Taiwan plans to set up an aquarium fish R&D and export centre in 2011 in an effort of becoming Asia’s main aquarium fish exporter, a Council of Agriculture (COA) official said Wednesday.

Construction is scheduled to commence next year in the Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park (PABP).

Right now, the yearly Taiwanese export of aquarium fish is no larger than 3 million USD, while Singapore has an annual export valued well above 60 million USD.

Chen Chien-pin, head of the preparatory office of the PABP, predicts that the value of the Taiwanese aquarium fish export will exceed that of Singapore when the centre as been in operation for five years.

The estimated price tag for the new facility is 1.19 billion New Taiwan Dollars, which is roughly equivalent of 37 million USD.

Two species of Asian mouse-deer have been observed utilizing a very interesting technique to get away from predators; they jump into the water and stay there until its safe to come up. By carefully swimming up to the surface to breathe now and then they can stay submerged for long periods of time.

People living in the Indonesian country side have always claimed that deer hide in the water when chased by their dogs, but it wasn’t until the behaviour was observed by a team of scientists doing a biodiversity survey that it caught the attention of the larger scientific community.

In June 2008, the team visited the northern Central Kalimantan Province in Borneo, Indonesia where they suddenly spotted a mouse-deer swimming in a forest stream. When the deer understood that it was being watched by humans, it went below the surface and remained hidden. Over the next hour, team members could see it come to the surface four or five times. Although it probably went up for air a few more times without being noticed, it could clearly remain submerged for more than five minutes at a time.

Eventually, the researchers caught the animal and photographed it before releasing it back into the wild unharmed. It was a pregnant female deer.

One of the members of the team is the wife of Erik Meijaard, a senior ecologist working with the Nature Conservancy in Balikpapan, Indonesia. When she showed her husband the photograph, he identified it as a Greater mouse-deer (Tragulus napu).

That same years, another group of observers witnessed a Mountain mouse-deer (Moschiola spp) throwing itself into pond and swimming under water to get a way from a hungry mongoose in Sri Lanka. The mongoose followed it into the pond, but eventually retreated as the deer continued to stay submerged.

“It came running again and dived into the water and swam underwater. I photographed this clearly and it became clear to me at this stage that swimming was an established part of its escape repertoire,” says Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, who saw the incident.

“Seeing it swim underwater was a shock”, he says. “Many mammals can swim in water. But other than those which are adapted for an aquatic existence, swimming is clumsy. The mouse-deer seemed comfortable, it seemed adapted.”

Both incidents have now been described in the journal “Mammalian Biology”.

“This is the first time that this behaviour has been described for Asian mouse-deer species,” says Meijaard. “I was very excited when I heard the mouse-deer stories because it resolved one of those mysteries that local people had told me about but that had remained hidden to science.”

What is a mouse deer?

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Tragulidae

Mouse deer are small deer-like animals with large upper canine teeth. In male specimens you can even see the teeth project down either side of the lower jaw. Ten different species of mouse-deer have been described by science and all except one live in South-East Asia. The Water Chevrotain (Hyemoschus aquaticus) is the only mouse deer native to the African continent and it is also the largest member of the family.

The Water Chevrotain (Hyemoschus aquaticus) lives in swampy habitats and is known to dash into the nearest river as soon as it is spooked by something. Until recently, this was the only mouse deer in which the habit of swimming under water and staying submerged for long periods of time had been described and all the Asian members of the family Tragulidae were thought to be strictly dry-land animals.

You have probably noticed it if you’ve ever tried to catch a fish using your bare hands or a small net: the uncanny ability of these creatures to escape, sometimes even before you make a move. Most fish species are incredibly fast and seem to be virtual mind-readers when it comes to predicting when and where you will make your next attempt.

The reason behind this remarkable talent is a special circuit present in the brains of many species of fish. Fish ears constantly sense the sound pressure on each side of the body and if the ear on one side detects a disturbance, the muscles of the fish will automatically bend the body into a c-shape facing the opposite direction. This involuntary reaction makes it possible for the fish to start swimming way from harms way as quickly as possible. Scientists call it C-start and it is highly advantageous when escaping from predators. That is, until you venture upon the Tentacled snake (Erpeton tentaculatum) of South-East Asia.

While studying the Tentacled snake, Kenneth Catania, associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, realized that this snake has found a way of exploiting the C-start reflex to its advantage.

Using video recordings of snake (see below) and prey Catania was able to slow down the chain of events enough to make them noticeable for a human eye, and what he saw amazed him. Instead of fleeing from the snake, fish would swim right into the mouth of the predator nearly four times out of five. How could this be?

