Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems

25/09/2026

Let’s Go Freo

25/09/2026

📑 NEW STUDY: Darnley et al. investigate an emerging disease affecting an ancient fish, and discover seven novel RNA viruses, including two highly divergent coronaviruses.

🐟 Species studied

Pouched lamprey / kanakana / piharau (Geotria australis)

🌏 Location

New Zealand and Tasmania

🤔 The issue

Lamprey are among the world's oldest living vertebrates and hold deep cultural significance for Māori as taonga species.

Lamprey reddening syndrome (LRS) is an emerging disease affecting pouched lamprey / kanakana / piharau (Geotria australis), a culturally and ecologically significant species in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Characterised by skin hemorrhaging and elevated mortality, the etiology of LRS has remained unresolved despite previous investigations.

👩🏽‍🔬 What did the researchers do?

The team used a metatranscriptomic approach to characterize viral communities in 28 lamprey from New Zealand and Tasmania, comparing diseased and presumably healthy individuals.

💡 What did they find?

This analysis revealed eight fish-infecting RNA viruses, seven of which were novel, including two highly divergent coronaviruses. One of these coronaviruses possessed a bisegmented genome structure, and three lamprey were co-infected with both coronaviruses.

While these coronaviruses were detected in both healthy and diseased individuals, lamprey with reddening exhibited markedly higher viral abundance, driven by elevated RNA transcripts of both viruses. This pattern suggests that increased coronavirus replication in diseased individuals may be influenced by host stress to environmental factors, or co-infection with other pathogens, rather than acting as a sole causative agent of disease.

👍 Any recommendations?

Beyond identifying candidate viral associations, this study expands the known virosphere of an ancient vertebrate lineage and demonstrates the utility of genomics-informed diagnostics for investigating disease in threatened wildlife.

25/09/2026

🐟 Have you registered for ASFB & AFSS 2026 in Hobart? Make the most of the fish science action by booking on one of our Sunday Workshops!

Developing the ASFB Threatened Species Watch List

Register: https://www.asfb-afss26.org/sunday-workshops

What’s it about?

The ASFB Threatened Fishes Committee has maintained a national list of threatened freshwater and marine fishes for over 30 years. Historically, the ASFB’s Threatened Species List provided an important source of information at a time when national (EPBC) and global (IUCN) assessments were incomplete or outdated. With recent updates to IUCN Red List assessments and the ongoing expansion of EPBC listings, there is an opportunity to redefine the role of the ASFB list to complement, rather than duplicate, these existing frameworks.

This half-day workshop will bring together ASFB members to develop a new Threatened Species Watch List: a streamlined, qualitative approach to documenting species and populations of emerging conservation concern. The watch list will provide a mechanism for highlighting recently described species, undescribed taxa, and species or populations experiencing rapid declines or new threats that may not yet be reflected in formal conservation assessments.

Participants will work collaboratively to define the purpose and scope of the watch list, establish criteria for inclusion, develop a standardised assessment template, and discuss listing submission and publication processes. The resulting framework will provide a practical, citable, and easily updated resource that complements IUCN and EPBC assessments while improving ASFB’s capacity to communicate emerging conservation concerns for Australia's freshwater and marine fishes.

The workshop will be of interest to researchers, managers and practitioners working in threatened species conservation, as well as anyone interested in helping shape the future direction of the ASFB Threatened Fishes Committee and its role in supporting fish conservation in Australia.

Who’s leading the workshop?

🌟 Mitchell Brennan (UTS – University of Technology Sydney)
🌟 Amy Tims (University of Melbourne / Monash University)

What else do I need to know?

💰 FREE
📍 IMAS Salamanca Boardroom - 20 Castray Esplanade, Battery Point TAS 7004
⏰ 12pm - 4pm
👥 places limited to 30
☕ includes lunch & afternoon tea

24/09/2026

We were delighted to learn that one of our senior researchers, Dr Mark Allen, has had a newly described blenny named after him.

Meet the Blackband Coral Blenny (Escenius markalleni sp. nov.), which was described from specimens in Western Australia, Taiwan and Japan.

The holotype was collected from Enderby Island in the Dampier Archipelago by Mark and Dr Glenn Moore (Western Australian Museum).

Allen, G.R., Erdman, M.V., & Liu, S.V. (2026) Ecsenius markalleni, a new species of coral blenny (Teleostei: Blenniidae) from the eastern Indo-west Pacific Ocean. Journal of Ocean Science Foundation. doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20766698

Etymology: The new species is named in honor of the first author’s son, Dr Mark Allen, in recognition of his invaluable assistance on many expeditions and his unflagging enthusiasm and commitment to fish biology and conservation.

Great recognition Mark Allen!

21/09/2026

Great work Sam

17/09/2026

Three of our members recently travelled to Bragança, Portugal for the 3rd European Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society Symposium, sharing their research on freshwater mussel conservation in Australia.

PhD candidate Dulmini Perera presented her work identifying the upper thermal limits of Carter's Freshwater Mussel (Westralunio carteri) and what this means for populations already under pressure from a changing climate.

Michael Klunzinger gave an overview of the current taxonomy and conservation priority of Australia's freshwater bivalves, covering past work and the actions needed going forward.

Jake Daviot spoke on the ecosystem services provided by Carter's Freshwater Mussel, with a focus on building industry collaboration to drive conservation outcomes.

15/09/2026

15/09/2026

In this review of Critically Endangered Green Sawfish, north-western Australia was identified as an important global refuge for the species, with the Pilbara region having the highest research output.
"The Critically Endangered green sawfish (Pristis zijsron): current knowledge and future directions"
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11160-026-10088-7

29/11/2025

Bremer Bay on Western Australia’s south coast looks OK

30/10/2025