Time to reveal a new WordPress theme. I learned a lot when I made the first two WordPress themes below and I thought it was about time I made an aquarium related one. This is after all first and foremost an aquarium site. It is a simple theme with widget ready sidebars and gravatar support. It is also ad ready and the download file includes instructions on how to activate ads. I hope someone will like and have use for it. You can download this theme Here

Official description: Description: A clean simple SEO optimized 3 column blue aquarium inspired theme. The theme has two widget ready sidebars and gravatar support. The theme is Adsense (and other ads) ready and display ads in the 3 first post on each page to comply with Adsense TOS. Features a bio box that can be edited independently of the side bars. Theme is fully compatible with WordPress 2.6. Find more of my themes on my theme page

Tags: valid CSS, white, blue, orange, yellow, 3 columns, 3 column, three column, three columns, fixed width, widget, widget ready, simple, right sidebar, left sidebar, valid CSS, Adsense ready, add ready, bio box, gravatar support, gravatar, minimalistic, funky, fish, aquarium, pet, goldfish, pets

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

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 of the sea near Richibucto Village, where the Richibucto Rivers empties into the northern Atlantic.

The Canadian fishermen named his new pet Autumn and made a short video of the animal for YouTube. As of October 8, the video had managed to attract several hundred viewers – some of them suggesting that Knockwood should eat his rare find.

Knockwood has however decided to keep Autumn away from the boiling water and has instead managed to find her a new home at the Aquarium and Marine Centre in Shippagan, a museum where marine animals are housed in real seawater. The marine centre is already home to a substantial collection of oddly coloured lobsters, so Autumn will fit right in.

“In captivity, the lobster could live for many years,” says Curator Aurele Godin of the Shippagan Aquarium and Marine Centre. “And I’ve got many other coloured ones — blue ones, yellow ones, orange and blacks. Every year fishermen come up with them. They call me and I go pick them up.”

Instead of showing dark spots on a dark green base colour like normal lobsters, Autumn sports a vivid yellow colour on top while her underside is almost white. According to a specialist from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans who examined the video and photos of Autumn, genetic defects can cause the shell of a lobster to develop strange and unusual colours. The specialist also confirmed that Autumn is a female lobster and estimated her to be roughly 10 years of age.

Until Autumn is transported to the museum, she will be residing in a an underwater cage near Knockwood’s home.

The below story is unrelated to the first one but is still worth a look as it shows how big lobster can grow:

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 Nature (IUCN) Congress in Barcelona, says it would be possible to save 50 billion USD a year through wide-ranging reforms.

According to the World Bank study, the two main reasons behind the massive losses are depleted fish stocks and fleet overcapacity. Depleted fish stocks make it more expensive to locate and catch fish, turning commercial fishing into a less efficient business. The fleet overcapacity adds to the problem through redundant investment and operating costs.

While calling for wide-ranging reforms – including a comprehensive restructuring of fishing methods, removal of subsidies, and a more responsible and impartial stewardship of the seas – the report also acknowledges that such an endeavour won’t be without political, social, and economic costs. The current ‘business as usual’ attitude would however be even more costly in the long run, since it would lead to a scenario where commercial fishing becomes a drain on society through extensive subsidies.

According to the report, the recent steep increase in fuel prices can not be blamed for the loss-making since the marine fishing industry has been in decline for a much longer period of time. Despite increased fishing efforts and increasingly high-tech fishing fleets, depleted fish populations have caused the global marine catch to stay at the same level for over a decade.

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

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 fish to receive endangered species protection in New England.

The Atlantic Wolffish, also known as the Seawolf, is primarily found in cold parts of the Atlantic, but can also be encountered in warmer locations, such as the north-western Mediterranean Sea and the Bay of Biscay. Along the North American coast, it is found as north as the Davis Strait between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island, and as far south as New Jersey. It is however uncommon south of Cape Cod, New England. In order to survive the cold temperature of its northern habitat, the Atlantic Wolffish has developed a natural anti-freeze that prevents its body from freezing.

The CLF petition cites federal and independent scientific studies that show a dramatic decline of Atlantic Wolffish during the past two decades. According to federal statistics, commercial fishermen are now landing 95% less Atlantic Wolffish than in 1983. Back in the early 1980s, commercial fishermen landed about 1,200 metric tones of this fish per annum, which can be compared to the mere 64.7 metric tons of Atlantic Wolffish landed last year. The Atlantic Wolffish has also worried the scientific community by virtually disappearing from the scientific research trawls carried out twice a year off the coast of New England.

”Based on all available science, Atlantic wolffish are rapidly headed toward extinction in New England’s ocean waters,” said Peter Shelley , CLF Vice President and Senior Attorney. “The dramatic decline in wolffish is a troubling indication that while there is some good news about marine species like haddock and sea scallops that have been successfully restored, our ocean’s long term health continues to hang for other species by a precarious balance. Key species like the wolffish and endangered whales remain in serious jeopardy.”

