ray and observer increased. "

"We suggest hypotheses for the potential purposes and mechanisms of the sound production, and highlight that further research into this ability is needed."

I'm not sure how researchers will conduct research into the mechanism of sound production in stingrays, but however it is done, I look forward to reading about it and maybe writing another update.

Reference

Mélotte, G., Parmentier, E., Michel, C., Herrel, A. & Boyle, K. Hearing capacities and morphology of the auditory system in Serrasalmidae (Teleostei: Otophysi), Scientific Reports 8, 1 (2018).

Stigmatopora harastii or the Red Wide-bodied Pipefish was only recently described in 2020 from a handful of specimens and observations from Botany Bay, south to Shellharbour and Jervis Bay, New South Wales.

Early this year @lynn430 posted an observation of a Red Wide-bodied pipefish washed up at Bawley Point, NSW (left photo, above), during the extreme weather conditions the east coast of Australia has been facing this year. Excitingly this makes @lynn430’s observation the southern-most record of this amazing fish!

One of the earliest observations of the Red Wide-bodied Pipefish was in 2002 in Jervis Bay, where David Harasti, @daveharasti, (whom the fish was named after), along with other scuba divers, reported a red pipefish associated with pale red finger sponges at 18 metres depth. It was subsequently reported occurring at Bass Point, Shellharbour, NSW in red algae at 18 metres depth in 2017. Since then, they have also been found at Minmi Trench in Botany Bay NSW and more recently at The Steps at Kurnell NSW where species co-author Andrew Trevor-Jones (@andrewtrevor-jones, view Member Profile) spent 3 months searching his regular dive sites to determine if the red pipefish also occurred there. With the aid of a dive torch at 18m, Andrew was able to confirm the presence of the species swaying with the algae (right photo, above)

The Red Wide-bodied Pipefish has been observed in semi-exposed bay entrances and ocean embayments in sandy areas, interspersed amongst rocky reefs at depths of 12-25 metres. The habitat around Bawley Point fits this description perfectly, so it is not surprising that this fish was washed up in that area. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising to find additional observations of this flamboyant fish at other locations in Australia with similar habitat.

This uniquely red coloured pipefish associates with finger sponges and red algae in strong surge zones between 12-25m. The Red Wide-bodied Pipefish is the fourth member of the genus Stigmatopora to be described from southern Australia (S. nigra, S. argus, S. narinosa and S. harsastii). Like all members of Stigmatopora, the new species has a long snout and thread-like prehensile tail; however, it exhibits red body colouration versus green or brown colouration seen in other species of the genus.

Thank you @lynn430 for uploading this fabulous observation. We look forward to seeing where this fish may be found in the future.

View more photos of this wonderful species.

This journal post was written by Australasian Fishes member, Kerryn Parkinson, @redfishblue.