The recently rediscovered spinach pipefish. SHOAL
On a vast network of rivers flowing through the jungles of Papua New Guinea, researchers have rediscovered the spinach pipefish, a relative of the seahorse, which had not been recorded in more than 40 years. The fish has long been sought after by conservationists, who feared it had gone extinct.
On an expedition that unfolded like a search for a missing person, researchers spent two weeks traversing the Sepik River and its tributaries, scouring villages and markets for evidence of the missing pipefish. They showed its photo to fishers, vendors, and village elders and asked where it might be found.
The task was daunting. The Sepik River extends across 700 miles of forests, floodplains, and wetlands along the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. “Travel is almost entirely by motorized boat or canoe, often taking many hours between villages,” said Jerrica Agebigo of the New Guinea Binatang Research Centre. The vast scale of the river system meant that scientists were heavily reliant on local knowledge.
Helen Asu, a prawn fisher in Imbando Village, who aided in the rediscovery of the long-lost spinach pipefish. New Guinea Binatang Research Centre
In interviews, villagers consistently reported spotting a long, slender fish in the shallows of the Sepik River. Though they called the fish many names — Karuweng, Inap, Karuwena, Sako — their descriptions matched the profile of the missing species.
In the final days of the expedition, a fisher named Helen Asu managed to nab two pipefish using the handheld net she relied on to catch prawns. Researchers shared photos of her catch with Australian ichthyologist Gerald Allen, one of the last researchers to document the spinach pipefish in the 1980s. He confirmed the rediscovery.
“It makes my heart sing to hear that the spinach pipefish has been recorded anew,” said marine biologist Amanda Vincent, who chairs an expert group on seahorses, pipefishes, and seadragons for the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “To learn that the spinach pipefish still exists gives us hope that other ‘lost’ species are out there, too.”
The spinach pipefish had been named one of the 10 “most wanted” lost freshwater fish species by SHOAL, a U.K. conservation group. Its rediscovery highlights the urgency of protecting freshwater fish, the group said.
In interviews throughout the expedition, villagers reported declines of native fish, which are imperiled by mining, logging, and other threats. Globally, freshwater fish are under growing pressure. A recent U.N. report found that over the last half-century, populations of migratory freshwater fish have declined by 81 percent.
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