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.

The expedition, headed by Hong Kong based entrepreneur and conservationist Doug Woodring, hopes to learn more about the nature of the vortex and investigate if it is possible to fish out the debris without causing even more harm.

“It will take many years to understand and fix the problem,” says Jim Dufour, a senior engineer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, who is advising the trip.

According to Dufour, research expeditions like this one are of imperative importance since establishing the extent of the problem is vital for the future health of the oceans.

“It [the expedition] will be the first scientific endeavour studying sea surface pollutants, impact to organisms at intermediate depths, bottom sediments, and the impacts to organisms caused by the leaching of chemical constituents in discarded plastic,” he says.

The research crew, which will pass through the gyre twice on their 50-day journey from San Francisco to Hawaii and back, are using a 150-foot-tall (45-metre-tall) ship – the Kaisei, which is Japanese for Ocean Planet. They will also be accompanied by a fishing trawler responsible for testing various methods of catching the garbage without causing too much harm to marine life.

“You have to have netting that is small enough to catch a lot but big enough to let plankton go through it,” Woodring explains.

Last year, building contractor and scuba dive instructor Richard Owen formed the Environmental Cleanup Coalition (ECC) to address the issue of the pollution of the North Pacific. A plan designed by the coalition suggests modifying a fleet of ships to clear the area of debris and form a restoration and recycling laboratory called Gyre Island.

Hopefully, the garbage can not only be fished up but also recycled or used to create fuel, but a long term solution must naturally involve preventing the garbage from ending up there in the first place.

”The real fix is back on land. We need to provide the means, globally, to care for our disposable waste,” says Dufour.

Despite being sponsored by the water company Brita and backed by the United Nations Environment Programme, the expedition is still looking for more funding to meet its two million US dollar budget. Since the enormous trash pile is located in international waters, no single government feels responsible for cleaning it up or funding research. Another problem is lack of awareness; since very few people ever even come close to this remote part of the ocean it is difficult to make the problem a high priority issue. A documentary will be filmed during the expedition in hope of making the public more aware of where the world’s largest garbage dump is actually located.

What is the Eastern Garbage Patch?

According to data from the United Nations Environment Programme, our oceans contain roughly 13,000 pieces of plastic litter per square kilometre of sea. However, this trash is not evenly spread throughout the marine environment – spiralling ocean currents located in five different parts of the world are continuously sucking in vast amounts of litter and trapping it there. Of these five different gyres, the most littered one is located in the North Pacific – the Eastern Garbage Patch.

The five major oceanic gyres.

The existence of the Eastern Garbage Patch was first predicted in a 1988 paper published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States. NOAA based their prediction on data obtained from Alaskan research carried out in the mid 1980s; research which unveiled high concentrations of marine debris accumulating in regions governed by particular patterns of ocean currents. Using information from the Sea of Japan, the researchers postulated that trash accumulations would occur in other similar parts of the Pacific Ocean where prevailing currents were favourable to the formation of comparatively stable bodies of water. They specifically indicated the North Pacific Gyre.

California-based sea captain and ocean researcher Charles Moore confirmed the existence of a garbage patch in the North Pacific after returning home through the North Pacific Gyre after competing in the Transpac sailing race. Moore contacted oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer who dubbed the region “the Eastern Garbage Patch” (EGP).

Twice the size of Texas

The Eastern Garbage Patch is located roughly 135° to 155°W and 35° to 42°N between Hawaii and mainland USA and is estimated to have grown to twice the size of Texas, even though no one knows for sure exactly how large the littered area really is. The garbage patch consists mainly of suspended plastic products that, after spending a long time in the ocean being broken down by the sun’s rays, have disintegrated into fragments so miniscule that most of the patch cannot be detected using satellite imaging.

Impact on wild-life and humans

The plastic soup resembles a congregation of zooplankton and is therefore devoured by animals that feed on zooplankton, such as jellyfish. The plastics will then commence their journey through the food chain until they end up in the stomachs of larger animals, such as sea turtles and marine birds. When ingested, plastic fragments can choke the unfortunate animal or block its digestive tract.

