#napoleonfish

Icons from Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Today's wet beast is: Napoleon Wrasse

Olive's Wet Beast Fact: also called the Humphead Wrasse or Napoleonfish, this fish can rotate it's creepy-ass eyes 360°

According to Blathers (that lovable owl) this fish is endangered, but doesn't really give much more information than that. It really left me, a person fascinated by the outside world, wanting more than just that measly bit of fact and boy does the game not do this fish justice.

Found in the coral reefs of the indo Pacific region, the humphead wrasse is a very large fish, growing up to 2 meters long.

They are a powerful fish, with strong teeth, able to break down clams and mollusks with little to no effort. So, if this fish is so powerful, why is it endangered?

Well there are multiple reasons, but one reason that stood out to me is that not a lot of people know about this fish. The lack of awareness of this species. So I've decided to do my part and bring awareness to this fish.

This animal is classified as endangered, however it is also considered to be "conservation dependent" meaning that by this point it is a species that relies on our help. Human help.

So why care about this animal? Fantastic question. As mentioned earlier, the humphead wrasse eats shellfish and other hard to eat animals, but the most notable thing that this fish eats is the dreaded crown-of-thorns starfish.

This invertebrate feeds on coral reefs, and with very few predators to prevent it from over populating, these starfish can strip entire reefs of it's coral which is vital to all life in the ocean.

The humphead wrasse is one of the few animals that can withstand the crown-of-thorns' toxins, and can keep the population in check.

But how can we help more?

You can:

Educate yourself more about the species.

Support the WWF, as they have a program that helps release humphead wrasse back into the wild.

Do not fish for this animal. If you catch it by accident, let it go.

Brought to you by a frustrated marine biologist...

CLICK HERE FOR THE AC FISH EXPLAINED MASTERPOST!

Not too long ago, people used to think the ocean was virtually infinite, that the ocean was one big habitat all the fish lived in. “Plenty of fish in the sea” is a saying that comes directly from this line of thinking. Even today, there are plenty of people who think protecting the ocean makes no sense, because how could we possibly hurt something so vast? Pretty easily, is the answer, and I don’t think there’s a fish that embodies this “giant’s fragility” more than this fish, the Napoleonfish.  

The Napoleonfish is not common; you’d be hard-pressed to find it without first catching a bunch of Sea Bass. In fact, I even caught the Ray before finding this thing, so maybe get some bait going if you’re getting frustrated. When you hook it, you’ll know, though. 

The Naploeonfish is actually more commonly known as the Humphead Wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus), but I can see why Nintendo didn’t want to use that name. LOL It belongs to the same Order, the Labriformes, as Parrotfish. This species in particular is widespread across the Indo-Pacific’s coral reefs. It is the largest member of its Family, Labridae, the wrasses, with males growing to lengths of almost 6 feet (2m). And yes, this is one of those species where males are larger; the species actually experiences protogynous hermaphroditism, in which they all start life as females and become male later in life at larger sizes. 

When you bring this magnificent fish to Blathers, the one thing he talks about is how it’s endangered, and he’s right. According to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), an organization that ranks species’ threatened status based on the most up to date, species-specific data, ranks this fish as “Endangered” with a decreasing population. And this isn’t because no one gives a damn about it. Lots of countries in its range really care about it, as it brings in tourism, being such a big, charismatic species. Unfortunately, there’s a lot going against it, such as (from the IUCN website):

Intensive and species-specific [fishing] for the live reef food fish export trade of [this] naturally uncommon and vulnerable species;

[It’s] readily accessible to spearfishing at night with SCUBA or hookah (i.e., compressed air) gear, and easy to catch with cyanide, or other poisons such as Derris trifoliata, due to predictable adult habitat and shallow depth range [aka it’s too easy to catch this poor thing];

Lack of coordinated, consistent national and regional management largely due to limited management capacity and the sometime secretive nature of traders – in particular there is no relevant regional fishery management authority to address problems with this species;

 Selective fishing, in particular the intensive take of juveniles for direct export sale and for grow-out (also referred to as ‘culture’ – the species cannot be hatchery reared); and

 Illegal, unregulated, or unreported (IUU) fisheries (Donaldson and Sadovy 2001).

We’re going to talk about that last thing, because it’s the biggest thing undermining conservation efforts of marine life all over. This is also what I mean about the ocean being so big and yet so fragile - it’s daunting to protect the ocean because it is so big. Without satellite technologies and the money to have people out on the water looking out for illegal operations (in the US, this would be referring to the Coast Guard and also coastal police, as well as state environmental police) it’s hard to combat IUU. People working at the dock, buyers, sellers, etc also help in this monitoring effort, as long as they aren’t also doing illegal stuff. But that’s in a country like the USA that has the money to invest in these enforcement and protective measures, and even then, it’s not fool proof. 

Of course, at the same time, the world’s oceans are more fragile than they appear. Fish, in particular, rely on a number of habitats throughout their lives. For the Napoleonfish, its juveniles rely on sandy, shallow coral reefs while the adults live out on deeper coral reef areas (which are two completely different habitats, trust me). For big, long-lived species, like this one, the tunas, sharks, billfish, etc. fishing effort becomes a major contributor of decreasing fish populations, because even at large sizes, they may still not be mature enough to breed yet and it takes a long time to bring back a healthy population of adults. This goes along with the habitat destruction that fishing effort usually begets (poisonings, blasting, and even the action of leaving heavy gear out on fragile coral reefs that also take forever to come back, is a major problem). IUU compounds these issues we have with normal, regulated fisheries by doing it too much, in places that are supposed to be protected, to species that aren’t supposed to be experiencing more fishing pressure than we’ve already allocated under the law. (Fishery science is a whole ‘nother topic under the field of “marine biology” if you haven’t noticed lol and it’s obviously the one I’m particular to. Feel free to send me an ask if you have more questions!)

This great website ranks coastal countries in their effort to stop IUU, which is a global problem that does more harm than is obvious (for example, lots of IUU fisheries have been linked to human, drug, and other wildlife trafficking, because why not). Stopping IUU is more than protecting these gorgeous fish, it’s about protecting vulnerable people, food security, and local economies, too. 

My point is...we gotta try harder.