Smooth handfish
The smooth handfish is an extinct species of handfish formerly endemic to waters off the coast of Tasmania, mainly the D’Entrecasteaux Channel. It was declared extinct by the IUCN Red List, marking the first entirely marine fish classified as such.
In the past, it was likely reasonably common, as it was one of the first fish described on François Péron's survey of Australia and an individual was caught with a simple dipnet; this is the only known specimen of the species. When and how the species went extinct is relatively unclear, but it likely had to do with the intensive scallop and oyster fishery that went on in the area between the 19th and mid-20th centuries, which dredged every part of the channel, which destroyed critical habitat that the benthic handfish required.