Plastics are not only dangerous in themselves, they are also known to absorb pollutants from the water, including DDT, PCB and PAHs, which can lead to acute poisoning or disrupt the hormonal system of animals that ingest them. This is naturally bad news for anyone who likes to eat marine fish and other types of sea food.

The Top 10 list of new species from 2008 has now been compiled by the ASU institute and an international committee of taxonomists. Last year, thousands of new species were described by science, many of them native to hard-to-access regions of our planet, such as remote tropical areas or deep sea habitats, but two of the species on the list actually hail from much less exotic locations: Cardiff and a bottle of hairspray.

“Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth’s species is,” said Quentin Wheeler, director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University, which announced the top 10 new species list. “We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species diversity that we too often take it for granted“.

These are the selected few that made it all the way to the ASU Top 10:

1.) A palm with no close relatives in the neighbourhood

Name: Tahina spectabilis
Common Name: Tahina Palm

This plant produces truly spectacular inflorescence with numerous flowers. After fruiting, the palm dies and collapses. Strangely enough, the genus Tahina is not closely related to any of the other 170+ palm species found on Madagascar. Its closest relatives are instead found in Afghanistan, Thailand, Vietnam and China.

Soon after the publication of the species, seeds were disseminated throughout the palm grower community, raising money for its conservation by the local villagers.

2.) The world’s longest known living insect

Name: Phobaeticus chani
Common Name: This insect has no common name in English. Perhaps Chani’s stick insect would be a suitable English common name? Do any of the readers of this blog know if this species has a common name in Malaysia?

With a body length of 35.6 cm (14 inches) and an overall length of 56.7 cm (22.3 inches), Phobaeticus chani is the world’s longest known now living insect. Once upon a time, insects grew much larger than this, but none of those gigantic insects have survived into our time.

3.) The world’s smallest seahorse

Name: Hippocampus satomiae
Common Name: Satomi’s Pygmy Seahorse

This is the smallest known seahorse in the world. It has a standard length of no more than 13.8mm (0.54 inches) and an approximate height of 11.5mm (0.45 inches).

4.) The world’s smallest snake

Name: Leptotyphlops carlae
Common Name: Barbados Threadsnake

This is the world’s smallest snake with a total length of 104 mm (4.1 inches).

5.) A Welsh ghost slug

Name: Selenochlamys ysbryda
Common Name: Ghost Slug

The word ysbryda is a Latinized version of the Welsh word ysbryd which means ghost or spirit. The name alludes to the species’ ghostly appearance, nocturnal, predatory behaviour and the element of mystery surrounding its origin. Strangely enough, this new species was discovered in Cardiff, UK, a well-collected and densely populated part of the world. (For all the Torchwood fans out there, this mesmerizing find naturally comes as no surprise.)

6.) A snail with a surprising twist

Name: Opisthostoma vermiculum
Common Name: This species has no common name in English. Do any of the readers of this blog know it has a common name in Malaysia?

Most gastropod shells tightly coil according to a logarithmic spiral and have an upper limit of three coiling axes, but the shell of Opisthostoma vermiculum consists of four different coiling axes which is the highest number ever seen in gastropods. As if this wasn’t enough, the shell whorls detach three times and reattach twice to preceding whorls in a fairly consistent manner, which suggests that the coiling strategy is under some form of strict developmental-gene control.

7.) Deep-blue deep-dweller

Name: Chromis abyssus
Common Name: Deep Blue Chromis

Compared to other members of its genus, the deep blue Chromis abyssus lives pretty far from the surface but it is certainly not found at abyssal depths. The name is instead a reference to the BBC documentary Pacific Abyss, since the type specimen was collected during the making of this show. This species was also the first one to have its description registered in the newly launched taxonomic database Zoobank.

