Green Group discussion
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“I was relatively new to toxicology,” he said, “but I knew this was going to be incredibly challenging. It is the kind of project that you want to start early in your career.”
Scholz knew, even then, that it could take years to find an answer. By 2011, NOAA researchers had studied tissues from dead or dying coho in numerous urban streams, comparing them to normal fish tissues. Published results showed a strong connection between dead coho and stormwater. Extensive testing found that the cause of death did not appear to be disease pathogens, poor physical condition or common household pesticides, nor were the fish killed by high temperatures, low oxygen or ammonia in the water.
Mounting evidence connected coho mortality in streams to locations with the greatest roadway runoff, suggesting that the toxic chemical or chemicals may be coming from motor vehicles.
...
"Although many chemicals go into manufacturing tires, the newly discovered chemical, called 6-PPD-quinone, is not one of them. It is, in fact, a chemical produced when ground-level ozone reacts with a chemical in tires called 6-PPD. That’s the compound put into tires to prevent ozone damage to the rubber."
https://eu.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2...
An excellent and well-written detective story.
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At 3 centimetres long when fully grown — the size of a matchstick — the tiny fish did not stand much of a chance against the aggressive, invasive gambusia, or mosquito fish.
But a never-before-trialled conservation and breeding program has given the red-finned blue-eye a fighting chance at survival.
For the first time, captive-bred populations of the fish have been released into wild springs."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-1...
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https://phys.org/news/2021-03-long-ac...
"Tetsuto Miyashita, Ph.D., formerly a Chicago Fellow at the University of Chicago and now a paleontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature. "Lampreys have a preposterous life cycle," he said. "Once hatched, the larvae bury themselves in the riverbed and filter feed before eventually metamorphosing into blood-sucking adults. They're so different from adults that scientists originally thought they were a totally different group of fish.
"Modern lamprey larvae have been used as a model of the ancestral condition that gave rise to the vertebrate lineages," Miyashita continued. "They seemed primitive enough, comparable to wormy invertebrates, and their qualities matched the preferred narrative of vertebrate ancestry. But we didn't have evidence that such a rudimentary form goes all the way back to the beginning of vertebrate evolution."
Newly discovered fossils in Illinois, South Africa and Montana are changing the story. Connecting the dots between dozens of specimens, the research team realized that different stages of the ancient lamprey lifecycle had been preserved, allowing paleontologists to track their growth from hatchling to adult. "
More information: Non-ammocoete larvae of Palaeozoic stem lampreys, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03305-9 , dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03305-9
Journal information: Nature
Provided by University of Chicago Medical Center
And an earlier lamprey story from 2014.
https://phys.org/news/2014-10-earlies...
More information: www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.141...
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Provided by University of Kansas
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The released sturgeon, with a total weight of 13,130 kg, include both young and adults. Fishery authorities have tagged them to track their migration and monitor their activities. Sixteen sturgeon that are close to sexual maturity are carrying satellite-tracking receivers."
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/20210...
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Hot on the heels of the release of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) recent sturgeon market survey, which detailed the systemic poaching of critically-endangered sturgeon along the Lower Danube, Romania has indefinitely extended its five-year temporary ban the fishing and sale of all six wild sturgeon species and wild sturgeon products."
https://emerging-europe.com/news/roma...
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https://www.rte.ie/news/munster/2021/...
"The Office of Public Works are to carry out emergency works to aid salmon, eel, lamprey and other species to migrate up the River Bandon in West Cork.
As part of a flood relief scheme the OPW installed a large 'rock-ramp' fish pass in the Bandon River in 2018, measuring some 130m.
The rock ramp was designed to mitigate the impact on fish passage at the existing salmon weir, which arose from the deepening of the channel downstream of the weir.
The pass was designed by international experts, with input from national experts in the then Department of Environment, Community and Local Government (DECLH), along with Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI).
However concerns have been expressed locally over the past few months about the salmons’ ability to swim upstream.
...
The proposed solution will comprise of large boulders placed in a line across the width of the fish pass - close to the ‘step’ at the upstream end of the pass - to create a pool from which the fish can pass with greater ease.