When hunting, the Tentacled snake forms its body into a peculiar J-shape with its head at the bottom of the “J”. It then remains absolutely still until suitable prey ventures close enough to the “hook”-area of the J. When it finally strikes, it rarely misses since the fish seem to be magically drawn to the jaws of their attacker. In 120 attacks carried out by four different snakes, Catania observed no less than 78 percent of the fish turning toward the snake’s head instead of swimming away from it.

Catania also noticed something else: before the snakes moved their head to strike, they always flexed a point midway down the body. A hydrophone placed in the aquarium unveiled that by flexing its body, the snake produces sound waves intense enough to trigger the fish’s C-start reflex, and since the sound comes from a spot opposite the head of the hungry snake, the C-start reflex forces the fish to turn and swim directly towards the snake’s mouth.

“Once the C-start begins, the fish can’t turn back,” Catania explained. “The snake has found a way to use the fish’s escape reflex to its advantage. I haven’t been able to find reports of any other predators that exhibit a similar ability to influence and predict the future behavior of their prey,”

The C-start behaviour is actually so predictable that the snake doesn’t even bother to aim for the initial position of its prey and then adjust its direction as most predators would. Instead, it goes directly for the spot where it knows the fish will be heading.

“The best evidence for this is the cases when the snake misses,” says Catania. “Not all the targeted fish react with a C-start and the snake almost always misses those that don’t react reflexively.”

Kenneth Catania studies the brains and behaviour of species with extreme specializations. His new snake study is published this week in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Rocky, a snakehead living with its keeper Chris Deverso in New York State, might get a new lease on life.

Snakeheads are Asian predatory fishes capable of breathing oxygen from the air and move over land. They have been banned in the USA since they might wreck havoc with North American ecosystems if introduced to the wild.

Channa marulius caught by fisherman.
Copyright www.jjphoto.dk

Due to this regulation, the Department of Environmental Conservation wanted to euthanize the pet snakehead, but Deverso – who has owned the fish since before the ban was put into action in 2004 – refused to give up his pet and has therefore been back and forth to court and fined for owning the illegal fish.

The Department of Environmental Conservation has now offered a compromise; they will grant Deverso an educational permit, provided that he fulfils the educational permit requirements. He must:

– Install a lock on the top of the aquarium.

– Holds an open house or lecture in his home for groups interested in learning about snakehead fish.

– Pay an annual permit fee of $500.

“I never went to college; I never made much. I’m just an average guy who stood up for what I believed in and hopefully in time I’ll be granted the permit and it’ll all be worth it,” said Deverso. “I’ve taken care of him for 11 years, it’s my family pet; $500 is a lot of money but if it saves his life, it’s worth it.”

A number of Japanese citizens living in the Ishikawa Prefecture have made some strange observations during the last few days.

Nanao, Japan, June 4

During the evening of June 4, a man suddenly heard a plopping sound in a parking lot of the Nakajima citizens centre in Nanao. When he looked back, he was surprised to see tadpoles scattered over a car and on the ground. According to Kiwamu Funakura, 36, an official at the centre who went to the parking lot at the time, about 100 tadpoles, each 2 or 3 centimetres long, were scattered over an area measuring about 200 square meters.

Hakusan, Japan, June 6

Two days later and roughly 70 kilometres southwest of Nanao, a similar event occurred in another parking lot. In the morning of June 6, between 20 and 30 dead tadpoles were found on a car windshield and other places in a Hakusan parking lot, with some reportedly having lost their original shape.

Nanao, Japan, June 8

Back in Nano, Takeshi Kakiuchi, 62, a member of the Nanao Municipal Assembly, found six tadpoles on his car and on the ground around his home Monday morning. Kakiuchi’s home is located roughly 4 km from the Nakajima citizens centre.

Nakanotomachi, Japan, June 9

On Tuesday evening, Yukio Oumi, 78, found 13 fish on the back of his truck and on the ground around his home in Nakanotomachi. The fish are believed to be crucian carps, each measuring about 3 centimetres.

Fish and frogs falling from the sky?

The reason behind the strange events has not yet been determined, and the Kanazawa Local Meteorological Observatory says it has no information that any tornadoes occurred on the days when the animals appeared.

Susumu Aiba, professor at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology, says that small-scale wind gusts may have swept over limited areas, swirling up water and any creatures living in it. If the gusts were small enough, they may have been able to avoid meteorological detection.

