Volunteers Save Australia's Rarest Fish From Extinction

Armed with homemade scoops cut from milk bottles, volunteers in western Queensland are saving a fish that exists nowhere else on Earth.

The red-fin blue-eye, a tiny desert fish smaller than your thumb, lives in only a handful of artesian springs near Aramac. This year, floodwaters brought disaster: invasive mosquitofish called gambusia washed into almost every spring where the rare species lived.

"Every red-fin blue-eye we've caught has had some damage," said volunteer Sarah Butler. The predators were eating the babies immediately and attacking adult fish, leaving them with chunks of their tails missing.

Scientists say gambusia are ruthless killers. Once they enter a spring, the native fish have just six to 18 months before the population disappears completely. The invasive species can give birth to 60 young every three weeks.

The red-fin blue-eye has faced this threat before. When the species was discovered in 1990, it lived in seven springs. Gambusia quickly wiped out populations in six of them, leaving just one "puddle in the desert" containing all the species' genetic diversity.

Over 20 years, breeding programs slowly restored the fish to other springs on Edgbaston Reserve. Bush Heritage, the conservation group managing the land, installed knee-high mesh fences to keep the springs isolated from surrounding waters.

Then this year's floods exceeded all records. Water levels rose higher than the fences could handle, breaching all but three springs. Ecologist Dean Gilligan watched anxiously as floodwaters crept within inches of the most important spring. "If the flood had been another 15 or 20 centimeters higher, we would have lost this spring as well," he said.

Why This Inspires

When the call went out for emergency help, volunteers like Butler dropped everything. Working in the remote outback, they've been carefully scooping out red-fin blue-eyes and moving them to safety, one fish at a time.

"It was last-minute," Butler said. "I just felt that I needed to help."

The rescue bought precious time, but the team knows the short fences won't work long-term. They're now working with government agencies to design better protection for these irreplaceable springs.

Every fish matters because this species represents millions of years of evolution in one of Australia's harshest environments. These tiny survivors adapted to life in isolated desert springs fed by ancient underground aquifers.

Thanks to quick action from dedicated volunteers, the red-fin blue-eye still has a fighting chance.