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A new fish species found in Papua

Sorong, Ekuatorial – After a long process, a new fish species from Papua, Cirrhilabrus marinda, was finally published in international journals, on early May, said Mark Erdmann, one of its founders recently.

“The fish was originally discovered on October 2014, we took pictures to do more research and compare it to similar species, Cirrhilabrus condei. However, after a thorough research, the dorsal fin of Cirrhilabrus condei is redder and less tall, including fish from Papua New Guinea,” said Erdmann, a marine biologist and Asia Pacific Field division – Vice President Marine Program of Conservation International (CI).

Erdmann discovered the new species with Gerry Allen during their research in Ayau, Raja Ampat.

They decided to name the new fish species as Cirrihilabrus marinda to honor head of Raja Ampat district, Markus Wanma and his deputy, Inda Arfan.

“After we realized that this is a new species, we came back in February to collect more specimen for further description,” he said adding that the new species had been published at International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and Journal of the Ocean Science, on May 3, 2015.

The new species is categorized as “fairy wrasse” (Family Labridae) because of its beauty. The fish range between 40 – 46 millimeter with male is larger than female. It hatches as female but when reach 40 millimeter, it will turn to male with colorful and long fins.

The female has pink color with yellow stripe in its upper body and black dot in its tail. Meanwhile, the male has bright red on top and white on bottom of its fin. It has longer black dorsal fin with yellow stripe in the tail with red in the center.

The fish can only be found in 25 to 40 meters of clean ocean. They love to swim in 10 to 20 fishes per group.

Apart from Ayau island, the fish has been spotted in Halmahera, Manus island of Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu islands dubbing it as ‘Melanesia endemic species’.

Minister of Marine and Fisheries, Susi Pudjiastuti, said that naming the fish based on local officials’ names bare huge challenge for them and Raja Ampat people to protect their area.

“The fish name demands big responsibility from both of owners protecting the beauty of Raja Ampat and its ecosystem. Though they no longer lead, there should be good cooperation between government and people, between leader and its people,” said Pudjiastuti. Niken Proboretno

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