A new subfamily has been created within the catfish family Loricariidae, the largest family of catfish and currently home to over 700 described species. The new subfamily has been named Otothyrinae and its members include the genera Corumbataia, Epactionotus, Eurycheilichthys, Hisonotus, Microlepidogaster, Otothyris, Otothyropsis, Parotocinclus, Pseudotothyris, and Schizolecis.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is now carrying out tests in hope of finding out if bacteria can aid them in their struggle against invasive mussel species that are threatening to spread across the West’s waterways. During the summer of 2008, a preliminary test was executed at Davis Dam on the Colorado River at Laughlin…
Thanks to the efforts of local resident Pak Dodent, coral destroyed around Sumatra by the 2004 tsunami is now making a remarkably recovery. Dodent lives on the island of Pulau Wey off the north coast of Sumatra and the narrow channel between his small village Ibioh and a nearby island was particularly devastated by the…
A study published in the online scientific journal PLoS Biology on October 27 with the provocative headline “Dams make no damn difference to salmon survival”[1] is now being questioned by a number of scientists, including several co-authors of the study. According to the study, young fish running the gantlet of dams on the Snake and…
Otto the Octopus, an eight-armed resident of the Sea Star Aquarium in Germany, baffled his caregivers by deliberately short-circuiting an annoyingly bright light that shone into his otherwise cosy aquarium. According to staff, the marine exhibition began to suffer from mysterious blackouts to which the puzzled electricians could not find any reasonable explanation. This prompted…
Information about the two new species Synodontis ngouniensis and Synodontis batesii from the western part of Africa
The Kouris Dam, which impounds the River Kouris in the Limassol Distric on Cyprus, is now rumoured to house its very own lake monster. Tales about the dam being home to a “strange creature” began to surface three years ago, but these rumours centred mainly on the alleged dumping of a crocodile in the 3.6…
Deteriorating water quality, invasive species and the practise of draining lakes is now bringing the axolotl, a neotenic mole salamander native to central Mexico, to the brink of extinction. According to researchers the species could disappear in just five years and it is currently listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened…
The sea cucumber, which has been an appreciated traditional food item along the coasts of South East Asia for many generations, is now beginning to show up on dinner tables across the globe. The vast majority of the captured sea cucumbers are however still devoured in South East Asia and countries such as China and…
Just a small update to inform you all about new articles new available here on AC
This week, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet signed into law a measure that outlaws all whale hunting in the Chilean part of the Pacific Ocean. The law prohibits all types of whale hunting; both commercial and scientific.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) estimates that 51 percent of all the Bluefin tuna caught in the Mediterranean during 2007 was illegal and unauthorised.
Lobsters caught in the Northumberland Strait in eastern Canada are normally black, so it is easy to imagine the surprise fisherman Danny Knockwood of the Elsipogtog First Nation must have felt when he suddenly found himself face to face with a yellow and white specimen. Knockwood made the unusual catch while pulling his traps out…
Last week, a leaping 9-foot dolphin accidently ended up in an 18-foot boat in the Intracoastal Waterway near New Smyrna Beach, Florida. As the panicked animal tried to escape from the vessel, it repeatedly hit the two boaters, 64-year-old Norman Howard and his wife Barbara, with its powerful tailfin.
Normally associated with the cooler seas around the poles, Orca whales are now becoming an increasingly common sight off the coast of UK. The Orca whale – also known as Killer whale, Blackfish and Seawolf – is found in all the world’s oceans and in most seas, including the Mediterranean and Arabian Seas. It is…
According to a new report from the World Bank, inefficiency, wastefulness and poor management of fishing fleets are causing immense economic losses world wide. The report The Sunken Billions: The Economic Justification for Fisheries Reform, which was launched at the World Bank headquarters in New York and discussed at the International Union for Conservation of…
For many years, residents living along the Great Kali River at the border between India and Nepal have claimed that a mysterious underwater creature is catching and devouring humans who dare to venture into the river. The rumours have now been investigated by biologist Jeremy Wade, who says the perpetrator might be a Goonch catfish…
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…
Is the scary looking Atlantic Wolffish, Anarhichas lupus, on the brink of extinction? Today, The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and others filed a scientific petition with the federal government of the United States, seeking endangered species protection for this intimidating eel-like creature. If the petition is successful, the Atlantic Wolffish will be the first marine…
A UK-Japan team equipped with remote-operated landers has now managed to film a shoal of Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis fish at a depth of 7.7 km (4.8 mi) in the Japan Trench, where the oceanic Pacific plate subducts beneath the continental Eurasian plate.
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.
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.
As we release more and more carbon dioxide from fossil fuel into the atmosphere, the world’s oceans become more and more acidic. Exactly how this will affect marine life remains unknown, but a paper published this week by marine chemists Keith Hester and his co-authors at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute is now shedding…
Last Friday, 53 year old Florida Keys resident Greg LeNoir saved his dog Jake from being devoured by a shark by jumping into the water and punching the predator. The incident happened when LeNoir and Jake visited the Worldwide Sportsman’s Bayside Marina pier in Islamorada and Jake jumped into the water for his daily swim.
A group of Indian fishermen have threatened to commit suicide unless the authorities take necessary action to stop other fishermen from using prohibited purse seine and hair nets. The banned equipment can catch at least three tonnes of fish and sea food in a single trip; efficiently depriving lawful fishermen of fish.
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.
The Caspian Sea has traditionally been the world’s main source of caviar, but pollution and overfishing has caused serious problems for the fish in this enormous lake and yields are dwindling at a worrisome pace. The Caspian crisis is now prompting an increasing number of restaurants and importers to switch to Israeli caviar instead.
In a new study on Tanganyika cichlids, three scientists[1] [2] [3] from Uppsala University in Sweden have shown that intricate rearing behaviour varies with brain size in females. The only previously published study showing similar patterns concerned predatory animals.
Today we have the pleasure of bringing you a unique interview with Marc van Roosmalen which illustrates his situation and problems as he sees them. For those of you who aren’t familiar with who Marc van Roosmalen is, what he has done, and his present situation, I recommend reading this short introduction before reading the…
Born in the Netherlands in 1947, Marc van Roosmalen is a Brazilian primatologist of Dutch birth living in Manaus, Brazil. After studying biology at the University of Amsterdam he did four years of doctoral fieldwork in Suriname studying the Red-faced Spider Monkey. Since then, van Roosmalen has devoted his life to the scientific exploration of…
According to a new study from Uppsala University, the origin of fingers and toes can be traced back to a type of fish that inhabited the ocean 380 million years ago. This new finding has overturned the prevailing theory on how and when digits appeared, since it has long been assumed that the very first…
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. Read more about their findings.