Hi everyone,

Thought you might be interested that we have finally described the WA Greybands as a distinct species and given its own scientific name.

Greybanded Grouper Hyporthodus griseofasciatus

To try and stabilise the common name we used the name most commonly used by anglers (so, please use that rather than Eightbar, which is wrong - see below). Convention dictated we use 'banded' rather than 'band' because there are multiple bands  .  The scientific name literally means the same: griseo = grey; fasciatus = banded

For the record, this species is endemic to the inner continental shelf of Western Australia from about Barrow Island to Two Peoples Bay, usually in 76 - 470m.  The Eightbar Grouper Hyporthodus octofasciatus is found across the Indo-West Pacific and in WA occurs only on the outer continental shelf and offshore atolls (eg Rowleys, Browse). So, unless you are fishing out there - everything in WA will be Greybanded Grouper!

Thanks to everyone for posting images and lots of info from Fishwrecked. I've had PMs with a few to get extra info. Thank @Adam Gallash for the great image of the two bigguns we used in the paper.

summary here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfb.15231 but its behind a paywall. PM me if you are really desperate to read it (be warned - its dry)

Cheers,

Glenn

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