Source: ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
August 24, 2009

The smallest fishes on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are sending out a warning that profound change is taking place in the Reef’s natural systems, probably as a result of human activity.

At 25-45mm in length, the gobies are so small and cryptic they are often invisible to the casual visitor – but they make up almost half of all the fish life on the reef, says ichthyologist Professor David Bellwood of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

“These fish may be tiny, but they are very important.  They are telling us that the world has changed, and in ways we do not understand.  That we may not be able to manage things as well as we hoped,” he says.

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