Eighteen new fish records for the Great Barrier Reef, including seven new records for Australia, are reported from line-fishing surveys in deeper waters (> 60 m) off the central and northern sections of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The following 18 species represent new records for the Great Barrier Reef region, with the seven for Australia noted with an asterisk (*): the serranids *Epinephelus magniscuttis Postel et al., E. morrhua (Valenciennes), E. octofasciatus Griffin, E. radiatus (Day), and *Saloptia powelli Smith; the branchiostegid Branchiostegus wardi Whitley; the lutjanids Etelis carbunculus Cuvier, E. coruscans Valenciennes, E. radiosus Anderson, Paracaesio kusakarii Abe, *P. stonei Raj & Seeto, *Pristipomoides argyrogrammicus (Valenciennes), *P. auricilia (Jordon et al.), P.filamentosus (Valenciennes), *P. flavipinnis Shinohara, P. multidens (Day), and *P. zonatus (Valenciennes); and the lethrinid Wattsia mossambica (Smith). Further exploratory fishing effort along the Great Barrier Reef and in the Coral Sea is likely to result in discovery of more deep-water fish of Indo-Pacific distribution.

Depth range
40- 340 m

Mesophotic “mentions”
0 x (total of 3980 words)

Classification
* Presents original data
* Focused on 'mesophotic' depth range
* Focused on 'mesophotic coral ecosystem'

Fields
Biodiversity

Focusgroups
Fishes

Locations
Australia - Great Barrier Reef

Platforms
Fishing