According to University of Queensland marine biologist Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, recipient of the prestigious Eureka science prize in 1999 for his work on coral bleaching, sea temperatures are likely to rise 2 degrees C over the next three decades due to climate change and such an increase will cause Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to die.

Hoegh-Guldberg’s statement is now being criticized by other scientists for being overly pessimistic, since it does not consider the adaptive capabilities of coral reefs. According to Andrew Baird, principal research fellow at the Australian Research Council’s Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, there are serious knowledge gaps when it comes to predicting how rising sea temperatures would affect the coral.

Great barrier reef

“Ove is very dismissive of coral’s ability to adapt, to respond in an evolutionary manner to climate change,” says Dr Baird. “I believe coral has an underappreciated capacity to evolve. It’s one of the biological laws that, wherever you look, organisms have adapted to radical changes.”

According to Dr Baird, climate change would result in major alterations of the reef, but not necessarily death since the adaptive qualities of coral reefs would mitigate the effects of an increased water temperature. “There will be sweeping changes in the relative abundance of species,” he says. “There’ll be changes in what species occur where. But wholesale destruction of reefs? I think that’s overly pessimistic.”

Marine scientist Dr Russell Reichelt, chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, agrees with Dr Baird. “I think that he’s right,” says Dr Reichelt. “The reef is more adaptable and research is coming out now to show adaptation is possible for the reef.”

Professor Hoegh-Guldberg responds to the criticism by saying that the view “that reefs somehow have some magical adaptation ability” is unfounded. He also raises the question of how big of a risk we are willing to take. “The other thing is, are we willing to take the risk, given we’ve got a more than 50 per cent likelihood that these scenarios are going to come up?” professor Hoegh-Guldberg asks.”If I asked (my colleagues) to get into my car and I told them it was more than 50 per cent likely to crash, I don’t think they’d be very sensible getting in it.“

I thought I would report on a few good news in the world of marine conservation. First of we are going to look at tuna fishing and the endangered Mediterranean Blue fin Tuna. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) an organization consisting of NGOs and governments surprisingly voted to cut tuna quotas in half (almost) in the Mediterranean as well as instituting a complete fishing ban during the spawning season in May and June when they meet at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona. The surprising result came after Spain (an important fishing nation) and Japan (the key blue fin market) supported the restricted fishing to prevent the tuna population from collapsing. The IUCN Decision is not legally binding but puts a considerable amount of pressure on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) which will decide the future of tuna fishing for the coming years at a meeting in December. The effects of diminished quotas remain to be seen as a rapport from the WWF earlier this month showed that half all tuna caught in Italy was caught illegally and that illegal fishing was rampant in Italy.

I am going to leave tuna and talk about something completely different, Beluga whales. The US government this week listed the Beluga whales of Alaska’s Cook Inlet as an endangered species / population. The decision means much stricter rules about what can and can’t be done in the area and local authorities need to get the permission of the National Marine Fisheries Service before they can approve a number of activities in the area. Governor and GOP vice president candidate Sara Palin is worried that the decision will prevent economic growth in the area. She fears that the decision among other things will prevent the expansion of the harbor. The population declined nearly 50 percent between 1994 and 1998 and has not yet recovered. This is believed to be due to developments in the area, predation from killer whales and frequent whale strandings. Environmentalists hope that the new found protection will help increase the population again.

Beluga whale

Reef building corals rely on herbivore animals to continuously remove unwanted algae growth from them, since algae compete with the corals for both sunlight and nutrients. Without regular cleaning, corals eventually die and the reef becomes overgrown by various types of algae. A report scheduled to be published this week in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences now suggests that having herbivore animals present on the reef isn’t enough; there must also be a proper balance between the various species. This conclusion results from a long-term study on coral reef recovery and seaweed[1] carried out by Dr. Mark Hay, the Harry and Linda Teasley Professor of Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and his co-author Dr. Deron Burkepile who is now Assistant Professor at the Florida International University’s Marine Science Program.

