Adult Blue Whale

It has been discovered that Blue whales are actually able to effectively tune the pitch of their calls with an astounding amount of accuracy, and are able to repeat this process call after call. This discovery was made during a recent study of the Blue whale population in the North Pacific. The results of this study were recently published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

The authors of the article have hinted that this control in the pitch of their calls could allow them to find a potential mate by simply swimming toward or away from the call.

“Blue whales in a given population have been observed to align their pitch to a common value, but we have now been able to determine just how accurately they are able to do so,” explained professor of Physics at San Francisco State University, Roger Bland.

Professor Bland along with colleagues have analyzed the recordings of over 4,000 Blue whale calls, their focus being the B calls – Those long sad sounding moans that manifest themselves in the second half of the Blue whale song that is distinct in the North Pacific population of Blue whales.

“We found that blue whales are capable of very fine control over the pitch of their call — both in reproducing their call at the same pitch every time and in synchronizing their pitch with others,” Bland went on to explain.

This just goes to show you that humans aren’t the only creatures on the face of the planet that are capable of amazing things… We should pay more attention to nature, we might actually learn something.

A conglomerate of Canadian and Spanish researchers have discovered new marine life, which have been previously unknown to the scientific community, and some are even over a 1,000 years old. They are hoping that these creatures will shed some light into the secrets of the ancient underwater ecosystems.

Scientists from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in conjunction with three Canadian universities and the Fisheries Department are going on a 20 day expedition to take some photos and pick up samples of coral and sponges up to 3 kilometers deep in the cold waters off the Newfoundland coast.

The team will be studying 11 different areas which are under the protection of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization.

These are important areas of study as they are the home to the “trees of the ocean” explains a research scientist with the Fisheries Department, Ellen Kenchington. Ellen is also leading the expedition.

The coral which can be found in these areas can be several meters tall and is sufficient enough in size to change the flow of currents. It is also the home to many other fish and other aquatic life.

The aim of the study is to see whether or not these areas need further protection from fishing to help keep the species abundant.

Ellen went on to explain that scientists can actually take a look at the chemical makeup of the coral and figure out the temperature of the water and other information dating back as far as 1,000 years!

For pictures see
http://www.montrealgazette.com

Halieutichthys intermedus - Fish Biology, MCZ, AMNH

This is an absolutely amazing development.. Even though the Gulf of Mexico is in turmoil, what with the BP oil spill gumming up the works, it appears that life does go on, as scientists revealed on Thursday that a new species of pancake batfish have been discovered there.

The discovery was published in the Journal of Fish Biology, which is a team of researchers led by H.C. Ho of the Academia Sinica, and reports that two flatfish species have been discovered in the Gulf Of Mexico. The Halieutichthys intermedus and the Halieutichthys bispinous were the two species which were uncovered.

What makes this discovery so amazing, is that the latter of the two flatfish discovered is found exclusively in the area of the oil spill. No one really knows why the Halieutichthys bispinous is found only in the area of the spill, but it has been said that it does not necessarily mean there is anything special about that environment. Some researchers have theorized that the fish simply prefer that environment as it is free of natural predators, and that suits the batfish just fine. More research is planned, however the top priority of course is getting the spill cleaned up.

John Sparks, of the American Museum Of Natural History, had this to say on the subject, “If we are still finding new species of fishes in the Gulf, imagine how much diversity — especially microdiversity — is out there that we do not know about.”

Halieutichthys bispinous - Fish Biology, MCZ, AMNH

There is a certain kind of damsel fish, the Stegastes Nigrigans, which will actually selectively cultivate the algae they prefer to feed on. They have shown to actually encourage the growth of Polysiphonia, their preferred food, and limit the growth of other algae which they can’t digest as well. Researchers, which are writing in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, have been investigating the algae preferences of damselfish and explore their intricate cultivating practices all across the Indo-West Pacific region.

Hiroki Hata from Ehime University, Japan, worked with a team of researchers to explore this ‘gardening’ behavior. He said, “We surveyed 320 territories of 18 damselfish species and thoroughly examined algae from each fish territory from coral reefs in Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, the Maldives, Thailand, Borneo, the Okinawa Islands, and the Great Barrier Reef. We found that although the crop alga species shifted in the West Indian Ocean, the intensive farming by damselfish was seen throughout this geographic range”.

It has been found that damselfish do not posses any organs which would allow them to process cellulose fibers, and they aren’t able to digest many species of algae. The most common type of algae they feed on is the red algae known as Polysiphonia. Unfortunately, this kind of algae is not very competitive and the damselfish lend a helping hand by killing off competing algae.

