Fish news
Fish news
 

Fish and aquatic news

May 27, 2009

To explore strange new worlds; to boldly go into the plastic vortex

Filed under: Environmental, Fishing, New species, Uncategorized - By. William

A group of conservationists and scientists are planning a research trip to the world’s largest rubbish pile; the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Also known as the Eastern Garbage Patch, the Pacific Trash Vortex, or simply the Great Plastic Vortex; this gyre of marine litter has been gradually building over the last 60 years but we still know very little of this man-made monstrosity.




May 22, 2009

Snubfin dolphins hunt for fish by spitting at them

Filed under: Environmental, Whales & Dolphins - By. William

The Snubfin dolphin (Orcaella heinsohni), recognized as a species as recently as 2005, have been spotted while utilizing a rare hunting technique previously only noted in the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), a close relative of the Snubfin.




Little time left to save the worlds remaining oyster reefs; 85 percent have already been lost

The first-ever comprehensive global report on the state of shellfish has been released by The Nature Conservancy at the International Marine Conservation Congress in Washington, DC.




May 20, 2009

Pouring shampoo on fish illegal in Denmark; television presenter found guilty

Filed under: Environmental, Fish, Uncategorized, Weird - By. William

As reported earlier this week, Danish television presenter Lisbeth Koelster was put on trial after deliberately pouring diluted anti-dandruff shampoo into a fish tank housing 12 guppies. The aim of the “experiment” was to demonstrate the level of toxic material in the shampoo. After being subjected to the shampoo, all but one of the fishes died and a Danish veterinarian who watched the show decided to press charges.




May 18, 2009

Vandenberg sink date set: May 27th

Filed under: Coral, Environmental, Fish - By. William

A sinking date has now been set for the retired military vessel scheduled to form an artificial reef off Key West in Florida. If everything goes according to plan, Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg – a 523-foot-long military ship that used to track Russian missile launches during the Cold War – will be sunk seven miles (11 km) south of Key West on May 27.




May 16, 2009

Canada takes European seal ban to WTO

Filed under: Environmental, Seals - By. William

As reported earlier , the European Union has decided to ban the import of seal skin and other seal products hailing from commercial seal hunting.

This has upset Canadian seal hunters since Italy and Denmark, both members of the European Union, are two major importers of seal products.




May 15, 2009

Indonesia creates Southeast Asia’s largest marine park

Filed under: Coral, Environmental, Fish, Uncategorized, Whales & Dolphins - By. William

Indonesia will create Southeast Asia’s largest marine park in the Savu Sea, Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Freddy Numberi said on Wednesday at the World Ocean Conference in Manado, Sulawesi.

The Savu Marine National Park will cover 3.5 million hectares in an incredibly diverse area where you can find no less than 500 coral species, over 300 recognized species of fish and ……




May 13, 2009

New study focused on human impact along the US West Coast

Filed under: Environmental - By.

“Every single spot of the ocean along the West Coast is affected by 10 to 15 different human activities annually”, says Ben Halpern, a marine ecologist at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California at Santa Barbara.




May 12, 2009

Green plume from Venezuela have now reached the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico

Filed under: Environmental, Uncategorized - By. William

A strange algae plume has turned the normally crystal clear Caribbean Sea around the Virgin Islands green down to a depth of roughly 80 feet (25 metres) and sharply decreased visibility in these popular dive waters. How and if the plume will have any long-term effect on the region’s marine life remains unknown.




May 10, 2009

Underwater turbulence from jellyfish may be major player in carbon sequestration

Filed under: Environmental, New Discoveries - By. William

“The ‘underwater turbulence’ the jellies create is being debated as a major player in ocean energy budgets,” says marine scientist John Dabiri of the California Institute of Technology.

Jellyfish are often seen to be aimless aquatic drifters, propelled by nothing but haphazard currents and waves, but the truth is that these gooey creatures continuously contract and relax their bells to move in desired directions.




May 7, 2009

Plankton blooms do not move atmospheric carbon down to the deep sea

Filed under: Environmental, Uncategorized - By.

According to the simplest version of the so called Iron Hypothesis, plankton blooms move atmospheric carbon down to the deep sea and increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere can therefore be counteracted by promoting plankton blooms. The Iron Hypothesis derives its names from the suggestion that global warming can be thwarted by fertilizing plankton with iron in regions that are iron-poor but rich in other nutrients like nitrogen, silicon, and phosphorus, such as the Southern Ocean.




Merchant ships top blame for littered sea

Filed under: Environmental, Fishing - By. William

According to a new report jointly produced by UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and UN Environment Programme (Unep), merchant ships are to blame for 88 percent of the total marine littering in the world. According to the report, merchant ships deposit 5.6 million tonnes of litter in the ocean each year.




May 2, 2009

Cigarette filters dangerous for fish

Filed under: Environmental, Fish, Uncategorized - By.

Filtered cigarette butts should have new requirements for disposal, says Public Health Professor Tom Novotny after a San Diego State University (SDSU) study revealed filter-tipped cigarette butts to be toxic to marine and fresh-water fish.




April 26, 2009

Intersex fish more common than anticipated

Filed under: Environmental, Fish, New Discoveries - By. William

A recent study on intersex abnormalities in fish living in the Potomac River watershed carried out by researchers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey showed that at least 82 percent of male smallmouth bass and in 23 percent of the largemouth bass had immature female germ cells (oocytes) in their reproductive organs. This number is even larger than anticipated.




Madagascar!

Filed under: Environmental, Fish - By. William

Madagascar, a large island situated in the Indian Ocean off the south-eastern coast of the African continent, is home to an astonishing array of flora and fauna. Madagascar, then part of the supercontinent Gondwana, split from Africa about 160 million years ago and became an island through the split from the Indian subcontinent 80-100 million years ago.

Madagascar is now the 4th largest island in the world and its long isolation from neighbouring continents has resulted in an astonishingly high degree of endemic species; species that can be found nowhere else on the planet. Madagascar is home to about 5% of the world’s plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are endemic to island.




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