The use of natural boulders is preferred, but if suitably sized boulders cannot be sourced, the use of large concrete blocks will be considered."
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Here is just one news item, a fishing dispute about Irish waters.
"State solicitor John Brosnan said charges were being brought under Sections 8 and 10 of the Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act, 2006.
The charges include unlawful fishing and being on board a vessel, which had unlawfully entered the waters of the State.
He said a bond of €200,000 should be paid by the owners to release the vessel as there was valuable gear and a significant catch of hake on board.
Solicitor for the defence Dermot Conway, said that due to Covid-19, however, the value of the hake on board had significantly devalued in the Spanish economy because of the collapse of the restaurant industry and the catch may only be worth around €7,000 in Spain."
https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2021...
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The researchers found that their oldest specimen was 84 years old. They also report that coelacanths live life extremely slowly in other ways, reaching maturity around the age of 55 and gestating their offspring for five years.
"Our most important finding is that the coelacanth's age was underestimated by a factor of five," says Kélig Mahé of IFREMER Channel and North Sea Fisheries Research Unit in Boulogne-sur-mer, France. "Our new age estimation allowed us to re-appraise the coelacanth's body growth, which happens to be one of the slowest among marine fish of similar size, as well as other life-history traits, showing that the coelacanth's life history is actually one of the slowest of all fish.""
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-coelaca...
Also read this on Gizmodo.
https://gizmodo.com/ghostly-deep-sea-...
And the full report on Current Biology.
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/...
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"Authorities in Minnesota have instructed residents and goldfish owners to stop dumping goldfish into the state's waterways after abnormally large goldfish were found in a local lake.
The city of Burnsville tweeted photographs of the huge goldfish with the caption, "Please don't release your pet goldfish into ponds and lakes!"
Groups of large goldfish, which can grow to be the size of a football, were found in local waters. The City of Burnsville said that when the fish grow bigger they "contribute to poor water quality by mucking up the bottom sediments and uprooting plants."
The act of releasing unwanted fish is called "illegal fish stocking," and it's happening all over Minnesota, disrupting the balance of the natural ecosystems and fish communities, according to NPR.
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"This is not the first time the state has dealt with this issue. In November, officials removed around 50,000 goldfish from local waters. Paul Moline, Carver County's water management manager, said goldfish are an "understudied species" with "a high potential to negatively impact the water quality of lakes," according to The Guardian.
An adaptable fish of the carp family, goldfish can survive low levels of oxygen and easily reproduce, according to The Guardian."
https://www.ecowatch.com/huge-goldfis...
They do easily reproduce, but if kept in a garden pond, the adults tend to eat juveniles, so I imagine in a large water system the juveniles can escape notice.
The Guardian adds:
"Ecological destruction wrought by released aquarium pets is not new. Carnivorous lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific but believed to have been released by Florida pet owners after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, have killed off dozens of Caribbean species, allowing seaweed to overtake the reefs.
Goldfish have received less attention than other invasive species, including Asian carp and zebra mussels, but warnings have been issued in Virginia and Washington state as well as Australia and Canada.
In 2013, Scientific American reported that researchers trawling Lake Tahoe netted a goldfish that was nearly 1.5ft long and weighed 4.2lb. The author of a report on California’s aquarium trade said: “Globally, the aquarium trade has contributed a third of the world’s worst aquatic and invasive species.”"
https://www.theguardian.com/environme...
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Many fiction books with goldfish in the title, but these look like caring for your pet books. No promises.
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"The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources says the fish are acclimatised to the water temperatures and pH levels of each lake before they are loaded into the aircraft, and the water tanks on board are pumped with oxygen to keep the fish healthy.
Each flight can transport up to 35,000 two-inch fish, a quantity which can be dispensed into a suitable lake in a matter of seconds, according to Wade Wilson, a Wildlife Resources biologist who accompanies the pilots on the piscine delivery runs.
The authorities claim a very high success rate for the method, maintaining that the fishes' small size means they tend to flutter and fall more slowly, and that the survival rate for fish dropped in this way is around 95%.
