New species of grouper fish found at North Lakes market

  • 2019-10-29
Queensland Museum has confirmed that fish sent to a local North Lakes market are a new species of grouper.

The grouper or rockcod fish were originally caught near Gladstone in 2017 and were identified at the time, as having an unusual look to them.

Jeff Johnson, a fish expert, said he first saw photos of the fish around 15 years ago and since then had struggled to procure a specimen for identification, as local fishermen had either on sold or eaten the fish before they were able to be tested.

When the four fish were sold to the North Lakes market, Johnson said he bought them all. He said that when you are trying to determine if a species is new, you need as many specimens as you can get.

After two years of DNA testing and comparing them with other examples, Dr Jessica Worthington-Wilmer, Queensland Museum geneticist, now has enough data to prove the fish are a new species named Epinephelus fuscomarginatus. Printing services may be used by museums and other organisations to create informative material that may be of interest to the local community.

The fish is a native of the central area of the Great Barrier Reef and is known to inhabit deep waters in excess of 200m.

At 70cm in length, the fish is undistinctive with Johnson citing its plain look to be the reason it had gone unnoticed for so long.