8.) A 380 million year old delivery

Name: Materpiscis attenboroughi
Common Name: Mother Fish

This is the oldest known live bearing (viviparous) vertebrate and we know of it from fossil record only. Amazingly, the fossil shows a female fish in the process of giving birth some 380 million years ago. It was found at Gogo Station in Western Australia. The name of the genus, Materpiscis, means “mother fish” in Latin, while the species itself is named in honour of Sir David Attenborough who first drew attention to the Gogo fish sites in his 1979 series Life on Earth.

9.) African decaf

Name: Coffea charrieriana
Common Name: Charrier Coffee

This is a true member of the genus Coffea, but it is completely void of caffeine. Coffea charrieriana is the first known caffeine-free Coffea species from Central Africa and coffee makers are now pondering the idea of using it to make natural decaf coffee.

10.) Hair spray bacteria

Name: Microbacterium hatanonis
Common Name: None

This new species wasn’t found in some remote rainforest or deep down in blue; it was isolated as contaminant of hairspray.

The Top 10 New Species were selected from the thousands of species fully described and published in 2008. The public could nominate species through the IISE Web site and nominations were also generated by IISE staff and committee members themselves. The Committee had complete freedom in making its choices and developing its own criteria to provide a breadth of species attributes and importance.

I am sorry that we don’t have pictures of all species. To see pictures of all species you can here.

If you would like to nominate a species for the 2010 Top 10 New Species please click here.

A new cichlid species has been described from the Río Negro and Río Tacuarí basins in the Uruguay River drainage by Uruguay ichthyologists Iván González-Bergonzoni, Marcelo Loureiro and Sebastián Oviedo.

The fish has been given the name Gymnogeophagus tiraparae (picture here) after María Luisa Tirapare, a Guaraní woman who founded the town of San Borja del Yí (no longer existing) close to one of the collecting localities for this fish.

Gymnogeophagus tiraparae is found in larger rivers with clear water over both sandy and rocky bottoms where underwater vegetation is scarce. The fish is decorated with two horizontal series of moderately elongated light blue dots between the dorsal fin spines, and a series of light blue stripes between the soft rays, sometimes merging with the second series of elongated dots. Between the series of dots, the body of the fish displays a red ground colour. On this spotty fish, the caudal fin is also adorned with dots, which are vertically aligned on the distal border. The body has no transversal bands at all. Another important characteristic is how the adipose hump on the head is located deeper than the upper border of the dorsal fin.

The description was published in the most recent issue of the journal Neotropical ichthyology.

González-Bergonzoni, I, M Loureiro and S Oviedo (2009) A new species of Gymnogeophagus from the río Negro and río Tacuarí basins, Uruguay (Teleostei: Perciformes). Neotropical Ichthyology 7, pp. 19–24.

* Guaraní is a group of culturally related indigenous people of South America who speak the Guaraní language. They are chiefly found between the Paraguay River and the Uruguay River.

In a recent issue of the journal Zootaxa, researchers Gertrud Konings-Dudin, Adrianus Konings and Jay Stauffer have described and named three new species of cichlid from the genus Melanochromis; two of them being fairly widespread among aquarists keeping African cichlids.

All three species hail from the eastern shore of Lake Malawi and belong to the group commonly referred to as Mbuna cichlids among fish keepers.

The fish you may have been offered under the name Melanochromis sp. “northern blue” (picture here) has been given the full name Melanochromis kaskazini. Just like its old trade name suggests, this Malawi cichlid hails from the northern part of the lake and the word kaskazini was choosen since it is the Kiswahili word for “northern”. (Kiswahili, also known as Swahili, is an African language spoken along the continent’s eastern coast.)

The “blue” part of its old trade name is a reference to the colour of the males; they are cobalt blue, while the females are white with a yellow or orange anal fin. Melanochromis kaskazini looks quite similar to its close relative Melanochromis lepidiadaptes but the latter one sports a suit of mensural characters not seen in Melanochromis kaskazini.

The Mbuna cichlid previously sold in fish stores as Melanochromis sp. “auratus elongate” (picture here) is from now named Melanochromis mossambiquensis. The fish is named after the country Mazambique since it is found along the Mazambique shore of Lake Malawi; a lake shared between the countries Mazambique, Malawi and Tanazania.

