Where Mertens' Butterflyfish has been recorded

Countries and areas with the most records (GBIF)

Australia — 690 records; Tonga — 594 records; New Caledonia — 244 records; Northern Mariana Islands — 204 records; Fiji — 167 records; French Polynesia — 166 records; Guam — 88 records; American Samoa — 61 records; Marshall Islands — 50 records; Vanuatu — 26 records; Seychelles — 22 records; Norfolk Island — 18 records; Papua New Guinea — 14 records; Niue — 9 records; Micronesia (Federated States of) — 7 records.

Source: GBIF Occurrence Search (taxonKey 2385528) — https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?taxon_key=2385528&has_coordinate=true (records CC0 / CC BY). Accessed 2026-09-23.

How to read this map

The map plots a sample of 2,401 of the 2,401 records, deduplicated to a half-degree grid, so dense areas do not merge into one blob. The sample covers 29 of the 29 countries or areas with records; the areas absent from the sample hold 0 records in total.

19 records plotting inland were omitted: for a marine species those are almost always the holding institution's coordinates rather than a collection site.

Records show where the species has been observed and reported, not a modelled range.

Source: GBIF Occurrence Search (taxonKey 2385528) — https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?taxon_key=2385528&has_coordinate=true (records CC0 / CC BY); WoRMS distribution records (MarineRegions) — https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=273347 (CC BY 4.0); Natural Earth 110m basemap — https://www.naturalearthdata.com/ (public domain). Accessed 2026-09-23.