Those efforts paid off on June 18, 2026, when local fisherwoman Helen Asu showed up with two spinach pipefish she caught with her umben, a traditional hand net. She’d been out fishing for prawns on the Sepik River in Imbando, a village in East Sepik province.

Helen Asu, a local fisherwoman who caught the two spinach pipefish that made the rediscovery possible, with her umben. Image courtesy of New Guinea Binatang Research Centre.