© Baker, J.L. (2009) Marine Species of Conservation Concern in South Australia Full citation Baker, J.L. (2009) Marine Species of Conservation Concern in South Australia: Volume 1 - Bony and Cartilaginous Fishes. Report for the South Australian Working Group for Marine Species of Conservation Concern. J. Baker (consultant); Science and Conservation Division, and Coast and Marine Conservation branches of S.A. Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH); Marine and Coastal Community Network of S.A. (MCCN), and Threatened Species Network (TSN). Web version published by Reef Watch, South Australia.

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Bass Strait Pipefish / Trawl Pipefish / Kimbla Pipefish

Family Name:	Syngnathidae
Scientific Name:	Kimblaeus bassensis Dawson, 1980
Recommended Status in S.A:	Data Deficient
Rationale:  The Bass Strait Pipefish is included here because (i) it is a species of syngnathid, from a family whose members are considered to have vulnerable population characteristics; (ii) to date, the species is only known from very few records, in south-eastern Australia, and its presence in South Australia is uncertain; (iii) little is known of the full distribution and depth, critical habitats, population sizes, and population response to bycatch mortality. Current monitoring of the bycatch in trawl and seine fisheries across the range is required to gather more data about this species if possible, whilst methods are devised to reduce the bycatch of syngnathid fishes in such fisheries.

Page Contents

Current Conservation Status

All syngnathids and solenostomids are listed marine species under s.248 of the EPBC Act 1999
All syngnathids are subject to the export controls of the Commonwealth Wildlife Protection (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act 1982 from 1 January 1998.
All syngnathids are listed as Protected Aquatic Biota in Victoria
Protected from capture in N.S.W., from July 1^st, 2004
The Tasmanian Living Marine Resources Management Act 1995 prohibits the take of all syngnathids in Tasmania (by non-permit holders, since Sep 1994)
Since January 2006, fishes in the Syngnathidae (seadragons, pipefish, pipehorses) have been formally protected in South Australia, under the Fisheries (General) Variation Regulations 2006 of the South Australian Fisheries Act.
 

Distribution

Bass Strait Pipefish is known from Bass Strait in Victoria, Bruny Island and other eastern Tasmanian / Tasman Sea locations (Dawson, 1980; Dawson, in Gomon et al., 1994; Butler et al., 2002).
There are less than a dozen museum records of this species. Almost all of those records come from various locations in Bass Strait and Tasmania, and were collected by mid-water trawl, epibenthic sled and scallop dredge, in continental shelf waters (CSIRO Ichthyology records, in Australian National Fish Collection; Museum of Victoria records, cited in OZCAM database, 2007).  
Southern New South Wales is also part of the distribution (Dawson, in Gomon et al., 1994), and there is one museum record from that State (Museum of Victoria record A4338, cited in OZCAM database, 2007).
There are no museum records of this species from South Australia. However, K. bassensis may also occur in South Australia, based on a photograph of a specimen from Port Lincoln (Kuiter, 2000).

Habitat

Bass Strait Pipefish is an open coast species, found on sandy, shelly and rubble substrates, often with mixed invertebrates (Dawson, in Gomon et al., 1994; Kuiter, 2000).
The species has been recorded on commercial scallop grounds (Dawson, in Gomon et al., 1994).
Collectively, the published depth range is reported to be 10m – 204m (Dawson, in Gomon et al., 1994, and see below, on N.S.W. record; Kuiter, 2000).
The single record from New South Wales was purportedly taken at a depth of 204m (Museum of Victoria A4338, cited in OZCAM database, 2007, and M. Gomon, Museum of Victoria, pers. comm., 2007).
 

Notes on the Biology

The species grows to around 20cm (Kuiter, 2000).
 

Fishing Information

Bass Strait Pipefish may be part of the bycatch of both the otter trawl sub-fishery and the Danish seine sub-fishery, in the South East Trawl Fishery (Wayte et al., 2004), but there appears to be no firm evidence of interaction with these fisheries (e.g. Knuckey et al., 2002; Knuckey and Berrie, 2002; Wayte et al., 2004), and specific details of bycatch (numbers, locations etc) are not available.  
The species may be part of the bycatch in the Commonwealth-managed Gillnet, Hook and Trap fishery (Webb et al., 2004), but no data are currently available on the syngnathid catch in Commonwealth-managed fisheries in southern Australia (AFMA staff, pers. comm., April 2007).

Vulnerable Characteristics of the Species, and Threatening Processes

Many of the life history characteristics of syngnathids make them susceptible to impacts, and vulnerable to population decline. Such characteristics include low population densities; strong habitat association; small home range sizes and low mobility; possible low rates of natural adult mortality (due to low levels of predation, hence human-induced mortality may disrupt population dynamics); monogamy and localised reproduction; aggregation (in some species) for feeding and/or breeding; small brood sizes, and strong association between adults and young.
Fishing (particularly trawling) may be a threatening process, but population sizes are not known, and more information is required. In a draft ecological risk assessment of the South East Trawl and Danish Seine Fishery (Wayte et al., 2004), 4 “productivity attributes” and 5 “attributes of susceptibility” for Bass Strait Pipefish were used to categorise it as a “medium risk” species in terms of potential population impacts from trawling. In a similar draft ecological risk assessment for the Gillnet, Hook and Trap fishery (Webb et al., 2004), Kimblaeus bassensis was ranked as being at “medium” risk of population impact from the operation of each of the following sectors: scalefish demersal long-line sub-fishery, scalefish automatic long-lining sub-fishery, and scalefish drop-line sub-fishery.
 
 

Research Requirements

Little is known of the full distribution and depth range, population sizes, critical habitats, basic biology, ecology and population responses to habitat degradation or bycatch mortality
There are few known specimens from any State in Australia, and the presence of this species in South Australia has not been confirmed. Surveys in suitable habitats are required to better determine the distribution and relative abundance of Bass Strait Pipefish.
The catch of Bass Strait Pipefish in southern Australian trawl and seine fisheries (and other Commonwealth-managed fisheries) should be quantified over space and time, and this species should be included in bycatch monitoring programs. 
 

Management Requirements

Where possible, measures are required to reduce the bycatch of this species in trawl and seine fisheries.
 

Other Information

The species is well camouflaged, and therefore rarely seen (Kuiter, 2000).
K. bassensis is the type species of the monospecific genus Kimblaeus from southern Australia, characterised by continuous superior body ridges, confluent lateral trunk and inferior tail ridges, the presence of dorsal and pectoral fins, an eight-rayed caudal fin, and the absence of the anal fin (Dawson, 1980).
In a draft ecological risk assessment for the Gillnet, Hook and Trap fishery (Webb et al., 2004), K. bassensis was ranked as being at  “low risk” of population impacts from the operation of the southern shark gillnet sub-fishery, and the southern shark demersal long-line sub-fishery (Webb et al., 2004). The species has also been ranked as being at “low risk” of population impact from the operation of the Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery (AFMA (2006d).