Photo Observation of the Month of April - Dagger Tuskfish
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We have now completed our sixth month of the Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour project and I'd like to congratulate user diverosa for their Photo Observation of the Month of April, a Dagger Tuskfish (Choerodon jordani) from Camp Cove. Although technically submitted in the month of March, the taxonomy for this obsrvation was only sorted in the month of April with the help of the Australasian Fishes community.
This species, found on sand and rubble areas along reef edges, is named after one of histories most accomplished (and controversial) ichthyologists and founding president of Stanford University in the US, David Starr Jordan. In fact, David Starr Jordan's life and times were chronicled in an award winning book by author Lulu Miller (of "RadioLab" and "This American Life" podcast fame) worthy of a deep dive.
In Eastern Australia, this species is recorded from the northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, to the Solitary islands, New South Wales, with juveniles south to Barunguba (Montague Island) in southern New South Wales. What makes this photo so special is that this is the first observation ever recorded from Sydney Harbour, and this is certainly not for a lack of effort! Indeed, in our recent study published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, I alongside Australian Museum scientists generated an up-to-date and annotated checklist of all fishes ever recorded from Sydney Harbour based on specimens held at the Australian Museum dating back to 1868, as well as newly available citizen science observations recorded since 2009 via the Australasian Fishes Project and Reef Life Survey program. Our published study brought the number of fish species recorded from Sydney Harbour, based on three independent data sources, up to 675. That said, since its publication in December 2022, we have six new fish species records thanks to valuable observations and photos submitted by citizen scientists (Naso lituratus, Amblyeleotris stenotaeniata, Amblyeleotris ogasawarensis, Carangoides coeruleopinnatus, and Valenciennea puellaris), including the amazing photo of the month of April (Choerodon jordani) submitted by user diverosa.
This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.
