Friday July 24, 2026
National Geographic —
Every pearly razorfish is born female and guards her own little territory on the sea floor of the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea, where she hunts for shrimp and hides in the sand at night to sleep. Yet if she survives long enough, she will eventually transition to become a male that defends the territory of the multiple females he now mates with.
This arrangement offers the females protection, structure, and stability, and reduces the amount of infighting in the group since the male regularly reminds everyone who’s in charge, preventing the females from transitioning sex too soon.
But pearly razorfish have a big problem: “When the open season starts, we have this mad rush,” says Margarida Barcelo-Serra of the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies on the island of Mallorca, Spain. “Families are going out to fish for them, and everyone wants to eat them.”
Around the Balearic Islands, for example, these fish are a very popular target. Fishing for them during the summer mating season is no longer allowed there.