With the coming of spring in the northern hemisphere also comes a time to hunt for eggs. But it’s not just about birds anymore. The folks over at the Shark Trust also want people to head to the beach to look out for the fecundity of fish.
Colloquially known as mermaid’s purses, eggcases are the protective capsules laid by skates and some rays**. Inside is a tiny baby skate and a big yolk sac. Typically the capsules have odd keels and horns to help them remain tangled in seaweed and camouflaged on the bottom. The young develop for several months before hatching out as miniature adults. But after hatching, the horny cases begin to breakdown and may come loose, washing up on the shore. Storms might also dislodge living ones from the bottom. If you find a lot of eggcases in an area, it may indicate that a skate nursery is located nearby. This kind of information is valuable to conservationist who are trying to protect these species.
Why does the Shark Trust want you to record eggcases? In recent decades several species of skate and ray around the…coast have dramatically declined in numbers…The identification of these critical areas will enable the Shark Trust to propose conservation measures, in order to reverse the decline of these charismatic animals.
So now’s your chance to contribute to skate and ray conservation and have a lot of fun at the same time.
They have a lot of resources for citizen scientists and for educators who want to organize a local eggcase hunt. And if you don’t live near the coast, you can still take some time this spring to create your own giant eggcases (PDF link) out of balloons and papier-mâché. Or better yet, make some chocolate ones that you can send to me!
Continuing with my aquatic version of things vernal, there is news that rabbitfish might be helping to save the Great Barrier Reef. Many herbivorous reef fish species like parrotfish and tangs regularly graze on the fast-growing algae of the reefs. But apparently they only like to eat it when it’s young and not too weedy. This is where the rabbitfish comes in.
“Then, to our even greater surprise a fish we had never seen in this area before was observed grazing on the weed. The rabbitfish (Siganus canaliculatus), came out of nowhere and began to clear-fell the weed placed on the reef crest.”
The rabbitfish were caught on underwater videocams, in schools of up to 15 fish, grazing the crest, slopes and outer flats of the reef, and chomping away at more than ten times the rate of other weed-eaters.
I first came across Australian cartoonist Phil Watson back in late 2006. I reckon his work is on par with the likes of Toomey. Now it looks like he has since teamed up with the Mall of America and their Underwater Adventures Aquarium in Bloomington, MN. This must be a good thing because he is turning from one-off one-panels to full blown animated shorts. Some of them are quite topically amusing, managing to poke fun at Paris Hilton, Damien Hirst, Steve Jobs and the like. But here’s one of my favorites, since it also features a cephalopod:
The Pacific Science Center has a variation on a popular numbers game.
Do you Sudoku? Well, here’s a twist we think you’ll love. We call it PacSci-Doku…Instead of filling in the blanks with numbers, use letters. Hidden in one of the columns or rows is the answer to a science question. The question in this edition is:
What ancient sea reptile lived during the age of the dinosaurs in what is now Europe?
To find the answer, complete this PacSci-Doku using the following nine letters:
A O U S D L R P C
This might be a fun supplement for educators following along when National Geographic premieres its new giant screen film Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure on October 5th.
Stunning photo-realistic computer-generated animated transports audiences back to the Late Cretaceous, when a great inland sea divided North America in two. The film follows a curious and adventurous dolichorhynchops – familiarly known as a ‘dolly’ – as she travels through the most dangerous oceans in history. Along the way, she encounters long-necked plesiosaurs, giant turtles, enormous fish, fierce sharks, and the most dangerous sea monster of all, the mosasaur.
The way that taxonomy normally works, the person that describes a new species also gets to give it a new name. This bit of binomial classification is often a staid affair, although sometimes it can get a little silly. However, some researchers have cottoned on to the idea of selling off the privilege of naming rights to raise funds for more research. And this scheme recently gained a little more chic with the addition of Chrisite’s as the auctioneer and the patronage of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco.
The Blue Auction is an historical event offering individuals, companies and organizations the opportunity to bid for the privilege of having their name (or a name of their choice) forever attributed to new marine life species recently discovered off the coasts of the Bird’s Head Seascape in Indonesia by Conservation International.
A total of 12 lots shall be auctioned by Christie’s, and the proceeds will benefit marine conservation programs associated with the long-term preservation of such species as well as other environment and biodiversity-related programs. Participation to the gala event is for qualified bidders and by invitation only. Donations from interested parties and unsuccesful bidders are welcome.
To see the habitat that these funds will be used to protect, check out the interactive photo essay over at National Geo.
So how much would you pay to name a new species? Which of these organisms do you think will get the highest bid? I reckon the shark will be the most sought after. And what about this whole notion about selling off naming rights? Is nothing sacred? Or is the whole notion of binomial classification fundamentally flawed anyway?
When the first four-legged animals sprouted fingers and toes, they took an ancient genetic recipe and simply extended the cooking time, say University of Florida scientists writing in the journal PLoS ONE.
Even sharks — which have existed for more than half a billion years— have the recipe for fingers in their genetic cookbook — not to eat them, but to grow them.
We had a shark bite in Sarasota Bay recently. A hapless New College student went night swimming and got nibbled on by a (suspected) bull shark. She is expected to recover after receiving several dozen stitches. If you care to see the damage, she has posed for inspection.
Remarkably, it is only the seventh reported unprovoked1 shark bite in Sarasota County since 1882. These statistics are literally kept on file at the International Shark Attack File. They advise not being in the water during darkness or twilight hours when sharks are most active and have a competitive sensory advantage. Indeed. My buddy SB and I didn’t follow that advice in our undergrad days either. We took a couple turns snorkeling along Lido at sunset. But the severed head of a stargazer and a disemboweled cownose ray were pretty good clues we weren’t alone.