Different fish feed on different algae and maintaining a proper balance may therefore be critical. “Of the many different fish that are part of coral ecosystems, there may be a small number of species that are really critical for keeping big seaweeds from over-growing and killing corals,” says Hay. “Our study shows that in addition to having enough herbivores, coral ecosystems also need the right mix of species to overcome the different defensive tactics of the seaweeds. This could offer one more approach to resource managers. If ecosystems were managed for critical mixes of herbivorous species, we might see more rapid recovery of the reefs.”

Coral reef

The 10 month long study was carried out 18 metres (60 feet) below the surface off the coast of Florida, where Hay and Burkepile placed 32 cages on a coral reef in November 2003. At this point, the coral reef area chosen by the researchers had only four to five percent live coral coverage. Each cage was roughly two metres square and one metre tall (1 metre = 3.3 feet) and the mesh was fine enough to prevent large fish from entering or leaving the cage. The scientists then carefully selected the number and type of fish to place in each cage, using the four following combinations:

· Two fish capable of eating hard, calcified plants

· Two fish capable of eating eat soft plants that defends themselves chemically

· Both types of fish.

· No fish at all

The two species used for the experiement where the Redband parrotfish (Sparisoma aurofrenatum) and the Ocean surgeonfish (Acanthurus bahianus).

As suspected, the type of fish turned out to play a key role in the growth of algae and seaweed on the reef.

“For the cages in which we mixed the two species of herbivores, the fish were able to remove much more of the upright seaweeds, and the corals in those areas increased in cover by more than 20 percent during ten months,” says Hay. “That is a dramatic rate of increase for a Caribbean reef.”

Areas with only one type of fish or no fish at all lost as much as 30 percent of their live coral coverage during the research, while areas with two species of fish increased their live coral coverage from four to five percent to six to seven percent.

“Species diversity is critically important, but we are losing critical components of the Earth’s ecosystem at an alarming rate,” says Hay. “There has been little work on the role of diversity among consumers and the effect that has on communities. This study will help add to our knowledge in this critical area.”

After the initial 10-month experiment, Hay and Burkepile launched a second study where the Ocean surgeonfish (Acanthurus bahianus) was substituted with Princess parrotfish (Scarus taeniopterus). Unfortunately, the cages only stayed on the reef for seven months before being wiped away by Hurricane Dennis in July 2005.

The research was conducted at the National Undersea Research Center in Key Largo, Florida and supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation and the Teasley Endowment at Georgia Tech.

You can read more about Hay’s and Burkepile’s work at

http://www.biology.gatech.edu/faculty/mark-hay/ http://www.biology.gatech.edu/faculty/mark-hay/lab.php
http://www.fiu.edu/~dburkepi/front.htm
http://www.fiu.edu/~dburkepi/research.htm

The release of sediment and algae-boosting fertilizers into Lake Victoria can cause cichlid species to interbreed in the murky water, according to Ole Seehausen, evolutionary biologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Kastanienbaum.

In a recent article published in Nature, Seehausen and his colleagues are shedding some light on the question of how closely related species of cichlids living adjacent to each other in Lake Victoria manages to avoid interbreeding. According to Seehausen et al, species may develop and stay distinct because of how the members of each species see colours.

Seehausen and his research team have studied closely related species of Lake Victoria cichlids where the males are either blue or red. It has since long been known that females of these species prefer to mate with the male displaying the brightest colours, but the new research suggests that both sexes have evolved to preferentially see only red or blue. This means that if a brightly coloured red male swims by a blue-seeing female, she will not be able to appreciate his sexy brightness since see can not see the colour red.

“Reds and blues live in the exact same spot,” says Seehausen,. “Colour is very important in mate choice.”

In order to fully understand the role of vision in underwater evolution, we must be aware of how light acts when it penetrates the water. Blue colours shine much brighter than red ones in the shallows, while red pigmentation trumps blue as we proceed farther down. As you probably have guessed already, red cichlid species tend to be found near the surface in Lake Victoria, while the blue ones inhabit greater depths.

