Paracheilinus alfiani, Alfian’s Flasherwrasse
Welcome 2017 – I’d been struggling to find a way to be enthusiastic about the start of a new year when a friend emailed a link from Oceana’s site. Their post, Six Amazing New Fish Species Discovered in 2016 featured a fish I discovered off Lembata during one of our trips to Indonesia. Our photos and collected fish led to the official description by scientists Gerald Allen and Mark Erdmann of Conservation International.
One of the most exciting things for me was the fish was named for our friend and dive guide, Rahmad “Yan” Alfian. My blog post about the collection and naming of the fish is on our Blennywatcher Blog, which can be accessed here: http://blennywatcher.com/2016/02/22/alfians-flasherwrasse-paracheilinus-alfiani/ The post includes a link to the scientific publication from the Journal of Ocean Science Foundation ( “Review of the Indo-Pacific Flasherwrasses of the genus Paracheilinus (Perciformes: Labridae), with descriptions of three new species by Gerald R. Allen, Mark V. Erdmann and Ni Lu Astria Yusmalinda.”) as well as some video I shot of the fish.
This was a heartening reminder of how much there is still left to learn about this world. I’m thankful that groups like Oceana, REEF, Earth Justice and many others are here to continue working to protect Earth.