Shark fins

On July 1st, Hawaii became the first government in the world to institute a law to ban the sale, distribution and even possession of shark fins, the news is sending ripples all around the globe, and animal advocates everywhere are cheering, and ramping up their efforts to get their governments to do the same.

This new law means that restaurants in Hawaii will not be able to serve shark fin soup, a real delicacy, but the implications are so much greater than a few items on a lunch menu.

The shark has made the jump from predator and food source, to being protected. The new law instituted in Hawaii is aiming to prevent shark finning, a rather gruesome process where, once caught, the fins are removed from the shark, and the rest of it is thrown back overboard.

State Senator, Clayton Hee had this to say about the momentous occasion, “As far as I’m concerned it’s no different than killing an elephant for its tusks or de-horning a rhinoceros for its horn. These are cruel and inhumane practices that have no business in a civilized world”.

It was Senator Hee, with the support of many animal rights advocates, which managed to drum up the votes to make it illegal to have, serve, buy, or sell shark fins.

Other States, such as California, are starting to jump on the band wagon, and even other countries are talking about creating similar laws.

Not surprisingly, China is where a lot of the efforts are being made. WildAid launched a campaign in China using NBA superstar Yao Ming, to get people to stop buying shark fins, and stop eating shark fin soup.

Fish raining down on you from the sky is rare, but fish raining down on you two nights in a row is just plain eldritch. The unlikely two-night fish rain occurred last week in a small Australian town called Lajamanu in the Northern Territory.

On Thursday around 6 pm hundreds of small white fish started falling from the sky, to the shock and surprise of the local inhabitants who live on the edge of the Tanami Desert, hundreds of kilometers from Lake Argyle and Lake Elliot and even further away from the ocean. To make things even more bewildering, the same thing happened around 6 pm on Friday as well.

Christine Balmer, an aged care co-ordinator working at the Lajamanu Aged Care Centre, said her family interstate thought she had lost the plot when she told them about the event.

“I haven’t lost my marbles,” she said to local media. “Thank god it didn’t rain crocodiles.”
Balmer also managed to snap some photos of the fish littering the ground.

“They fell from the sky everywhere”, she explained. “Locals were picking them up off the footy oval and on the ground everywhere. These fish were alive when they hit the ground.”

Lajamanu has a population of less than 700 people, of which a significant amount are of Aboriginal origin. Its only accessible by air or dirt road and governed by a combination of community government council and local tribal council.

The town is no stranger to fish rains. Back in 2004 Lajamanu experienced a similar downpour and there are also reports of fish falling from the sky in 1974. This is however the first recorded incident of fish raining down on Lajamanu two evenings in a row.

Fish rains are normally caused by tornadoes that sweep up fish, and fish captured in this fashion can travel far distances and still be alive when they land.

According to Ashley Patterson, senior forecaster at the weather bureau, conditions were perfect on Friday for a tornado in the Douglas Daly region. However, no tornadoes has been reported to the authority.

“It’s a very unusual event,” he said. “With an updraft, (fish and water picked up) could get up high – up to 60,000 or 70,000 feet. Or possibly from a tornado over a large water body – but we haven’t had any reports.”

The small white fish has been tentatively identified as spangled perch (Leiopotherapon unicolor ), one of the most widely distributed Australian native freshwater fishes.

The huge oarfish has been filmed by scientists operating a tiny submarine by remote. This may be the first time this fish is filmed, or even seen, in its natural environment. The species might have been caught on camera at a depth of 765 meters during a research mission off the coast of western African in 2007, but marine experts haven’t been able to positively identify the creature in that video.

Oarfish are large, elongated fishes belonging to the family Regalecidae. The family contains four species of which the largest one is the famous King of Herrings (Regalecus glesne), listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest bony fish alive today. The largest known King of Herring was 17 metres (56 ft) in lenght.

Normally, this deep-dweller is only encountered when dead ones are washed ashore or when dying specimens are brought up to the surface by fishermen.

The research crew was therefore happily surprised when an oarfish suddenly showed up in front of their camera.

“We saw this bright vertical shiny thing, I said ‘are they lowering more riser?’ as it looked like they were lowering a huge pipe,” said Mark Benfield from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA, one of the scientists working at the Serpent Project in the Gulf of Mexico.”We zoomed in a little bit and we said ‘that’s not a riser that’s a fish!’ As we approached it retreated downwards swimming tail first in a vertical orientation as the ROV followed. What was interesting about the fish was its swimming behaviour. It moved by undulating its dorsal fin in waves that propelled it backwards at quite a good speed.”

