Etelis boweni

Etelis boweni, also called Bowen's snapper or giant ruby snapper, belongs to the ray-finned fish family Lutjanidae. A multinational team of marine biologists from the United States, Spain, and Taiwan discovered this species in the deeper waters of the Indo-West Pacific region. It was officially named on March 9, 2021, in honor of Brian Bowen, a University of Hawaii researcher.

The fish has a fusiform, orange-red body that transitions to pink toward the middle and then to silvery white on its belly. It closely resembles Etelis carbunculus but differs in several ways: E. boweni grows to nearly twice the adult size, has a protruding lower jaw, a black tip on the upper part of its tail fin, and a longer snout.

Specimens of E. boweni have been collected from the Red Sea and Western Australia. Genetic samples have also come from Seychelles, Christmas Island, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. Although its distribution largely overlaps with that of E. carbunculus, E. boweni is unlikely to appear in the Hawaiian Archipelago. It has been found at depths ranging from 209 to 319 meters.

Overfishing poses a threat to this species. From 2016 onward, E. boweni has ranked among the 50 most abundant species in the deepwater demersal fisheries of southern Indonesia. Catch data indicate that most individuals caught have not yet reached maturity or had a chance to reproduce. However, recent fisheries trends suggest that the risk of overfishing in the area is decreasing.