Although video footage and public appreciation of fish-bombing missions is a new phenomenon, the flights themselves have been running in the early summer over the state since 1956, while more conventional forms of restocking have been utilised for even longer.
Prior to the use of aircraft, fish were carried to remote locations in metal milk cans carried by horses. Even today, fish are transported to small lakes and streams in adapted backpacks by dedicated wildlife workers on foot, on horses, on motorbikes and on four-wheelers in a practice known as extreme fish stocking."
There's a YouTube.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/1...
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By heli.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ppg2...
"Every year, DEC releases approximately 900,000 pounds of fish into more than 1,200 public streams, rivers, lakes and ponds across the state. These fish are stocked for two main purposes-- to enhance recreational fishing and to restore native species to waters they formerly occupied. Locations that are too remote or lack vehicle access are stocked from the air, by plane or helicopter."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eftkn...
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https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2021...
"Inland Fisheries Ireland is investigating the origin of newly-arrived pike in Aughrusbeg Lough near Claddaghduff in north Conamara.
The presence of the pike in the lake was found during a fish stock survey by the State agency - the first time this has happened in Aughrusbeg Lough.
Several years ago, pike was introduced into the upper sections of the Owenriff catchment in Oughterard, which caused the virtual collapse of salmon fishing in the area.
Chairman of Clifden Trout Anglers Martin Conroy is extremely disappointed with the discovery and said it could be devastating to resident fish populations.
New introductions are also potentially a carrier of fish disease and parasites."
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"A marine biologist has reported that the blue shark that first appeared thrashing in the shallows of Benidorm’s Poniente beach earlier this month was later killed by a swordfish.
Other similar attacks have been documented by Valencia’s Oceanográfic institute – in all of them the stabs followed the same pattern."
https://www.costa-news.com/costa-blan...
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https://phys.org/news/2021-08-bowfin-...
"The bowfin is a bony fish endemic to eastern North America and is the sole surviving member of a once large lineage of many species that are now known only from fossils. Scientists have long been fascinated with the bowfin because it bears a combination of ancestral features, such as lung-like air breathing and a robust fin skeleton, and derived features like simplified scales and a reduced tail.
The bowfin also occupies a key position in the fish family tree, where it sits between the teleosts, a large and diverse group that arose recently, and more ancient branches that include sturgeons, paddlefish, and bichirs.
Due to this special position in the fish family tree, the bowfin can help scientists understand how aspects of modern fishes evolved from their ancient antecedents. By examining the bowfin genome, scientists can investigate the genetic basis of the unique set of old and new features of the bowfin.
They can also use this genomic information as a framework to better understand the origin of the teleosts, which have duplicated and extensively modified their genomes since separating from the bowfin lineage and emerging as the dominant lineage in most aquatic habitats."
More information: The bowfin genome illuminates the developmental evolution of ray-finned fishes, Nature Genetics (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-021-00914-y , www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00...
Journal information: Nature Genetics
Provided by Harvard University
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""There are up to 4,000 fish per square meter and sometimes hundreds of thousands of fish participate in a single fish wave. Fish can repeat these waves for up to two minutes, with one wave approximately every three to four seconds."
When you're in the vicinity of these unusual fish, found in sulphuric springs that are toxic to most fish, this behavior is hard to miss. That's because the mollies do the same thing in response to a person nearby.
"At first we didn't quite understand what the fish were actually doing," said David Bierbach, co-first author along with Carolina Doran and Juliane Lukas, also at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries and Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence. "Once we realized that these are waves, we were wondering what their function might be.""
https://phys.org/news/2021-12-fish-hu...
More information: Jens Krause, Fish Waves as Emergent Collective Antipredator Behaviour, Current Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.11.068. www.cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(21)01654-7
Journal information: Current Biology
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"There once was a small fish called "tequila splitfin" or "zoogoneticus tequila" that swam in a river in western Mexico, but disappeared in the 1990s. Scientists and residents, however, have achieved the return of a species extinct in nature—but conserved in captivity—to its native habitat.
...