Another suggestion comes from Kimimasa Tokikuni, the head of the Ishikawa prefectural branch of the Japanese Society for Preservation of Birds. “Birds such as herons or umineko that had these tadpoles in their mouths or gorges might have dropped them because they were startled by something while flying,” he says. All the places where animals seem to have fallen from the sky during the last few days are located in close vicinity to flooded rice paddies, so birds may have caught tadpoles and small fish there in an attempt to feed their young. Herons and other water fowl are in the middle of their breeding period right now.

Shark fin soup has traditionally been a must-have among well-to-do Asians and an essential part of the menu at commemorative dinners, such as wedding banquets and New Years celebrations in countries like China, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia.

However, as awareness grows about the precarious situation many species of shark are facing in the wild due to over-harvesting; many Asians – especially young ones –are substituting the shark fin soup with alternative dishes at their celebratory events.

Singaporean groom Han Songguang and his scuba diving bride are just one example of this trend; when they tied the knot in December last year they served their guests lobster soup and placed explanatory postcards depicting a dead shark on each seat.

“If we can do our part to save ‘X’ number of sharks … why not?” said Han, a geography teacher.

A symbol of wealth and status in several Asian cultures, shark fin soup consumption has traditionally been a delight available for a comparatively low number of Asian upper-class families only. Hand-in-hand with rising affluence in East Asia and the development of a prosperous middle class segment of society, demand has however soared rapidly in the late 20^th and early 21^st century and about 20 percent of all shark species are now endangered, partly due to them being over-fished to satisfy the Asian markets.

“They live a long time. They have a low reproductive rate. In other words they produce just a few young every year or every few years. So you just can’t take a lot,” says Yvonne Sadovy, a biology professor at the University of Hong Kong.

As more and more young Asians opt for lobsters and other alternatives to shark fins, market demands have dropped noticeably in recent years. After peaking at 897,000 metric tonnes in 2003, the world wide shark consumption has sunk to 758,000 in 2006, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation. British wildlife group TRAFFIC says shark fins now make up an increasingly small percentage of the total consumption.

“Students and people in their 20s wouldn’t go to a shark eatery, and $15 for a dish is no cheap price,” says Joyce Wu, programme officer with TRAFFIC.

Shang-kuan Liang-chi, a National Taiwan University student agrees. “University students never go in there,” he says, referring to a shark fin restaurant near campus.

The decline is not only due to shark fins becoming increasingly out of vogue among environmentally concerned youngsters; the global financial crisis and its effects in Asia has caused many Asian to cut down on restaurant visits or order less expensive dishes.

Another sure sign of the declining popularity of shark fin soup in Asian is the menu for Singapore’s Annual Chefs’ Association dinner – it is now completely void of shark fin dishes.

“It is much harder to stop serving shark’s fin in our restaurants as the consumers still demand it. However, in our personal capacity, we can make a stand,” said Otto Weibel, a food manager at one of Singapore’s top hotels.

Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology have undertaken what is believed to be the very first CT scan of eggs inside a coelacanth fish.

“I was surprised to see that all the eggs were the same size,” said Dr Norihiro Okada, a bioscience professor at the university and a member of the research team. “I hope to do research into why this is.”

Each coelacanth fish was roughly 170 cm (67 in) long and weighed about 70 kg (154 lbs). After being captured off the coast of Tanzania, both fishes were frozen and send to Japan where the CT scan showed how each fish contained roughly 40 eggs; each egg being about 7 cm (almost 2 ¾ in) in diameter.

The eggs of a coelacanth are never released into the water because the offspring hatch while still inside their mother. The young fish sometimes reach a length of 30 cm (12 in) before leaving their mother’s body.

Coelacanths were long believed to have gone extinct around the same time as the dinosaurs, until scientists realized that these fishes actually turn up in the nets of African and Asian fishermen now and then. The first confirmed finding is from 1938 when a specimen was captured in the Indian Ocean.

Coelacanths are of special interest to evolutionary biologists since they are thought to represent an early step in the evolution of fish to amphibians. You can read more about this in our coelacanth article.

The Spanish police have seized 11 tonnes of shark fins in destined to be shipped to Hong Kong.

According to a statement from the police, the shark fins did not appear to come from a protected species but were found in a warehouse that lacked authorization to export shark fins.

The confiscation took place in Huelva in south-western Spain, to where the fins had been transported from a port in Galicia in the north-western part of the country.

The shark fins have an estimated value of 136,800 Euros (186,335 USD). European Union countries are the main exporters of shark fins to China.

In many markets, shark meat does not yield a high price and fishermen therefore normally remove the fin from caught sharks and let the shark back to the sea. Without its fin the shark can no longer swim and will sink to the bottom where it either dies from suffocation (sharks need to swim to breathe) or gets eaten alive by other aquatic animals.

