The pink fish 'unique crutches'

Experts speculate that the 3,4-meter-long cranberry fish may have a rare genetic mutation that causes its whole body to be brilliantly pink.

Photographer Kristian Laine saw pink crutches on a free-diving dive on the southernmost island of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. At first, Laine thought that his camera was broken.

Inspector Clouseau swims along with ordinary rays.(Photo: National Geographic).

"I didn't know there were pink sea crutches in the world, so I was quite confused and thought the flash was broken," Laine shared on Instagram on February 10. Later, Laine discovered that it was a 3.4 meter long male reef fish called Inspector Clouseau, named after the detective character in the cartoon Pink Panther. It often swims in the waters around Lady Elliot Island and is the only pink ray in the world. The Inspector Clouseau has appeared less than 10 times since it was first encountered in 2015.

Scientists at Project Manta, a research organization in Australia, confirmed that the pink color of the crutches was a true color. At first, they hypothesized that the color of Inspector Clouseau was the result of dermatitis or diet, similar to the flamingos feeding on small crustaceans. But in 2016, Project Manta researcher Amelia Armstrong sampled small skin biopsies from animals. Research results help eliminate inflammation and diet.

The most reasonable assumption currently made by Project Manta is that the fish has a gene mutation that expresses melanin, according to Asia Haines, the research assistant of the organization."Understanding the origin of this gene mutation could give us more information about how color evolved in crutches , " Haines said.

Solomon David, an ocean ecologist at Nicholls University in Louisiana, suspects the cause is a mutation called erythrism that causes animal skin pigments to be red or pink in some cases. Genetic mutations that are more common in animals can be either black (melanoma) or white (albino).

Guy Stevens, managing director and founder of the Manta Trust in the UK, also thinks erythrism is the most likely explanation.Coral reef fish are usually white, black or black - white. The final color is most common in a contrasting manner, in which the fish has a black back and a white belly. Seen from above, the dark back merges into the sea, while viewed from the bottom, the abdomen is brightly colored and the surface is illuminated by the sunlight, helping to better protect marine animals from hunting animals. bait like a shark.

However, Stevens argues that the bright colors of crutches do not affect their ability to survive or make them vulnerable to predators. That's because of the massive size of coral reef fish, an adult can weigh more than a ton."They are huge from birth, and grow so rapidly in the first few years, that only the largest marine predators can hunt them," Stevens explained.

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