In Melanochromis mossambiquensis, the female fish is adorned with yellow stripes on the belly and a midlateral and dorsolateral black stripe that is narrower than the submarginal black band in the dorsal fin. The yellow stripes do not cover the entire lower abdomen, and the caudal fin features black spotting. The male fish is brown/black with white dorsolateral and midlateral stripes, and he displays a suite of mensural characters.

The third Mbuna cichlid, which does not have any trade name, has been given the scientific name Melanochromis wochepa due to its small size. Wochepa means “small” in Chinyanja, also known as Chichewa, a Bantu language spoken in south-central Africa.  I have not been able to find a picture at this time.

Melanochromis wochepa males are blue without any white striping, while the females sport a submarginal dorsal band that is wider than the mid-lateral and the dorsolateral stripe, thin abdominal yellow stripes never covering the entire lower abdomen, and a suite of mensural characters. The vomer is steep-angled in both sexes.

For more information, see paper published in Zootaxa: Konings-Dudin, G, AF Konings and JR, Jr Stauffer (2009) Descriptions of three new species of Melanochromis (Teleostei: Cichlidae) and a redescription of M. vermivorus. Zootaxa 2076, pp. 37–59.

A new species of Jupiaba tetra has been described by Brazilian ichtyologists Birindelli, JLO, AM Zanata, LM Sousa and AL Netto-Ferreira.

The fish has been given the name Juipaba kurua, a name derived from the type locality; the Curuá River which is part of the Xingu River drainage. The river name Curuá comes from the tupo language kurua.

Researchers analysed the gut content of these fishes to find out more about their habits and the results indicate that Juipaba kurua is an omnivore clearwater species that feeds along the entire length of the water column.

The faint dark Juipaba kurua is differs from its close relatives by sporting an elongate humeral blotch, a distinct dark spot on the caudal peduncle, and a pattern of dark spots on most of the scales on the sides of the body. The fish has teeth cusps of similar size and the lower jaw teeth gradually decrease in size posteriorly. The number of branched anal-fin rays varies from 21 to 24.

The description of Juipaba kurua was published in the latest issue of the journal Neotropical Ichthyology.

Birindelli, JLO, AM Zanata, LM Sousa and AL Netto-Ferreira (2009) New species of Jupiaba Zanata (Characiformes: Characidae) from Serra do Cachimbo, with comments on the endemism of upper rio Curuá, rio Xingu basin, Brazil. Neotropical Ichthyology 7, pp. 11–18.

A study of the molecular phylogenetic interrelationships of south Asian cyprinid genera Danio, Devario and Microrasbora has resulted in a reclassification of the group and the creation of a new genus: Microdevario.

The study, which has been published in a recent issue of the journal Zoologica Scripta, was carried out by Fang Fang and his colleges at the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

The researchers examined the molecular phylogeny of the Danioninae using fragments of the mitochondrial cytochrome b and nuclear rhodopsin genes from 68 species, including 43 danioinine species.

The analysis revealed the species Microrasbora rubescens and the genera Chela, Laubuca, Devario, and Inlecypris to form a natural group, the Devario clade, with the species Microrasbora gatesi, Microrasbora kubotai and Microrasbora nana being in sister group position to the rest.

Zebrafish

These findings, in combination with subsequent analysis of morphological characters, have made the authors propose four taxonomic changes:

· The species Inlecypris auropurpurea is reassigned as Devario auropurpureus.

· Microrasbora gatesi, Microrasbora kubotai and Microrasbora nana are reassigned to a new genus named Microdevario. Fish of this genus are distinguished from other danioinines by a combination of skull and jaw characters.

· Reassignment of the species Celestichthys margaritatus to the genus Danio in previous studies is confirmed.

· The membership of Chela is restricted to Chela cachius. All other species previously placed in this genus are reassigned to the genus Laubuca, except Chela maassi, which is in the genus Malayochela.

