Global News - February 2008

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Butterfly fish 'at risk of extinction'

Tue 26 February 2008 13:05 UK — Marine Wildlife,Other

A butterfly fish that is currently widespread around the world may be threatened by extinction if the world's coral reefs continue to be degraded, according to a new study.

Research undertaken by a team from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies warned that the chevroned butterfly fish's highly-specialised eating habits make it particularly susceptible to damage being caused to coral reefs.

In their findings, published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, the team discovered that the butterfly fish flourished when it could eat its chosen coral, but when it could only feed on alternatives it grew ill and, in some cases, died.

"The irony is that these butterfly fish are widespread around the world, and you'd have thought their chances of survival were pretty good," the report's author Dr Morgan Pratchett said.
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"But they only eat one sort of coral - Acropora hyacinthus - and when that runs out, the fish just disappear from the reef."

Efforts to protect coral reefs were recently boosted by news of the creation of the world's largest marine reserve, to be established off the coat of the Pacific island of Kiribati, including a number of untouched reefs.

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