Early estimates measure the fish at between 5m and 10m in length, which roughly equals 16-33 feet.

The Serpent Project is a collaboration between marine researchers and energy companies such as Petrobras, Chevron and Shell and involves the use of remotely operated vehicles (ROV’s) to explore depths to which it would be extremely dangerous to send a human. Responsible for the project is the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, USA.

The King of Herrings is believed to be the creature behind the ancient myths about gigantic sea serpents. It has a prominent dorsal fin, almost like the continous spikes of a fairytale dragon.

“It was hard not to laugh underwater and flood your [scuba] mask,” says biologist Mark Norman who, together with fellow researchers from Melbourne’s Museum Victoria, photographed an octopus crawling along the ocean floor off the coast of Indonesia with two coconut shell halves suctioned to its underside.

After finishing its journey, the octopus reassembled the coconut and squeezed itself into its homemade and very well camouflaged hiding spot.

The Australian research team also encountered 20 veined octopuses carrying coconut shells nearly twice as big as their 8 cm bodies.

Using tools is generally regarded as a sign of mental sophistication and octopuses are considered to be among the most ingenious creatures on the planet. They are the only invertebrates which have been conclusively shown to use tools, and research involving maze and problem-solving tasks has unveiled that they have both short- and long term memory.

When kept in captivity, octopuses often manage to sneak out of their tanks, e.g. to get to a nearby aquarium and devour its inhabitants at night. They are also known to board fishing boats in search of food and can open up holds to get to the cargo.

Their restricted lifespans limit the amount they can ultimately learn; some species live for at little as six months while others are known to reach an age of five years in ideal conditions. The males die within a few months after mating and the females pass away shortly after seeing their eggs hatch.

In some countries, octopuses are afforded legal protection not extended to other invertebrates and it may for instance be illegal for researchers to perform surgery on them without anaesthesia.

Altough the use of nanoparticles have become a symbol of modern technology, they actually have a long history and were for instance utilized by 9^th century Mesopotamian artisans to create a shimmering effect on pots. Today, nanoparticles are a popular addition to products such as food and cosmetics and one million tonnes of silica nanoparticles alone are used by manufacturers each year. A large proportion of these enter the sewage system, but at present we hardly know anything about what happens to them during sewage treatment or their potential effects on the environment once the treated waste water is released into the wild.

It is therefore exciting to hear that a new technique has been developed that may help remove nanoparticles from sewage – or at least the silica ones. If you coat silica nanoparticles in surfactants (detergent-like chemicals that lower the surface tension of a liquid) they clump together and can easily be removed during primary wastewater treatment. Coated nanoparticles interact with other sewage components, forming a solid sludge.

The discovery is the result of the collaborative efforts of scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, ISIS Neutron Source, King’s College London and Oxford University.

“The research shows that the surface chemistry of nanoparticles influences their likely removal during primary sewage treatment,” says Dr Helen Jarvie of Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, who took part in the study. “By adding a coating which modifies their surface chemistry, it may be possible to re-route their journey through sewage treatment plants, preventing them from eventually entering the aquatic environment.’

More research is now needed to find out if the technique will work on non-silica nanoparticles.

The research paper has been published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
http://pubs.acs.org/journal/esthag

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es901399q

The work was funded under the Environmental Nanoscience Initiative (ENI), a programme to investigate the potential environmental effects of nanotechnology. The ENI is a partnership between the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) Environment Agency, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council.

The invasive Asian carps seem to have bypassed the electric barrier built to protect the North American Great Lakes from potential ecological disaster.

Bighead and Silver carp DNA has been found in the Calumet River, Des Plaines River and at the confluence of the Calumet Sag Channel and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, federal and state officials announced Friday.

U.S. authorities regularly test for Asian carp DNA in suspended particles floating in river currents in this region, and positive test results have now appeared less than seven miles from Lake Michigan.

The carps are believed to have jumped over the electrical barrier commonly referred to as the “last line of defense” for the Great Lakes.

Authorities are now trying to locate the carps and catch them.

Why are the Asian carps such unwelcomed visitors?

The Asian carps wreck havoc with the native ecosystem by outcompeting local species for food.

They were deliberately brought to North America by catfish farmers to keep farm ponds clean, but managed to escape into the wild during a series of powerful flooding incidents in the 1990s. Since then, they have gradually expanded their range up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.