For more information about the study and the suggested taxonomic changes, see the paper Fang, F, M Norén, TY Liao, M Källersjö and SO Kullander (2009) Molecular phylogenetic interrelationships of the south Asian cyprinid genera Danio, Devario and Microrasbora (Teleostei, Cyprinidae, Danioninae). Zoologica Scripta 38, pp. 237–256.

Two new species of the genus Leporinus has been described from the Araguaia-Tocantins River system in the Amazon basin: Leporinus unitaeniatus and Leporinus geminis.

Brazilian ichthyologists Julio Garavello and Geraldo Santos describe them both in a paper* published in the most recent issue of Brazilian Journal of Biology.

Leporinus unitaeniatus

Leporinus unitaeniatus derives its name from its distinguishing colour pattern; uni is the Latin word for one and taenia means ribbon. This fish is adorned with a conspicuous longitudinal dark brown bar along the lateral line on the flanks. Other distinguishing characteristics are the slender and elongated body, the narrow snout, and the small eyes. The mouth is sub-inferior and filled with elongated, incisor-like teeth forming a straight cutting edge. There are 42–44 lateral line scales; 6 scale rows above and 5 scale rows below the lateral line; and 16 circumpeduncular scales.

Picture credit: http://www.scielo.br

Leporinus geminis

Juvenile Leporinus geminis fish look very similar to juveniles of the close relative Leporinus unitaeniatus, hence the name Leporinus geminis. Geminius is the Latin word for twin.

Leporinus geminis is decorated with three large and vertically elongated brown blotches on the trunk and has one inconspicuous dark bar on the body. The body is deep, the snout is blunt, and the eyes are large. The mouth is sub-inferior and fitted with large incisor-like teeth forming a curved cutting edge. There are 40–42 lateral line scales; 5.5 or 6 scale rows above and 5 scale rows below the lateral line; and 16 circumpeduncular scales.

Picture credit: http://www.scielo.br

* Garavello, JC and GM Santos (2009) Two new species of Leporinus

Agassiz, 1829 from Araguaia-Tocantins system, Amazon basin, Brazil (Ostariophysi, Anostomidae). Brazilian Journal of Biology 69, pp. 109–116.

A new species of the genus Chromaphyosemion has been described by Jean-Françcois Agnèse and his co-authors in a paper* published in a recent issue of the journal Zootaxa.

The new species, who has been given the name Chromaphyosemion campomaanense, belongs to the A. calliurum species group and was collected from the the Ntem River drainage in southern Cameroon. The name campomaanense is derived from Campo Ma’an National Park, the place where the fish was found.

According to the study, Chromaphyosemion campomaanense inhabits small streams and shallow pools in the rainforest. It prefers to stay close to the river bank and stays away from deeper areas with more fast moving water.

Chromaphyosemion campomaanense differs from its close relatives by displaying an asymmetrical colour pattern on the caudal fin consisting of a yellow lower margin and a white upper margin. The body is dark blue and adorned with red spots forming horizontal rows towards the head. Posteriorly, the rows merge into vertical rows. When researchers studied the genetic make-up of this fish they found that its karyotype distinguished it from the other species of the A. calliurum species group; it was
caracterized by unusually high number of chromosomes and arms compared.

The main focus of the study was to examine the molecular phylogeny of the members of the A. calliurum species group. Using a 760 base-pair fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, researchers found the group to be composed of 10 species:

A. ahli
A. australe
A. calliurum
A. campomaanense
A. celiae
A. edeanum
A. franzwerneri
A. heinemanni
A. lividum
A. pascheni

* Agnèse, J-F, R Brummett, P Caminade, J Catalan and E Kornobisi (2009) Genetic characterization of the Aphyosemion calliurum species group and description of a new species from this assemblage: A. campomaanense (Cyprinodontiformes: Aplocheiloidei: Nothobranchiidae) from Southern Cameroon. Zootaxa 2045, pp. 43–59.

A NOAA* expedition by has discovered seven new species of Bamboo corals (family Isididae) in the deep waters off Hawaii Six of them may belong to en entirely new genus.

The findings were made within the Papah Naumoku Kea Marine National Monument, one of the biggest marine conservation areas in the world.