"more than two decades ago in Teuchitlán, a town near the Tequila volcano. A half-dozen students, among them Omar Domínguez, began to worry about the little fish that fit in the palm of a hand and had only ever been seen in the Teuchitlán river. It had vanished from local waters, apparently due to pollution, human activities and the introduction of non-native species.
Domínguez, now a 47-year-old researcher at the University of Michoacán, says that then only the elderly remembered the fish called "gallito" or "little rooster" because of its orange tail.
In 1998, conservationists from the Chester Zoo in England and other European institutions arrived to help set up a laboratory for conserving Mexican fish. They brought several pairs of tequila splitfin fish from the aquariums of collectors, Domínguez said.
The fish began reproducing in aquariums and within a few years Domínguez and his colleagues gambled on reintroducing them to the Teuchitlán river. "They told us it was impossible, (that) when we returned them they were going to die."
So they looked for options. They built an artificial pond for a semi-captivity stage and in 2012 they put 40 pairs there.
Two years later, there were some 10,000 fish.
..
"The goal was to re-establish the fragile equilibrium. For that part, the key was not so much the scientists as the local residents.
"When I started the environmental education program I thought they were going to turn a deaf ear to us ... and at first that happened," Domínguez said.
But the conservationists succeeded with patience and years of puppet shows, games and explanations about the ecological and health value of "zoogoneticus tequila"—the fish help control mosquitos that spread dengue."
https://phys.org/news/2022-01-mexican...
A happy and healthy story which will demonstrate good practice to other reintroduction campaigns.
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There are worse things than seals on the ocean these days.
https://phys.org/news/2022-01-icefish...
"The majority of the nests they uncovered were occupied by a single adult fish guarding more than 1,700 eggs. They also observed numerous deceased fish carcasses within and near the nesting colony, suggesting that the fish play an important role in the larger food web. While more study is needed, they suspect the colony is utilized heavily by predators such as Weddell seals.
"A great many Weddell seals spend much of their time in close proximity to the fish nests," Purser says. "We know this from historical tracking data and fresh tracking data from our cruise. The nests are exactly where the warmer water is upwelling. These facts may be coincidence, and more work is needed, but the recorded seal data show seals do indeed dive to the depths of the fish nests, so may well be dining on these fish."
The findings reveal a globally unique ecosystem, according to the researchers. They also provide support for the establishment of a regional Marine Protected Area in the Southern Ocean under the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources umbrella."
More information: Autun Purser, A vast icefish breeding colony discovered in the Antarctic, Current Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.12.022. www.cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(21)01698-5
Journal information: Current Biology
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Pike are providing Ireland with sustainable tourism. Pike must be caught, measured, photographed and released.
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"On this stretch of the Amazon River, you don’t need a fish finder to locate the pirarucu, one of the world’s largest freshwater fish. The splashing gives them away.
Like the saltwater tarpon, the pirarucu is an air-breathing fish that must rise to the surface every 15 minutes or so to gulp oxygen. That makes it easier to locate and catch pirarucu — also known as arapaima or paiche — that can grow to be 10 feet long, weigh up to 450 pounds and are prized for their meat.
Their constant surfacing also makes it easier for poachers. In fact, widespread illegal fishing caused the pirarucu to nearly disappear from some parts of the Amazon. But thanks to sustainable fishing programs that combine education with strict rules and quotas, it’s now making a comeback.
“The pirarucu population has recovered,” says Ana Claudia Torres, who runs the sustainable fishing program for the Mamirauá Institute, which manages a vast nature reserve covering 4,300 square miles of jungle in northern Brazil."
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"Ciara Baines, a marine biologist at the University of Tartu, studied the links between pollution and cancer in aquatic species. At least 300 species of fish are known so far to have cancer, she said, explaing that fish usually develop tumors on their epidermis, gills and liver.
However, she went on to say, the majority of scientifically described fish species have not been examined from this perspective. Even less is known about the relationship between cancer and environmental pollution. "Only about 30 species have been linked to an increase in cancer due to pollution. So there are still significant gaps in our understanding," she said.
...
