In a little laboratory in southern Tasmania, there's been a very special arrival of baby Red-Hand Fish, 21 of them in fact. Scientists at the institute for marine and Antarctic studies are celebrating the successful hatching to help a species on the brink of extinction.
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00:00 These baby red handfish have no idea how special they are.
00:07 It's a major event for us, so that's only the second time that we've been able to breed this species in captivity.
00:13 There are around 100 red handfish left in the wild,
00:17 meaning these 21 hatchlings are equivalent to around a quarter of the wild population.
00:24 Measuring just 8mm, they've got a lot of growing to do.
00:30 They're quite curious looking creatures when they hatch,
00:33 but they're quite capable of fending for themselves, being thick on the bottom like mum and dad.
00:39 It'll take two years for them to mature.
00:43 And like most little ones, school, in this case handfish school, is in their future.
00:50 It's really about trying to make them street smart, so starting with simple increases in habitat complexity
00:56 and increasing that and then adding other species that they're likely to come across in the wild as well.
01:01 Once the handfish graduate, they'll be released into the wild.
01:05 That's where the real challenge begins.
01:08 Red handfish are only found in two sites in south east Tasmania, and their habitat is under threat.
01:15 It's largely driven by overabundant native sea urchins that are just overgrazing the seaweed
01:21 that the red handfish need to survive in, and that's driven by removal of rock lobsters, which are the urchin predators.
01:29 The scientists say habitat management and protection will be the deciding factor
01:34 between whether the species survives or becomes extinct.
01:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]