Photographer captures image of rare fish that walks on its 'hands'

Recovery efforts involve monitoring populations of all three species, restoring their natural habitat, removing invasive species or over-abundant sea urchins, and working with aquariums to establish captive breeding programs and insurance populations. In the Derwent River, the team has planted artificial habitat to encourage spotted handfish spawning, which has already shown promising results in stabilizing populations, says Stuart-Smith.
But while there has been some progress, the situation is still urgent and the recovery team needs longer-term funding and resources, says Stuart-Smith. She hopes the Australian government's recent threatened species action plan, which aims to prevent any new extinctions, will help as the red handfish is listed in the plan's 110 priority species.

Generating awareness is also crucial to conservation efforts, she says, and photography can be an important medium for this.