Marine scientists from the Smithsonian Institution’s Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) have discovered a beautiful new species of tiny fish in rich waters of the southern Caribbean.
This image shows the beautiful color pattern of Haptoclinus dropi (D. Ross Robertson / Carole C. Baldwin)
The new species has been named Haptoclinus dropi after the DROP project. The proposed common name of the species is the Four-fin blenny, due to the division of the dorsal fin into four sections, which is a distinguishing feature of the genus and unique among blenniiform fishes.
The fish is only around 0.8 inches (2 cm) in length and has a beautiful color pattern that includes iridescence on the fins.
Specimens of Haptoclinus were caught as a lucky bycatch during targeted catching at 515 – 550 feet (157 – 167 m) depth off the island of Curaçao.
The scientists used the Substation Curaçao’s manned submersible Curasub to find them.
While generally used as tourist attraction because it travels at much greater depths than divers can reach, the Curasub is also used for scientific marine research.
The iridescence on the fins of Haptoclinus dropi shows up, luminescing against dark background (D. Ross Robertson / Carole C. Baldwin)
Targeted fish specimens are collected with the sub’s two flexible, hydraulic arms, but very often small non-targeted fish are also caught in the process.
“Below the depths accessible using scuba gear and above the depths typically targeted by deep-diving submersibles, tropical deep reefs are productive ocean ecosystems that science has largely missed. They are home to diverse assemblages of new and rare species that we are only just beginning to understand,” said Dr Carole Baldwin from Smithsonian Institution, first author of a paper describing the new blenny fish in the journal ZooKeys.
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Bibliographic information: Baldwin CC, Robertson RD. 2013. A new Haptoclinus blenny (Teleostei, Labrisomidae) from deep reefs off Curaçao, southern Caribbean, with comments on relationships of the genus. ZooKeys 306: 71–81; doi: 10.3897/zookeys.306.5198