"Baines comparative study of two species living in the bottom of the Baltic and North seas, flounder and dab, allowed to predict which fish species have the strongest and which have the weakest genetic defenses against cancer.
Although it is important to investigating the effects of chemicals in the lab, she said, it will never replicate what could be observed in the wild, in the natural habitat of the species. "Fish are never exposed only to a single toxin. Hundreds, if not thousands, of hazardous chemicals are floating around in their environment and this is exacerbated by additional factors, such as differences in salinity, temperature and the risk of falling prey to predators, all of which ultimately influence natural selection," Baines went on to explain.
Check out the thesis in the University of Tartu digital collection. Baines was supervised by Tuul Sepp and Lauri Saks from the University of Tartu and Mathieu Giraudeau from the University of La Rochelle. The supervisor was Joachim Sturve from the University of Gothenburg."
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"A few years ago while on a fishing trip in the Florida Keys, biologist Lori Schweikert came face to face with an unusual quick-change act. She reeled in a pointy-snouted reef fish called a hogfish and threw it onboard. But later when she went to put it in a cooler she noticed something odd: its skin had taken on the same color and pattern as the deck of the boat.
A common fish in the western Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina to Brazil, the hogfish is known for its color-changing skin. The species can morph from white to mottled to reddish-brown in a matter of milliseconds to blend in with corals, sand or rocks.
Still, Schweikert was surprised because this hogfish had continued its camouflage even though it was no longer alive. Which got her wondering: can hogfish detect light using only their skin, independently of their eyes and brain?
"That opened up this whole field for me," Schweikert said.
In the years that followed, Schweikert started researching the physiology of "skin vision" as a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University and Florida International University."
More information: Lorian Schweikert, Dynamic light filtering over dermal opsin as a sensory feedback system in fish color change, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40166-4. www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-40...
Journal information: Nature Communications
Provided by Duke University
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"The Sea Life aquarium in Bray, Co Wicklow, is to close in December after more than 25 years.
A statement on the Sea Life website said it was a "difficult decision" and their priority now would be finding suitable homes for the animals and helping staff with career opportunities.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, marine biologist and Social Democrats TD for Wicklow Jennifer Whitmore said the closure was "sad and shocking" and that the aquarium was "so important" for education and tourism.
Ms Whitmore said 20 staff are affected.
"It was somewhere everyone would bring their children to learn and experience the love of nature and marine," she said."
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"A recent study has found some of the oldest animals in the world living in a place you wouldn't expect: fishes in the Arizona desert. Researchers have found the second genus of animal ever for which three or more species have known lifespans greater than 100 years, which could open the doors to aging studies across disciplines, such as gerontology and senescence (aging) among vertebrates.
The study centers around a series of fish species within the Ictiobus genus, known as buffalofishes. Minnesota has native populations of each of the three species studied: bigmouth buffalo, smallmouth buffalo and black buffalo. The importance of this research is underscored by the fact that these fishes are often misidentified and lumped in with invasive species, like carp, and the fishing regulations in many places, including Minnesota, do not properly protect these species, and what could become a wealth of information about longevity and aging."
More information: Alec R. Lackmann et al, Centenarian lifespans of three freshwater fish species in Arizona reveal the exceptional longevity of the buffalofishes (Ictiobus), Scientific Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-44328-8
Journal information: Scientific Reports
Provided by University of Minnesota
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"Last month, on October 18th, 2023, despite difficult conditions during times of war, WWF-Ukraine organized a sturgeon restocking by releasing 2,500 sterlet and Russian sturgeon juveniles into the Solomoniv channel of the Danube River within the Danube Biosphere Reserve.
The sturgeons weighed about 150-300g and were from two very different species: the smaller one, the sterlet, only lives in freshwater and will remain in the Delta region throughout its entire life. Its bigger relatives from the so-called “Russian sturgeon” soon after their release swim toward the Black Sea. There they spend five to six years until they reach an adult stage and are ready to migrate back to the Danube to spawn. Sturgeon recovery is a long-term effort and the released fish will face many threats in their young lives. WWF Ukraine, thus, works with fishermen to increase their chances for survival. Eventually a few of them will come back and contribute to a stronger wild sturgeon population by laying eggs in the Danube River.