To learn more about what happens to cichlids in the transition between red and blue zones in the lake, Seehausen and his team studied species inhabiting the shores of five different islands. The cloudiness of the surrounding waters varies from island to island due to variations in sedimentation, giving the researchers a great opportunity to study the effects of varying water clearness.

In comparatively clear waters, the colour that appears brighter slowly and gradually changes from red to blue with depth. This makes each species stay within its own zone and prevents interbreeding. In more clouded waters, the change from red to blue occurs much more suddenly, causing a higher prevalence of interbreeding between closely related species of fish.

Further testing in laboratory aquariums showed that hybrid females, like the ones living in cloudy waters, did not favour red males over blue ones or the other way around. This distinguished them from non-hybrid females, since females belonging to a species with red-sensing eyes picked red males in the laboratory tanks while the blue-sensing females opted for blue beaus.

Seehausen is now worried that the unchecked release of sediment and algae-promoting fertilizers into Lake Victoria will cause more and more fish to interbreed, thereby greatly reducing the number of species in a lake famous for its astonishing biological diversity and degree of endemic species. “Species diversity in this lake has imploded in the last 30 years,” Seehausen says. “It is the largest human-witnessed mass extinction of vertebrates.“

You can read more in the article “Speciation through sensory drive in cichlid fish” by Seehausen et al. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v455/n7213/abs/nature07285.html

A Greater Weever (Trachinus draco) has been found in a stretch of the Thames estuary in Great Britain. The species, which is native to the Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea, is one of many signs of the improving health of the Thames estuary.

The weever was found after a two-year investigation carried out by the Environment Agency and Zoological Society of London and is the 60th new species found in the Thames since 2006. “The diversity and abundance of fish is an excellent indicator of the estuary’s health”, says Environment Agency Fishery Officer Emma Barton.

Flowing through London and several other urban areas, the Thames has a long history of being heavily polluted. In the so called ‘Great Stink’ of 1858, pollution in the river was so severe that sittings at the House of Commons at Westminister had to be abandoned.

So, should we fear this semi-new addition to the Thames estuary? No, there is no need to panic. This fish can deliver a very painful sting and should be handled with care, but the sting is rarely dangerous to humans – especially not if you seek medical attention.

The Greater Weever has venom glands attached to both of the spines on its first dorsal fin, and to the spines of the gill cover. The spines are equipped with grooves through which venom is driven up if the spines are pressed. A person that receives a sting from a Greater Weever can develop localized pain and swelling, and the result has – in a few rare cases – been fatal. Fortunately, there are several things you can do to make the situation less dangerous for a stung victim.

· If the wound bleeds, allow the wound to bleed freely (within reason of course) to expel as much venom as possible.

· Soak the affected limb in warm water because the toxin produced by the Greater Weever is sensitive to heat. There is no need use extremely hot water it and risk scalding the skin, because the toxin will deteriorate at a temperature of 40° C / 104° F.

· Seek medical attention.

The pain is normally at its most intense during the first two hours after being stung and even without treatment, the severe pain normally goes away within 24 hours. It is however possible for some pain to last for up to two weeks, and it is also possible for the spine to break off and get stuck inside the stung limb where it can continue to cause problems until it is removed.

In May this year, hundreds of Asian swamp eels were discovered in and around Silver Lake in historic Gibbsboro, New Jersey. This was the first finding in New Jersey, Asian swamp eelbut not the first finding in the United States. Unlike Florida, Georgia, and Hawaii – the three other U.S. states where this species have been discovered – New Jersey is however subjected to harsh winters and a breeding population of Asian swamp eels in New Jersey confirms the suspicion that this Asian invader has no problem adjusting to the
chilly climate of northern North America.

The Asian swamp eels were found by a local college student checking on frogs and turtles in the Silver Lake. As he spotted snake-like heads peeking from the water, he decided to photograph them and post the pictures online. This lead to the “snakes” being identified as Asian swamp eels, Monopterus albus, and prompted a call to the local authorities.

