Australian scientists have now completed an 18-month long project aimed at scientifically describing sharks and rays, using traditional techniques as well as modern DNA sequence analysis. The ambitious project has resulted in over 100 species of sharks and rays being properly classified, which is equal to about one third of Australia’s known sharks and rays.
As you probably know already, many sea living creatures are capable of emitting their own fluorescent light. Turning yourself into a living light bulb comes in handy when you live at depths where no sunlight or only very little sun light is capable of reaching you, and the glow can for instance be used for…
This August, a turtle decided to take a stroll through a cannabis garden in a secluded part of one of America’s public parklands. This wouldn’t have been a problem for the resourceful horticulturist responsible for the plantation if it hadn’t been for the fact that this particular turtle was fitted with a GPS tracking device…
According to Korean scientists, brass can be used to make shellfish a safer choice at the dinner table. “We showed that copper ions diffuse out from a brass plate into a fish tank filled with seawater, and within 40 hours the copper killed 99.99% of the Vibrio food poisoning bacteria contaminating the living fish and…
A four year old boy got his arm broken by a jumping sturgeon on the Suwannee River on September 7. At the same time, the boy’s father was cut by the fish. According to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, witnesses observed the family’s boat moving through the water at about 30 miles per hour…
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.
Unlike many other countries, Sweden has traditionally been blessed with the absence of dangerously venomous spiders, snakes and similar critters, but this might be about to change as more and more new species establish themselves in Scandinavia. One of the latest additions to the Swedish fauna is the Black widow spider, according to Naturhistoriska riksmuseet…
Two new species of fish has been scientifically described and named: Glyptothorax filicatus and Glyptothorax strabonis. The genus Glyptothorax is a part of the family Sisoridae in the catfish order Siluriformes, and the most species-rich and widely distributed genus of the entire family.
During the last week of August, Gary Owen, a Charles County sheriff’s corporal, discovered 167 snakeheads swimming in two puddles off Sharpersville Road near Mattawoman Creek in Maryland. Mattawoman Creek is a tidal tributary of the Potomac River located in Prince George’s and Charles Counties. The sheriff’s corporal was not actually on the look-out for…
Tidal movements involve immense amounts of energy and are as reliable as, well, the tide. If we could find an efficient way of harnessing these mammoth forces, tidal action might become an important source of renewable energy for populations world wide. With this in mind, a team of engineers from Oxford University have worked together…
A 23-year old Beluga whale at the Kamogawa Sea World aquarium in Japan has been trained to emit different noises for different items. As of now, the whale – whose name is Nack – emits a short, high-pitched sound to identify diving fins, a long and even more high-pitched sound for diving goggles, and a…
On September 4, UNESCO announced its plans to help Egypt build an underwater museum in the Bay of Alexandria. Parts of the museum will be submerged while other parts will be located above the surface. This construction will allow visitors to view not only marine life but also the myriad of archaeological artefacts that can…
The Salmon runs in British Columbia are known to fluctuate, with good years being followed by poorer ones. Since the mid-1990s, most years have however been bad and many explanations for this situation have been offered, from El Nino and too warm streams, to over-fishing and habitat destruction. It is of course tempting for the…
Many of you might have already seen this rap video but I decided to post it anyway as some of you no doubt missed it. It is a small rap video explaining how the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) works and the purpose of the facility.
According to Christian Agrillo, an experimental psychologist at the University of Padua in Italy, the North American mosquito fish can count up to four. This rudimentary mathematical ability makes it possible for the North American mosquito fish to count how many other fish that are nearby – but only up to four. Similar counting abilities…
New animal cruelty laws in Switzerland deem recreational fishing as animal cruelty. The law ban catch and release fishing as the authorities have found that this fishing technique is morally wrong as it in facts is the practice of torturing animals for fun.
Switzerland has adopted new strict animal cruelty laws. The new law contains more strict rules regulating how to keep most pets and domestic animal. An example is that many animals such as hamsters, lamas, alpacas and sheep no longer can be kept alone. They need to have visual contact with other specimens of the same…
A carbon capture and storage facility has been built at the Schwarze Pumpe coal-fired power plant in Germany. The facility is built as a test to see how well the technology work and will be ran as a pilot project over 3 years. Another test facility will be built in France next year.
I usually don’t like to write about rumours and speculations but sometimes they are interesting enough to warrant a few rows here in the news section. There is a growing speculation and fear among tuna fisherman that tuna fishing will be strictly regulated or banned before the end of the year. The speculations state that…
A lot of fish have died following poor event planning before the Cairns triathlon. The organiser strung jellyfish nets across the Marlin Marina in cairns as a part of the event planning for the triathlon Authorities decided to leave the nets in during the night but forgot about the tide. Large schools of fish were…
New research have shown that fish are much smarter than scientist previously thought and many fish species as just as intelligent as rats. Dr Mike Webster of St Andrews University have researched the intelligence in fish and his research shows that fish shows clear signs of intelligence when they are in danger. He says that:…
Does anyone remember the Danish artist Marco Evaristti. No? I am not surprised. But if I ask you if you remember the artist who put goldfish in blenders a few years back I am sure most of you know who I am talking about. A quick recap for those of you who don’t remember the…
Regular salmon Biologists keeping track of the sockeye salmon populations in central Idaho (Sawtooth Mountains) have good news to report. More sockeye than in any other year in the last two decades have made their way pass the eight dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers and returned to idaho. 507 fish have been counted…
An Italian museum in Bolzano have defied and angered the papacy by refusing to remove a piece of art that the Vatican has condemned as blasphemous. The piece of art depicts a crucified green frog. The tongue hangs out of its mouth and it has a beer mug and an egg in its hands. The…
Cement is one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions in the world. About 5% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted into the atmosphere can be traced back to cement production. When 1 metric ton of cement is produced one ton carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere: The carbon dioxid is emitted when…
It seems like every blog have published at least one post about republican vice president candidate Sara Palin. I therefore thought I would write a few words about her policy and history in relation to environmental protection, something that likely is important to all those who read this blog. I am sorry to say that…
An attempt to look at the bright side. The media writes a lot about all the problems the high oil price causes. The problems it causes in house hold budgets, how it affects the US trade deficit and how it drives inflation but we don’t take the time to see the positive effects associated with…
A group of scientist from UK, Australia, the US, Sweden and France are arguing that we need to rethink how we protect our marine environment if we want to protect our reefs. The way we protect vulnerable areas today will not suffice to save the coral reefs from the threat of global warming. The type…
This is a short post as I think everyone should see these pictures of migrating golden rays. Not all golden rays migrate but there is one population in the Mexican gulf that each year migrate, clockwise from western Florida to the Yucatan. They migrate in large schools, often up to 10 000 fish strong and…
A 25 year old worshipper was killed and eaten by a crocodile in Bangladesh last week. The death took place in a pond next to a shrine and the man was seeking the crocodiles blessing when he was killed. The man had travelled 50 km to visit the shrine with his mother. The shrine is…
This is just a very short post about the piglet in japan that supposedly was born with a monkey face. It looks kind a freaky but i imagen a deformity could make a pig look like that as it is not “that” different looking from a pig. If the picture is genuine that is. I…
A new species of giant clam has been encountered by researchers in the Red Sea and given the name Tridacna costata. The new species is fairly similar to two other well-known species of Red Sea clams and it was therefore first suspect to be a hybrid, but genetic analysis has now deemed it a separate…
A swedish documentary film crew claims to have caught images of a famous swedish sea monster on film. The beast is called “storsjöodjuret” which translates into “the monster of the big lake”. Storsjön is the name of the lake in which it supposedly lives. The monster have been sighted for a very long time and…