"Sturgeons are the most valuable fish of the Lower Danube. They are an important part of river and marine ecosystems, though still the most threatened group of species in the world. WWF-Ukraine systematically works to restore sturgeon populations. We have come a long way to be able to proceed with sturgeon restocking this year. This event is especially valuable for us as one of the measures to preserve Ukrainian natural heritage", — Оksana Konovalenko, Freshwater lead of WWF-Ukraine.
The released sturgeons were bred in the Odessa Sturgeon Complex. As in modern aquaculture a lot of different species and hybrids are used, the DNA of the fish was carefully analyzed in specialized laboratories in Germany before the release to confirm that they are from Danube origin. All little sturgeons were tagged which will allow scientists to identify them again, when they are caught for monitoring in the Danube and Black Sea waters. Such monitoring provides valuable data for future conservation efforts. "
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"Scientists have collected 25 extremely rare red handfish from the ocean off Australia, hoping to protect the struggling species from warming seas, human-caused habitat changes and ravenous urchins.
Only about 100 red handfish—which have the appearance of a crimson and brown goldfish with stubby arms and webbed hands—are left in the wild, living in a small section of reef off southeast Tasmania."
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-photos-...
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"A stingray named Charlotte, who lives without a mate in a small aquarium in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, is pregnant.
The founder of Team ECCO, Brenda J. Ramer, said there is a very small possibility that Charlotte was impregnated by a bamboo shark that shares her tank, but said it is much more likely that parthenogenesis occurred.
Parthenogenesis is a rare process of asexual reproduction that happens in some animals when an embryo is developed within an unfertilized egg."
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https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2024...
"A dead Pacu fish, native to the Amazon in South America, has been found in Lough Garadice near the Cavan-Leitrim Border.
Inland Fisheries Ireland said it is examining the 2kg Pacu after its discovery by angler Steve Clinch at the weekend.
Barry Fox, Head of Operations with IFI told RTÉ's News at One that protecting Irish waters from invasive or non-native species is ongoing.
Mr Fox said that a research team from Inland Fisheries Ireland are examining the fish, using analysis to confirm that it is a Pacu fish.
He explained that the fish is a vegetarian, and consumes plants, nuts and aquatic growth using its large mouth."
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"The sturgeon has historically inhabited large rivers and coastal areas in Sweden but disappeared long ago due to overfishing. Now a project in partnership with Gothenburg University and SLU aims to reintroduce the endangered species into Gothenburg's river, Göta Älv. Similar projects have proven successful in Germany and other Baltic countries. ”And finally it's Sweden's turn” says project manager Linnéa Jägrud."
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https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/science/...
"Since the 1990s, various gobies species have been spreading worldwide as invasive fish species. They have been detected in the Rhine near Basel since 2011. These fish are considered to be particularly predatory. They eat many small animals, which leads the native fish to have a reduced food supply. These species also eat juvenile fish and spawn of native species, further reducing the native fish numbers. In the Rhine River, gobies are now more common than any other fish species.
Observations from other countries have caused Swiss experts to sound the alarm. The rapid spread could threaten rare species such as Thymallus, or graylings, and chondrostoma nasus, common nase, in Swiss rivers and lakes and is therefore an ecological threat. But it is also about whitefish species, which are economically important for fishing.
The gobies must therefore be stopped demands the Aargau cantonal government. It has decided that the fish ladder, a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers to facilitate a fishes’ natural migration, at the strategically important Klingnau power plant will be taken out of operation for the time being."
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Photos of a dead hoodwinker sunfish washed ashore.
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-rare-fo...
Here is the story of the discovery of the split.
https://phys.org/news/2017-07-giant-s...
""A Japanese research group first found genetic evidence of an unknown sunfish species in Australian waters 10 years ago, but the fish kept eluding the scientific community because we didn't know what it looked like," Ms Nyegaard said.