In its native environment in Asia and Australia, the swamp eel Monopterus albus inhabits gentle hill streams, estuaries and lowland wetlands, and it is a common species in rice paddies. It has developed a long row of traits that makes it an apt survivor in many different kinds of environments. Unfortunately, these traits also make it the “perfect” invasive species and biologists fear that the Asian swamp eel may wreck havoc with existing North American ecosystems, especially if the predatory species of these systems prefer to target familiar prey rather than catching the newcomers.

– The Asian swamp eel can survive long periods of drought by burrowing in moist earth, and can therefore take advantage of seasonally appearing, short-lived bodies of water.

– If its home becomes unsuitable, e.g. because of drought, this eel simply crawls ashore and make its way to a more suitable home by slithering over land, just like a snake. This makes it hard to eradicate from bodies of water using poison or similar; there is always the risk of at least two specimens getting away over land and forming a new breeding colony in nearby waters.

– The Asian swamp eel can tolerate a wide range of oxygen levels in the water since it is capable of absorbing oxygen from the air above the surface through its skin. This skill doesn’t only come in handy in oxygen depleted waters; it is also what makes it possible for the fish to travel impressive distances over land.

– This eel prefers freshwater habitats, but can tolerate brackish and saline conditions, which increases its chances of always finding a suitable home.

– It eats all sorts of prey, not only fish, crustaceans, amphibians, and other aquatic animals, but detritus (decaying organic matter) as well. Highly specialized feeders have a much harder time adjusting to new habitats and are therefore less likely to become problematic invasive species.

– This eel is a protandrous hermaphrodite, which means that it can change its sex. All specimens are born male, but can turn into females if necessary. This means that if an aquarist releases two male specimens into a lake, one of them can turn into a female to make reproduction possible.

In Georgia, the first specimens of Asian swamp eel was discovered in 1994, and three years later eels were found in Florida as well. The Hawaiian history of combating swamp eels is much longer as the first specimens are believed to have been released in Hawaiian waters about 100 years ago. In Georgia and New Jersey, biologists blame aquarists of having caused the situation by releasing their pets into the wild. In Florida and Hawaii however, Asian food markets and fish-farmers are considered more likely sources. Asian swamp eels are typically sold fresh in food markets and can be kept alive for long periods of time as long as their skin is kept moist.

New Jersey authorities are now focusing on containing the creatures while trying to figure out a way of annihilating them. “We’re not panicking yet,” says Lisa Barno, chief of the New Jersey Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries. “It’s more that it’s just an invasive species we’d rather not have. We’re still documenting the true extent of the problem, but right now it seems to be fairly contained.” One of the immediate goals is to prevent an expansion downstream to the Cooper River and a watershed leading to the Delaware River. Since May, only one Asian swamp eel has been discovered outside the Silver Lake.

In addition to the recently proposed areas in the Pacific Ocean, (See this and this) president Bush now says he wants to find even more regions of the Pacific Ocean to protect.

This Friday, Bush made public that he has asked the secretaries of the Interior, Commerce and Defense to identify additional areas of the Pacific Ocean that could be eligible for conservation. He also revealed that the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary will be expanded by 585 square nautical miles and come to include the Davidson Seamount. Davidson Seamount is a 42 km long underwater mountain located roughly 120 km southwest of Monterey, California. The seamount rises 2400 meters off the ocean floor, but its highest point is still more than a kilometre below the surface.

This week, Science published the study “Can Catch Shares Prevent Fisheries Collapse?” by Costello[1], Gaine[2] and Lynham[3], which may be used as a road map for federal and regional fisheries managers interested in reversing years of declining fish stocks.

The study has already received a lot of praise from environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) who says that the study shows how the overfishing problem can be fixed by implementing catch shares. “We can turn a dire situation into an enormous opportunity to promote better food security, create jobs and revive ecosystems,” says David Festa, vice president and director of the oceans program at EDF.

