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Category Archives: Science
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Anthropogenic Shade Effect on Coral Reefs
A recent study conducted by Exeter University suggests that coral reefs are encountering another change in their environment from human induced surface water aerosols. As a product of human advancement “particulate pollutions” are cited in this recent study for contributing to the decline in coral reef health all around the world. In historic times volcanic eruptions caused most if not all the atmospheric particulate pollution but scientists are now turning to carbon emissions of the human race as the number one contributor of particulate pollution on reef surface waters. Lead author Lester Kwiatkowski, a PhD student from Mathematics at the University of Exeter, states: “Coral reefs are the most diverse of all ocean ecosystems with up to 25% of ocean species depending on them for food and shelter. They are believed to be vulnerable to climate change and ocean acidification, but ours is the first study to show a clear link between coral growth and the concentration of particulate pollution in the atmosphere.” 
As hobbyists we strive to eliminate surface water particulates with things like “skimmer boxes” that rinse the surface of our water through tumbling actions created when the water passes through perforated teeth and gets pulled into a down pipe. Natural reefs are not equipped with such a device so surface particulates are accumulating much quicker, and sticking around much longer, with the industrial growth of the human race. Professor Peter Mumby of the University of Queensland applies a global perspective: “Our study suggests that coral ecosystems are likely to be sensitive to not only the future global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration but also the regional aerosol emissions associated with industrialisation and decarbonisation.” Read the entire study here!… More:
Posted in Conservation, Corals, Fish, Industry, Invertebrates, Science, Uncategorized
Tagged coral growth, kwiatkowski, mumby, natural reefs, particulates
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Spectacular Footage of Corals Under Confocal Microscope
This video may have already been making the rounds for the past couple of months, but it’s certainly worth mentioning here considering its focus. Put together by the University of Hawaii and the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, the clip features up close footage of a popular aquarium specimen, the Pocillopora damincornis coral. As the video progresses, we get to dive deeper into the coral’s tissues, starting on the surface with some amazing fluorescing coral tissue and moving into individual polyps for a look at their internal structures and symbionts. Wrapping up the up close look at Pocillopora, we actually get a great view of its messentarial tissue expelling symbiont algae and even live coral larvae moving about on their hunt for an appropriate settlement area. Following the Pocillopora, the video gives us a microscopic look at other coral species, including Leptastrea, a couple Porites species, and Fungia. And no coral video would be complete without touching on the danger they face in the wild, most notably bleaching. The video avoids mentioning the often politically divisive topics like global warming and ocean acidification, instead keeping the message much simpler by stating that we need to have a better understanding of corals and their endosymbiotes, and how those two react/interact with their environment. MORE: Spectacular Footage of Corals Under Confocal Microscope … More:
Posted in Corals, Science, Uncategorized
Tagged aquarium livestock, aquarium videos, confocal microscopy, corals, pocillopora damicornis, science
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Preliminary Review of Miguel Tolosa’s Practical Coral Farming 2nd Ed.
Recently, our mailbox greeted us with a pleasant surprise in the form of a new book, the 2nd edition of Practical Coral Farming by Miguel Tolosa. Admittedly, we haven’t read the book from cover to cover since we’ve only had it a couple of days, hence the reason why this is just a preliminary review, but in our limited hands on time, we’ve enjoyed both the flow of the text and the information it contains. As expected, the 141-page soft cover book is loaded down with info about corals and fragging techniques, but to our surprise it also has plenty of insider information that sort of lays out how many of the gears move within the industry. As with just about any coral centric book, Practical Coral Farming was full of images, most of which were taken by the author, which isn’t always the case in books these days. There were images from others in the aquarium trade, including several from Marc Levenson that focused on coral pests. But what we were blown away by was the quality of those images. There were plenty of times where we just stopped to look at the pictures, often bypassing much of the text as we excitedly flipped the pages. MORE: Preliminary Review of Miguel Tolosa’s Practical Coral Farming 2nd Ed.… More:
Posted in Corals, Equipment, Industry, Opinion, Science, Uncategorized
Tagged aquarium trade, blown away, Fragging, lays, pests
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Scientists have confirmed the discovery of the first-ever, two-headed bull shark.
The study, led by Michigan State University and appearing in the Journal of Fish Biology, confirmed the specimen, found in the Gulf of Mexico April 7, 2011, was a single shark with two heads, rather than conjoined twins.… More:
Julian Sprung’s NOAA / ESA Commentary
11:59 PM EST April 5th, 2013 has passed and Regulations.gov appears to still be accepting public commentary, so you have another 11 hours or so to say your piece online. [Update, comment period has now closed, you can Two Little Fishies, and a member of the CORAL Sr. Advisory Board, shares his opinions on why failing to speak up isn’t an option. MORE: Julian Sprung’s NOAA/ESA Commentary… More:
Posted in Conservation, Corals, Fish, Industry, Opinion, Science, Uncategorized
Tagged endangered corals, julian, king, NOAA, Opinion, policy, science, sprung
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Dont Feed the Fish
In an attempt to limit the impacts of tourism many countries are offering “interactive ecotourism” trips where travelers have the opportunity to visit relatively undisturbed parts of the world and physically interact with wildlife. This concept is supposed to be a small scale alternative to large level tourism but the impacts of bringing people to fragile areas of the world is causing some unintended biological changes in Stingray that frequent shallow warm waters of the Cayman Islands. Stingray “City” or Stingray “Sandbar” is one of the largest tropical attractions yet the practice of feeding these animals to keep them close for human interaction has drastically altered their natural behaviors. 
