Photo of the Week: Seeing Seadragons

This leafy seadragon was photographed in the wild in Australia’s Bremer Bay by a Scripps Oceanography research expedition seeking to learn more about the tiny charismatic fish — and to search for the rare ruby seadragon.

Expedition members reported their progress in photos and video on Hunt for the Ruby Seadragon.

Common seadragons and leafy seadragons are exotic and delicate fish found only off southern and western Australia. The same scientific team was researching those two species when they discovered the third seadragon species, the ruby seadragon, and published a paper describing the finding in 2015.

You don't have to go all the way to Australia to see seadragons: Some are also on display at Birch Aquarium at Scripps, which runs a seadragon breeding program and will host a seadragon symposium in June 2016.

Related Image Gallery: Photo of the Week 2016