White-blotched sandperch appears in the waters off Kenting, becoming a newly recorded fish species

Text/Aquarium

Ho Hsuan-ching, an associate researcher at the aquarium, recently bought a batch of fresh fish at a market in Hengchun to use for teaching purposes, and found that one of the specimens was quite unusual. After confirmation, it turned out to be a species never before recorded in Taiwan, the whitespotted sandperch (Parapercis alboguttata), making it the 29th sandperch species recorded on the main island of Taiwan. The article documenting the whitespotted sandperch will soon be formally published in this year's aquarium oceanography journal (Plataxa).

Taiwan is the northernmost record of the whitespotted sandperch's distribution

The whitespotted sandperch belongs to a species in the genus Parapercis under the family Pinguipedidae. Its main characteristics are that it has more lateral-line scales on its body, a relatively long snout, a pale red body color, and a lack of obvious black spots on the sides of its body. In the past, the whitespotted sandperch was recorded only in a few scattered countries in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific, but when Ho Hsuan-ching actually visited countries such as India and Vietnam, he found that the whitespotted sandperch is in fact a fairly common species in these countries. At present, in the western Pacific only Indonesia and Malaysia have records, and the record from Taiwan is the northernmost record of the whitespotted sandperch's distribution.

Taiwan has the highest sandperch diversity in the world, especially in Kenting

In the past, Ho Hsuan-ching had already made many discoveries while studying Taiwan's sandperch species, including publishing four new species to the world and two newly recorded species for Taiwan. After several years of research, it was confirmed that Taiwan has a total of 28 sandperch species, accounting for one third of all species in the family Pinguipedidae worldwide. He had originally thought this number was already very high, but unexpectedly a newly recorded species was discovered again, showing that Taiwan's undersea world is still full of the unknown.

At present, Ho Hsuan-ching has also expanded his research scope to the whole world, and has successively co-published with several internationally renowned sandperch experts, including the recently published whitebelly sandperch (Parapercis albiventer) from South Africa. Ho Hsuan-ching said that the family Pinguipedidae currently has more than 80 species in total, and Taiwan has recorded 29 species, making it the country with the highest sandperch diversity in the world, while the southern Kenting area is much higher than other areas, making it a place worthy of our careful protection.

However, according to Ho Hsuan-ching's survey, large fish in the fish markets of the Kenting area have already decreased a great deal compared with the past, and they have been replaced by small fish, which poses a considerable hidden concern for the overall balance of the marine ecology. Successful conservation is of course obvious to everyone, but we should not ignore that it may be because the large predators have already all been eaten by us, and only then have these small fish been brought out for sale. After these small fish are eaten up, what will we have left?