The practice of providing supplemental feedings to the Dasyatis americana, a southern stingray, has affected their movement patterns and spatial distributions throughout the Western Atlantic waters. Researchers at Nova Southeastern University’s Guy Harvey Research Institute in Hollywood, Fla., and the University of Rhode Island studied the specimens found in the Stingray City/Sandbar and found their activities were the exact opposite of stingray studied elsewhere throughout the Caymans: “Tag-recapture data indicated that a population of at least 164 stingrays, over 80% female, utilized the small area at SCS for prolonged periods of time. Examination of comparative movements of mature female stingrays at SCS and control sites revealed strong differences between the two groups: The fed animals demonstrated a notable inversion of diel activity, being constantly active during the day with little movement at night compared to the nocturnally active wild stingrays.” Read the entire study here!… More:
Shark Nets in Cape Town
Extent of planned exclusion net. The City of Cape Town, South Africa, has been issued a permit, approved by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department, to install nets at Fish Hoek beach for a trial period lasting until January 2014. They will be deployed in the morning before sunrise and taken out of the sea at sunset. It has been stated that these nets are physically quite different to the nets that have been used in KwaZulu-Natal, which were designed to trap and kill sharks. They apparently have a far smaller mesh and are designed to be a barrier rather than to capture or entangle the animals. In considering the use of the exclusion nets… More:
Posted in Conservation, Science
Tagged city of cape town, confines, fisheries department, management act, public consultation
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Naval Jellyfish Coming to an Ocean Near You
In a $5 million dollar muilti-university project Virginia Tech University unveiled a life-sized robotic jellyfish late last month. Funded by the U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare and The Office of Naval Research the project was developed to explore ocean environments as well possible surveillance activities and other Naval operations. Dubbed “Cyro” (a derivative of cynea and robot) the 5 foot 7 inch 170 pound prototype of cyanea capillatta better known as the Lions Mane jellyfish, is completely autonomous and fully robotic. Modeled after the smaller “Robojelly” released early in 2012 Cyro is constructed of a rigid metal frame and a silicon body allowing it to mimic the natural movements of jellyfish. Alex Villanueva of St-Jacques, New-Brunswick, Canada, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering working under Priya on the subject: “A larger vehicle will allow for more payload, longer duration and longer range of operation, biological and engineering results show that larger vehicles have a lower cost of transport, which is a metric used to determine how much energy is spent for traveling.” Years away from testing in open ocean waters Cyro “showed its ability to swim autonomously while maintaining a similar physical appearance and kinematics as the natural species,” Priya said, adding “the operation in shallow water conditions is already a big step towards demonstrating the use of these creatures.” Read more here!… More:
Tiny plants devour reefs in warming, acidic oceans
A world-first scientific study has found that the world’s coral reefs are being weakened by microscopic borers and will erode more rapidly as the oceans warm and acidify.… More:
Posted in Conservation, Corals, Science
Tagged coral reef, livelihoods, reef organisms, reef studies, sponges
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Mapping fish brains: an activity map of the zebrafish noggin
A new technique enables researchers to visualise the activity of nearly every cell in the larval zebrafish brain… More:
Posted in Fish, Science
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Warm blood for Parrotfish?
Marine fishes are largely regarded as ectotherms, incapable of regulating their own temperature and rely on behaviour to regulate their body temperature or simply exist at the ambient temperature.… More:
Posted in Fish, Science
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A Rare Catch in Red
A fishermen dragging nets through Irish waters pulled in a rare find of the family Scorpaenidae recently. Scorpaena scrofa is one of the larger species of Eastern Atlantic scorpion fish and usually found in warmer waters like the Mediterranean, but the specimen found recently was caught in the cooler British waters of County Waterford. 
After placing the fish in the boats livewell Peter Lynch, the boats captain, contacted the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority where inspector Declan MacGabhann declared the fish a rare find. A poisonous species the Scorpaena scrofa is a predatory fish from the same family as the Lion fish and their range is extending as SFPA inpsector Declan MacGabhann states: “The seas around Ireland are getting warmer, and we are seeing an increased number of what we would classify as rare fish turning up in fishermen’s nets.” The fish will go o display at the Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium in the neighboring County Kerry, where it will join other interesting and rare taxa. Read more here!… More:
Posted in Conservation, Fish, Industry, Photography, Science, Uncategorized
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