“These discoveries are important, because deep-sea corals support diverse seafloor ecosystems and also because these corals may be among the first marine organisms to be affected by ocean acidification,” said Dr Richard Spinrad, NOAA’s assistant administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

The NOAA expedition made a lot of other interesting findings in addition to the new species, including a five foot (roughly 150 cm) tall Yellow bamboo coral tree and a 600 meter deep coral graveyard comprising an area of more 1 square kilometre. It is difficult to determine when the corals in the graveyard died; it could have happened a few thousand years back as well as more than one million years ago – or anytime in between.

Old corals can provide us with a lot of information about Earth’s history and how the oceans have changed over time since corals produce growth rings in a fashion similar to that of trees.

“Studying these corals can help us understand how they survive for such long periods of time, as well as how they may respond to climate change in the future,” said Rob Dunbar, a Stanford University scientist.

* The US Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

The remains of a 15 meter[1] long sea living predator has been found in Svalbard, an archipelago located about midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The animal, a species of pliosaur dubbed Predator X by the group of scientists who discovered it, lived in the ocean 147 million years ago during the Jurassic period.

Predator X hunting (Photo: Atlantic Productions)

The skull of Predator X is twice as big as the skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and researchers believe the jaws of this hunter could exert a pressure of 15 tonnes[2]. The weight of the live animal is estimated to be around 45 tonnes[3].

“It is the largest sea dwelling animal ever found and as far as we know it is an entirely new species”, says palaeontologist Espen Madsen Knutsen[4] from the Olso University in Norway to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

Knutsen is a part of the research team who dug out the skull and backbone of the creature during a two week long research expedition to Svalbard in June 2008. The remains were first discovered by Professor Jörn Hurum[5] from the Natural History Museum at Oslo University in 2007. Hurum noticed a piece of bone sticking up from the permafrost, but since it was the last day of the 2007 expedition the group was forced to leave the bone behind without any further investigation after having jotted down its GPS position.

Parts of the head and backbone was dug out during the abovementioned June 2008 expedition and together with an earlier find of a smaller specimen of the same species located just a few kilometres away, scientists have now managed to map together a good picture of what the live animal once looked like.

“We haven’t unearthed a high number of parts yet, but the parts that we do have are important ones and this has made it possible for us to create an image of what Predator X once looked like”, says Knutsen.

The digg site (Photo: Atlantic Productions)

In the excavated area, palaeontologist have found roughly 20,000 bone fragments – the remains of at least 40 different sea dwelling Jurassic animals. Once you’ve started digging in this region, it is fairly easy to spot the bones since their pale colour contrasts sharply against the black earth of the Svalbard tundra. The main difficulty is instead the short dig period and the fact that much time is spent restoring the excavated area after each dig.

“Each time we leave a dig site we have to restore the area. There can be no traces of our activities. This forces us to use half of our time digging up the same spot all over again when we return”, Kutsen explains.

Svalbard lies far north of the Arctic Circle and the average summer temperature is no more than 5°C (41°F), while the average winter temperature is a freezing −12 °C (10 °F). In Longyearbyen, the largest Svalbard settlement, the polar night lasts from October 26 to February 15. From November 12 to the end of January there is civil polar night, a continuous period without any twilight bright enough to permit outdoor activities without artificial light.

The team plans to return to Svalbard this summer to carry out more digging. They hope to find another specimen in order to make the skeleton more complete, and they also wish to unearth the remains of other animals that inhabited Svalbard at the same time as Predator X.

If you wish to learn more, you can look forward to the documentary shot by Atlantic Productions during the Svalbard excavations. The name of the documentary will be Predator X and the animal is actually named after the film, not the other way around. The film will be screened on History in the USA in May, Britain, Norway and across Europe later this year and distributed by BBC Worldwide.

Pliosaur crushing down on Plesiosaur with 33,000lb bite force (Ill.: Atlantic Productions)

All the scientific results will be published in a full scientific paper later this year.

You can find more Predator X information (in English) at the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo: http://www.nhm.uio.no/pliosaurus/english/