Paul took a photo of the 40cm blue-spotted and white-striped fish under Frankston Pier but didn’t know what it was until he scrolled the internet. He discovered it was a blue-spotted coral trout (Plectropomus laevis): a fish quite far away from its usual home in tropical Queensland waters! 

Blue-spotted coral trout is a prized eating fish usually caught in deep waters near tropical reef systems. 

“It then became our little Frankston Pier icon,” Paul says. “It hung around the pier for four weeks.”

The coral trout either hitched a ride south on the East Australian Current or was dumped from a salt water aquarium.  Paul noted it had lesions on the tail fin and it didn't survive long.

Although this coral trout was an unusual tropical visitor, marine biologist and Redmap founder Gretta Pecl expects Victorian fishers will catch more and more warm-water fish if sea temperatures continue to rise.  

“The world’s climate is changing,” says Gretta, “and oceans are absorbing more than 80 per cent of the extra heat generated by global warming.”

“Some marine species are able to adapt to these new conditions. Some cannot thrive in warmer waters and so the population may slowly die out.  Others will follow their preferred water temperature southwards in order to survive.”

So keep on the lookout for unusual fish: Victorian fishers and divers may see more tropical fish in the near-future!

(this article is an adapted excerpt from an article published by Redmap in the magazine Fishing Lines)