In March 2020, the first modern fish extinction was announced to a quiet reception. This was perhaps unsurprising: it occurred during the same month the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, and the smooth handfish, or Sympterichthys unipennis had long slipped from view. In fact, the most notable feature of its disappearance seemed to be that it was the first marine animal classified as extinct by the United Nations Red List. Aquatic extinctions have been recorded before, mostly among riverine species such as the Yangtze dolphin, the Mekong giant catfish, India’s gharial crocodiles and the European sturgeon. But this was the first time the world acknowledged an absence from its oceans.

Few media outlets included photographs of the singular smooth handfish held as a holotype in archives. Instead, news sites substituted Sympterichthys unipennis with images of its more photogenic cousins, including the spotted, red and Ziebell’s handfish, all close relations of the smooth handfish but yet to pass over the verge of extinction. Ironically, the stodgy, slippery creature that walks on its ‘hands’ and has few distinguishing features other than smoothness was one of the first fish species in Australia to be classified in modern taxonomy. French zoologist François Péron collected the first (and only) specimen during an expedition in 1802. It’s presumed to have been a common species and captured with a simple dipnet. But it hasn’t been seen since.