Newly discovered fish of genus Tosanoides named after Barack Obama

A newly discovered fish of the genus Tosanoides was in September 2016 named in honour of US president Barack Obama for his commitment to protect nature through the expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. The fish is found only within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a World Heritage site encompassing 1510000

square kilometres of ocean waters, including ten islands and atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

The site is the largest swath of protected land or water on Earth and is home to millions of seabirds, endangered turtles, endangered monk seals, and more than 7000 species.

The discovery of Fish

• Richard Pyle, a marine biologist at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, was underwater when he first saw a group of fish he did not recognise.

• He collected a male specimen for further analysis. The female specimen was collected a few days later by Bishop Museum affiliate Brian Greene at an atoll about 249 km from Kure.

• Researchers confirmed that the fish represented a new species, the first member of the genus Tosanoides found outside of the waters off Japan.

• This small maroon and gold fish species was discovered 300 feet deep in the waters off Kure Atoll in the Pacific ocean.

• It was discovered in June 2016 during a research trip to Kure, the world’s northernmost atoll.

This is not the first fish to be named after Barack Obama. A species of darters found only in the Duck River and the Buffalo River in US was named Etheostoma Obama in 2012.

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