In parts of Asia, shark fins are used in folk remedies and to make traditional shark fin soup. As the standard of living rises in China, more and more people can afford to purchase shark fins and one pound of dried shark fin can now retail for over 300 USD.

War on clams has been declared at Lake Tahoe, a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of the United States. Scuba divers have been enrolled in a 400,000 USD project aiming to completely rid the lake of all Asian clams. The anti-clam endeavour is scheduled to begin in mid-March and is a combined effort by the governments of Nevada and California.

The Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea) is native to Asia and parts of Africa where it inhabits streams, canals and lakes. In this part of the world it is a natural part of the ecosystems and is even known as the prosperity clam or good luck clam. The Asian clam was introduced to North America in the 1920s by Asian immigrants for whom it was an appreciated source of food. It would however take until 2001 before the first specimens were encountered in Lake Tahoe. Since the first finding, the clam has been collected from numerous locations Tahoe’s southeast shore and authorities now fear that it will pave the way for even more dangerous invasive species such as the Ukrainian Quagga mussel (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) and the Russian Zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha).

”We’re concerned they could create a positive settlement situation for the quagga mussels,” says Steve Chilton, aquatic invasive species coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ”We’re basically looking at all avenues through which the quagga mussel could get into the lake and eliminate that risk factor as much as possible.”

Steps so far have primarily focused on mandatory boat inspections to ensure no mussels are attached to them when they launch into the lake, but scuba divers participating in the new anti-clam project will actually be removing Asian clams from Lake Tahoe’s southeast shore. Starting in mid-March, divers will place plastic sheets, so called bottom barriers, over selected clam beds in order to deprive the clams of oxygen and nutrients. Divers will also carry out ”diver-assisted suction”, e.g. manually vacuum clams off the bottom of Tahoe.

”This needs to be done. We have to get our hands around the Asian clam problem,” Tahoe Regional Planning Agency spokesman Dennis Oliver told the Reno Gazette-Journal. ”We need to find out what works and what works best. Once we know that, we can develop a program.”

Invasive mussel species are known to form huge populations in environments where they lack natural predators and can for instance clog water intakes, attach themselves to boats and docks, and litter sandy beaches.

North America is not the only continent with an Asian mussel problem; Corbicula fluminea has begun to spread throughout Europe as well. It was found in the Rhine as early in the 1980s and then gradually found its way into the Danube through the Rhine-Maine-Danube Canal. In 1998 the first specimens were found in the Elbe and the species is now also present in the rivers of Portugal.

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 Japan are big importers of the delicacy.

This time of year, divers canvass the waters of Alaska in search of a particular species of sea cucumber for the export market; the long and warty Parastichopus californicus. Parastichopus californicus, also known as the giant California sea cucumber, has a soft, cylindrical body and can reach a length of 50 cm. The endoskeleton is found right under the leathery yellowish skin and five rows of tube feet extends from the mouth to the anus on the underside of the body.

giant California sea cucumber

In Alaska, sea cucumber catching is strictly regulated and a diver is not allowed to catch more than his or her daily bag limit. When an area opens during the cucumber season, the catchers have seven hours on Monday and four hours on Tuesday to collect their daily bag limit – 2,000 pounds per person. With one sea cucumber weighing 0.5 pounds or less, you can actually catch thousands of cucumbers without reaching your daily limit. Last year, 179 divers participated in the event, which is well below the authorized maximum of 389.

In most cases, only the skin of the cucumber is shipped off to Asia, not the entire animal. Before being exported, the skin is typically boiled and salted until it shrivels and turns black.

Exotic sea cucumber (giant California sea cucumber)

Enokitake Soup with Clams and Sea Cucumber

Ingredients

1.2 kg whole chicken (no skin)

1 large sea cucumber

30 g dried scallops

1 can clams

80 g fresh enokitake (golden needle mushroom)

30 g coriander leaves

salt and pepper

Method

1.) Cut the chicken into pieces. You can remove the bones or leave them, it’s up to you.

2.) Soak the sea cucumber and cut it into big pieces.

3.) Bring 2.5 litres of water to a boil in a pot.

4.) Add chicken, scallops and sea cucumber.

5.) Bring the water to a boil again.

6.) Reduce to low heat and leave to simmer until ingredients are tender.

7.) Add clams and enokitake.

8.) Add salt and pepper to taste.

9.) Bring to a boil.

10.) Place in soap bowls, sprinkle with coriander leaves and serve.