"Finding these fish and storing specimens for studies is a logistical nightmare due to their elusive nature and enormous size, so sunfish research is difficult at the best of times. Early on, when I was asked if I would be bringing my own crane to receive a specimen, I knew I was in for a challenging – but awesome – adventure."
Over a three-year period she collected data from 27 specimens of the new species, at times travelling thousands of miles or relying on the kindness of strangers to take samples of sunfish found stranded on remote beaches."
More information: Marianne Nyegaard et al. Hiding in broad daylight: molecular and morphological data reveal a new ocean sunfish species (Tetraodontiformes: Molidae) that has eluded recognition, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (2017).
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...
Journal information: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
Provided by Murdoch University
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"Although closely related to piranhas, it is better known as a "pacu"—the common name usually used for the piranha's vegetarian relatives.
The study, published in the journal Neotropical Ichthyology on Monday, sought to shed light on Amazonian piranhas and their relatives, which are renowned for being difficult to tell apart as they change appearance throughout their lifetime.
Rupert Collins, lead author and senior curator in charge of fish at the London museum, helped to describe the species.
"As soon as my colleagues suggested the name for this fish, we knew it was perfect for it," he said.
"It looks just like the Eye of Sauron, especially with the red fins and orange patches on its body."
Myloplus sauron are found only in the Xingu River Basin, a Brazilian tributary of the Amazon containing more than 600 fish species, including over 70 found nowhere else in the world.
As many as 42 percent of the fish found in the Amazon River are thought to remain unknown to science."
More information: Valéria N. Machado et al, Integrative taxonomy of the black-barred disk pacus (Characiformes: Serrasalmidae), including the redescription of Myloplus schomburgkii and the description of two new species, Neotropical Ichthyology (2024).
https://www.scielo.br/j/ni/a/fFG9HTqK...
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"Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said Tuesday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species.
Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 Thai provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae.
The fish, native to West Africa, were first discovered in Thailand's rivers in 2010 before spreading rapidly in 2018, and are now also found in the US state of Florida and in the Philippines.
In July, the Thai government declared the eradication of the species a national priority and began encouraging people to consume the fish.
Authorities have released predator species to hunt down the tilapia and are also developing genetically modified blackchin tilapia to produce sterile offspring.
A UN science panel warned last year that the tilapia are spreading faster than ever, wrecking crops, distributing disease and upending ecosystems.
More than 37,000 alien species have taken hold far from their places of origin, costing upwards of $400 billion a year in damages and lost income, the UN panel said."
© 2024 AFP
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"There are two instances in the New Testament that describe Jesus turning just a few fish into a multitude—one in the book of Luke, the other in the book of John. The events have been described as miracles by Christians for nearly 2,000 years. In this new effort, the research team sought to find out if there might have been another explanation for the sudden rise in the numbers of fish described in such accounts.
The work involved sending temperature sensors and oxygen level measuring devices down into the lake; they also tested wind speed and direction and noted modern historical accounts of fish die-offs. They found short periods of time when winds across the surface of the lake were strong enough to pull oxygen from its depths, leaving little to none for aquatic life.
The result was a sudden die-off, which, to a person on shore or in a boat, looked like a mass number of fish slowly rising to the surface of the lake, allowing them to be easily caught—as was the case in accounts from the Bible."
More information: Yael Amitai et al, Seiche‐Induced Fish Kills in the Sea of Galilee—A Possible Explanation for Biblical Miracles?, Water Resources Research (2024).
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.c...
Journal information: Water Resources Research
Fish die offs would be a good explanation for the sudden appearance of a lot of fish ready to get.
Mod
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"The apron (Zingel asper) is a brown-beige, slender-bodied fish in the perch family, known in the Swiss canton of Jura as the Roi du Doubs (King of the Doubs). Because of habitat destruction and pollution, the species is critically endangered in Switzerland and endangered in France.
Both the Swiss and French governments have been trying to save the fish for some time. In 2016, the Swiss federal and cantonal governments adopted plans to restore the ecosystems connected to the Doubs.
Switzerland adopted these measures after conservationists filed what became known as the “Apron complaint” under the Bern Convention, a binding international treaty aimed at saving European species from extinction.