The main threats against the Atlantic Wolffish are commercial fishing (including by-catch) and habitat degradation, with a major part of the habitat degradation being the result of commercial fishing since it is carried out using trawls and dredges. “Absent some action to reduce or eliminate the destruction of seafloor habitat in the few remaining areas of United States waters that harbor remnant populations of the Atlantic wolffish, it is probable that it will be faced with extinction in those waters in the near future,” says marine scientist and co-petitioner Dr Les Watling.

The Atlantic Wolffish is listed as a Species of Concern by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

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 deepest record for any fish – over 8 km / 5 mi – is held by the species Abyssobrotula galatheae, but this fish was never filmed or observed while it was alive; it was dredged from the bottom of the Puerto Rico Trench and already dead when it reached the surface.

The Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis film shows the fish darting around in the dark, scooping up shrimps. The shoal consists of no less than 17 specimens, with the largest ones being around 30 cm (12 in) in length.

“It was an honour to see these fish“, says Dr Alan Jamieson, Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. “No-one has ever seen fish alive at these depths before – you just never know what you are going to see when you get down there.

The filming took place as a part of the Hadeep project; a collaboration between the Oceanlab at the University of Aberdeen and the Ocean Research Institute at the University of Tokyo. The aim of the project, which is funded by the Nippon Foundation and the Natural Environment Research Council, is to find out more about life in the very deepest parts of the world’s oceans.

Just like the unfortunate Abyssobrotula galatheae, deep sea fishes tend to be in a sad state when researchers examine them at the surface and this is one of the reasons why a film is such great news for anyone interested in learning more about what’s going on at these vast depts.

According to Professor Monty Priede, also from the University of Aberdeen, the team was surprised by the fish’s behaviour. “We certainly thought, deep down, fish would be relatively inactive, saving energy as much as possible, and so on,” says Priede. “But when you see the video, the fish are rushing around, feeding accurately, snapping at prey coming past.“

Oceanographers normally divide the deep sea into three different depth zones:

• The Bathyal, which is located between 1,000 and 3,000 m (3,000 and 10,000 ft)
• The Abyss, which is located between 3,000 and 6,000 m (10,000 and 20,000 ft)
• The Hadal, which is located between 6,000 and 11,000 m (20,000 and 36,000 ft)

The Hadeep project has been looking at the creatures inhabiting the Hadal zone, which consists of comparatively narrow trenches in the wide abyss. In this environment there is no light and the pressure is immense. The food supply is also very limited, since photosynthesising organisms can not survive and most other creatures stay away as well. The animals living in the Hadal zone must therefore rely on food sinking down to them from more fruitful waters above.

In order to cope with pressure, Hadal dwellers display numerous physiological modifications, primarily at the molecular level. They have also developed various ways of dealing with the constant night and Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis is for instance equipped with vibration receptors on its snout which comes in handy when the fish navigates through the darkness and searches for food.

Dr Alan Jamieson now hopes that the Japan-UK team will find more fish during their next expedition down into the Haldal zone, which is planned to take place in March 2009 and aims to venture as far down as 9,000 m (30,000 ft).”Nobody has really been able to look at these depths before – I think we will see some fish living much deeper,” says Jamieson, whose deep-sea blog from the expedition can be found at Planet Earth Online.

You can also read more about this story over at deep sea news, a great blog if you want to keep up to date on deep sea discoveries.

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.

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. According to LeNoir, Jake is a fast and fearless swimmer who loves to retrieve soaked coconuts and jellyfish. But this day, the playful swimming session took a turn for the worse when a five-foot (1.5 m) long shark showed up and chomped its teeth into the 14-pound (6.3 kg) rat terrier.

As LeNoir watched his dog suddenly disappear under the surface, he didn’t hesitate to come to his rescue. ”I clenched my fists and dove straight in with all my strength, like a battering ram,” says LeNoir. ”I hit the back of the shark’s neck. It was like hitting concrete.”

While being pounded by LeNoir, the shark decided to let go of Jake, who frantically swam back to the shore, leaving a red trail of blood behind him in the water. Jake was rushed to the VCA Upper Keys Animal Hospital in Islamorada, where his wounds were attended by veterinarian Suzanne Sigel and emergency on-call assistant Callie Cottrell. The sharp teeth of the shark had punctured Jake’s skin and some muscle, and skin was hanging like ribbons from his right side and front left leg, but he wasn’t in critical condition.

”He looks great and is recuperating well,” Sigel said on Monday. ”I was worried he may have inhaled salt water when he was pulled under, but there’s no evidence of infection or pneumonia.”

The hungry shark has not been identified, but LeNoir believes it to be a bull shark or lemon shark. Sharks are not uncommon in these waters, partly because the Islamorada Fish Company has an open saltwater pool which attracts large tarpon – a yummy treat for many species of shark.