Episode 3 of Wildlife Ahead sees hosts James and Elysee head south to the cold waters of Tassie to learn about one of the world’s strangest animals – the handfish.

 

Mother Nature was really working her magic the day she came up with the handfish. A handfish that can’t swim, but rather walks along the sea floor with its modified petrel fins. As you can imagine, not being able to swim in the water makes for a pretty difficult time, and the 14 handfish species of Tasmania are facing a variety of threats, with some species closer to extinction than others.

In particular, the Red handfish is critically endangered, with only around 100 individuals estimated left in the wild.

 

A rare Red handfish | Photo by Tyson Bessell

 

During James and Elysee’s time in Tas, they spoke to handfish experts Dr Tyson Bessell and Prof Neville Barrett, attended an invasive sea star clean up in Hobart, and met locals who have protested salmon farming, a major threat to the species.

Invasive sea star clean up

Hobart locals dive to retrieve the stars from the ocean floor

Tune in now to learn more about this curious fish and the threats that are pushing it to extinction.

Listen now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

 

Feature photo by Tyson Bessell. Other images supplied by Elysee Lee

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We share news on topics relevant to our mission of getting people outdoors and protecting the environment. We choose carefully to cover the topics we reckon you’ll find interesting or need to know about, this means quirky stories as well as the hard-hitting ones. We're all human here, so occasionally you'll get our writers' opinions as well. We’re proud to follow our Editorial Standards in every article we publish.