Catch share programs is intended to replace complex fishing rules and hold fishermen directly accountable for meeting scientifically determined catch limits. In a catch share program, fishermen are granted a percentage share of the total allowable catch, individually or in cooperatives. They can also be given exclusive access to particular fishing zones, so called territorial use rights. As long as the fishermen do not harvest more than their assigned share, they will retain a comparatively high flexibility and decide for themselves when to carry out the fishing, e.g. depending on market fluctuations and weather conditions.

“The trend around the world has been to fish the oceans until the fish are gone,” says Festa. “The scientific data presented today shows we can turn this pattern on its head. Anyone who cares about saving fisheries and fishing jobs will find this study highly motivating.”

As the fishery improves, each fisherman will find that the value of his or her share grows. This means that fishermen will be financially motivated to meet conservational goals.

In January 2007, a catch share system for red snapper went into effect in the Gulf of Mexico, causing the 2007 commercial snapper season to be open 12 months a year for the first time since 1990. According to EDF, fishermen in the area now earn 25% more and wasteful bycatch has dropped by at least 70%.

The proposed Coral Sea marine park is now one step closer to becoming a reality – it has gained support from Coral Sea fishermen. According to Bundaberg fisherman Seth Parker, all of the 16 Coral Sea license holders support the proposal and are willing to let the Commonwealth buy back their permits. “They would buy the whole lot out for 25 to 30 million [dollars] and we would leave this pristine area,” Parker says to ABC News.

A conservation group named Bush Heritage Australia will spend $3.5 millions on the purchase and ongoing management of 8100 hectares in Central Queensland. The main reason for the purchase is to safeguard the rare Redfin blue-eye fish.

The property, Edgbaston Station, is connected to a network of more than 50 artesian springs that provides Edgbaston pools with spring water from the Great Artesian Basin. The spring-fed pools are surrounded by arid landscape and the isolation has given numerous endemic species a chance to develop, including several species of fish, snails, plants and a crustacean. The entire known population of Redfin blue-eye resides in five spring-fed pools at Edgbaston. In addition to arid grass lands and spring-fed pools, the property also contains woodlands and wetlands and is an important region for migratory birds. The rare Redfin blue-eye fish is therefore not the only species that will benefit from the purchase.

A substantial part of the money used to finance the acquisition of Edgbaston Station – $1.324 millions – comes from the Australian Government’s “Maintaining Australia’s Biodiversity Hotspots” program­. The two departments “Qld Department of Natural Resources and Water” and “Qld Department for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation” have also assisted, together with Bush Heritage Australia volunteers and donors.

Edgbaston Station is located within the traditional country of the Iningai people and Bush Heritage Australia plans to work together with them to understand and protect the cultural values of the property.

“Edgbaston has exceptional biodiversity value and Bush Heritage is proud to own, manage and protect such an important Australian landscape,” says Doug Humann, CEO of Bush Heritage Australia. “This purchase will allow us to closely manage the health of Edgbaston’s incredible artesian springs, which support a variety of life forms unique to the region.”

Bush Heritage Australia currently owns and manages 31 reserves throughout Australia. You can find more information on their site: http://www.bushheritage.org.au.

1 Australian dollar = 0.8 U.S. dollars

Facts about the Red-finned Blue-eye

The Red-finned Blue-eye (Scaturiginichthys vermeilipinnis) lives in spring fed pools in Queensland and the species has only been encountered in a handful of pools. None of the pools are very large and the average water depth is just a few centimetres. The pools are located in a very arid part of Australia and there is hardly any surrounding vegetation that can shadow the shallow water. During the hot season, the air temperature can reach 50 degrees C (122 degrees F) during the day and the water in the pools can become almost as warm as the surrounding air. The Red-finned Blue-eye is however not only capable of handling a high water temperatures; it is also very tolerant to rapid changes in water temperature since the shallow pools where it lives change temperature rapidly as the surrounding air temperature fluctuates. During the cold season, the water temperature can be as cold as 3 degrees C (37 degrees F).

The Red-finned Blue-eye is listed as “Critically Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.