But the help may have come too late. In 2012, researchers spotted 52 aprons in the River Doubs, the highest number in 15 years. But their numbers continued to dwindle and the last sighting was in 2023. Swiss public television, RTS, filmed a night-time search in the summer of that year.
The last remaining apron, a female found in Switzerland in 2023, was briefly in the Aquatis aquarium in the Swiss city of Lausanne, where it bred with French aprons before being transferred to the Citadel Aquarium in Besançon, France. The resulting offspring are now at Aquatis and Basel Zoo.
Could they survive if they were reintroduced into the Doubs? Aline Chapuis from the ‘Doubs Vivant’ nature protection group has her doubts. “We won’t know until we try,” she says.
The Swiss female fish will now be part of French efforts to breed Zingel asper in captivity and release them into the wild.
The fate of the apron is a sign of the collapse of biodiversity in an area of exceptional natural beauty. Only 14 of Switzerland's 71 species of fish are not considered threatened."
Mod
"New research has revealed that about 90% of marine aquarium fish sold by online retailers in the United States are sourced directly from wild populations, mostly in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean. With the US accounting for around two-thirds of all global aquarium fish imports, researchers warn that this reliance on wild capture threatens the sustainability of coral reef ecosystems and puts endangered and threatened species at greater risk of extinction.
The research, led by postdoctoral research associate Dr. Bing Lin from the University of Sydney's Thriving Oceans Research Hub in the School of Geosciences, analyzed data from four major US-based online aquarium retailers. The results were striking: Of 734 fish species available for sale, a staggering 655 species were sourced solely from the wild, while just 21 species were available exclusively through aquaculture.
The researchers believe the true proportion of wild-caught fish is almost certainly higher, given the study's conservative methodology."
More information: Bing Lin et al, Extent of threats to marine fish from the online aquarium trade in the United States, Conservation Biology (2025).
https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.co...
Journal information: Conservation Biology
Provided by University of Sydney
Green Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Corruption and Clownfish (other topics)Fancy Goldfish: Complete Guide To Care And Collecting (other topics)
Aquarium Care of Goldfish (other topics)
Shibuya Goldfish, Vol. 1 (other topics)
Goldfish Breeding and Genetics (other topics)
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"Garza's team began by sequencing the complete genomes of 160 Chinook salmon from the Klamath River and Sacramento River drainages. The only consistent differences they found between spring-run and fall-run fish occurred within a single region on chromosome 28. Within that region, they identified a shorter "Region of Strongest Association" (RoSA) that occurs in two versions, "E" for early migration and "L" for late migration.
RoSA includes parts of two genes and the stretch of DNA between them. The E and L versions differ in multiple places, making them "haplotypes," the term for a set of DNA variations that are inherited together. Salmon, like all vertebrates, inherit two sets of chromosomes, one from each parent, so their RoSA "genotype" can be either EE, LL, or EL.
Armed with genetic markers for the E and L haplotypes, the researchers sampled 502 Chinook salmon harvested by the Yurok Tribe in the Klamath River Estuary. For fish with the "homozygous" EE and LL genotypes, there was no overlap in the timing of migration, when the fish leave the ocean to swim up the Klamath and spawn. EE fish migrate early (spring run), and LL fish migrate later (fall run)."
...
"Spring-run salmon enter freshwater early in the year, where they encounter different environmental conditions, notably warmer water, which likely accelerates their maturation. The fish spend the summer in cool, deep pools near their spawning habitat before spawning in the fall.
"Spring-run and fall-run fish all start maturing at the same time in the ocean, but during that period after the spring run enters freshwater, they experience different environmental conditions, leading to differences in where and when they spawn," Garza said. "Also, people notice differences in fat content and body condition because they are encountering spring-run fish earlier in the maturation process than fall-run fish.""
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-spring-...
More information: N.F. Thompson el al., "A complex phenotype in salmon controlled by a simple change in migratory timing," Science (2020). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.aba9059
"Should I stay or should I go?" science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.abe9169
Journal information: Science
Provided by University of California - Santa Cruz