Of course, I kind of like the notion put forth by NBA star Gilbert Arenas. He recently opined that there are no such things as shark attacks:
There are these things called shark attacks, but there is no such thing as a shark attack. I have never seen a real shark attack. I know you’re making a weird face as you’re reading this. OK people, a shark attack is not what we see on TV and what people portray it as. We’re humans. We live on land. Sharks live in water. So if you’re swimming in the water and a shark bites you, that’s called trespassing. That is called trespassing. That is not a shark attack.
A shark attack is if you’re chilling at home, sitting on your couch, and a shark comes in and bites you; now that’s a shark attack. Now, if you’re chilling in the water, that is called invasion of space. So I have never heard of a shark attack. When I see on the news where it’s like, “There have been 10 shark attacks,” I’m like, “Hey, for real?! They’re just running around? Sharks are walking now, huh! We live on the land, we don’t live underwater.”
Perhaps the co-ed would have been less attractive had she slathered on some Shark Defense. This is a new sun tan lotion that purports to also repel sharks. Testing for the product took place at the Bimini Biological Field Station. This is also the location where a classic Mythbusters segment was filmed, one dealing with the notion that sharks can smell one single drop of blood in a thousand drops of water. It’s a shame Discovery hasn’t cottoned on to the idea of letting users embed their video into posts, a la Comedy Central. But you can follow the links below to see how Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman used condoms and syringes to bust this myth.
Unprovoked attacks are defined as “incidents where an attack on a live human by a shark occurs in its natural habitat without human provocation of the shark.”
Reports of an unusual “albino” sand tiger shark (aka, grey nurse, Carcharias taurus) are coming in from Austalia. Pictures and videos available by following the links.
This rare albino grey nurse has been spotted at Australian’s best known diving and fishing spot Fish Rock.
The photo of the 2.2m male was taken by Fish Rock Dive Centre owner Jon Cragg 2km off South West Rocks.
Mr Cragg was speechless when the amazing creature swam past him.
“I saw the big white shadow in the water with two other sharks then when I saw it I couldn’t believe it, it was like a ghost coming out of the darkness,” Mr Cragg said.
“No one has ever seen one like this before - it was pretty exciting.”
How can we support Discovery Channel when we are fighting for shark conservation, and its biggest obstacle is the monster image given to sharks by the media, including Shark Week programs? Further, some of us who have been directly involved in the production of your documentaries feel disgusted at the way that our interviews were censored and our words twisted around.
ATLANTA (AP) - Norton, 1 of the original whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium, died early today, the aquarium’s second whale shark death in five months.
Aquarium officials said in a statement that in the last few months, Norton had stopped eating and showed erratic swimming behavior. The Georgia Aquarium hosts the only whale sharks on display outside of Asia.
Husbandry staff noticed a decline in Norton’s swimming behavior yesterday and blood work confirmed a decline in his health.
Norton had been placed on a 24-hour watch. Officials said early this morning, the whale shark stopped swimming and settled to the bottom of his tank.
At about 60 feet long, Megalodon was the largest shark that ever lived. The dominant marine predator vanished 2 million years ago, but its story inspires lessons for ocean conservation today.
Visitors enter a full-size sculpture of Megalodon through massive jaws. Once inside, they will discover this shark’s history and the world it inhabited.
The exhibit opens June 16 and runs through January 6, 2008.
Another captive whale shark has died suddenly, this one in Japan.
The cause of the death of the 5.4-meter-long female whale shark, named Yu-chan, is unknown, according to officials. The fish is believed to be 12 to 13 years old.
Today is the 85th birthday of Dr. Eugenie Clark. Better know as the Shark Lady, Genie is also the founder of Mote Marine Laboratory. The local paper has a retrospective of her career.
The “Shark Lady” has been diving into waters around the world and making landmark contributions to marine science for some 50 years.
But whether she was discovering a hermaphrodite belted sandfish near New Pass, riding on the backs of whale sharks in Mexico or teaching the emperor of Japan to snorkel off the coast of Miami, Clark has always returned to a small waterfront laboratory in Sarasota.
It is where a young mother with a doctorate in zoology and no idea how to hunt a shark got her start. Clark is now permanently back at Mote Marine Laboratory, which will host an 85th birthday party for its director emerita and senior scientist this evening.
Another aquatic special from PBS, this one on sharks:
Sharkland
Airs Sunday, May 06, 2007
In a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Southern Africa, a unique pattern of warm and cold currents brings together an astounding variety of sharks. Nearly 150 species of all colors, shapes and sizes gather there - including pajama sharks, leopard cat sharks, seven-gill cow sharks and the great white.
In 1975, a gigantic great white shark began to terrorize the world. But Hollywood has nothing to compare with the waters off the tip of southern Africa, one of the sharkiest coasts on Earth. Roughly 140 different shark species of all shapes, sizes and dispositions hunt here, brought together by a pattern of warm and cold ocean currents unlike anywhere else on the planet. NATURE swims with leopard cats and coppers, the speedy mako, the great white and many others when Sharkland premieres Sunday, May 6 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham narrates.
The Radula blog reports that students at John Adams Middle School vandalized some of the fish tanks during a recent fieldtrip to the Albuquerque Aquarium.
There is damage to two separate tanks, which had been gouged and “tagged”. The massive shark tank may be repairable but the tank holding the moon jellies will have to be replaced at a cost of over $30,000. The biopark has banned the school (an APS school) from all future biopark venues.
If you would like to donate to help repair the aquariums, contact the office of the BioPark Director at 505-764-6211 for details.
Cephalopodcast.com - The Ocean Podcast: Featuring science education and information about our oceans. Produced in south Florida, it includes news and ideas for marine educators and those who wish to learn more about our water world.
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