NSW's state fish, a bold metre-long wrasse that follows divers around every southern reef, and its larger western cousin.
Achoerodus viridis and A. gouldii
Eastern blue gropers are the fish every Sydney diver knows: large, curious, cobalt-blue males that trail divers around Shelly Beach, Bare Island and every other reef between Hervey Bay and Wilsons Promontory, often within arm's reach, hoping for a disturbed urchin. They are protected from spearfishing in NSW and from all fishing in sanctuary zones, and a large male at a busy site is often a local celebrity. The western blue groper, larger and found from Victoria to WA, is more wary but reaches 1.7 m. Both start life as females and change sex; the blue males were once brown females.
Field notes
Ordered by how regularly the site is dived and how well it is documented. The species is listed in each site's recorded marine life; sightings are never guaranteed.
Every rocky reef in New South Wales and the eastern blue groper's range into Victoria; the western species in South Australia and WA. Sydney's aquatic reserves have the tamest. A large, deep-bodied wrasse, the males a startling electric blue, following you around the reef at arm's length hoping you will turn over a rock. Females and juveniles are brown or green.
Shelly Beach (Manly); Bare Island; Bass Point; Jervis Bay; almost every NSW reef. Western species at Rottnest, Albany and the SA jetties.
Year-round.
Do not feed them; it changes behaviour and is illegal in reserves.