The tripod fish is an amazing fish. Enormously elongated pectoral fins
allow the tripod fish to stand on the sea floor. The tripod fish stand on the bottom of the ocean and face into the current and wait for passing prey. The tripod fish is also a hermaphrodite. Take a look:
Vast Flotilla of Jellyfish Attack Beachgoers in Spain
The Guardianreports that jellyfish have attacked hundreds of beachgoers in Spain. The jellyfish are being described as a "vast flotilla of small, virtually undetectable jellyfish." Over 700 people have been stung by the jellyfish on Spain's beaches since Sundy. Some scientists are warning mass jellyfish attacks could become increasingly common because of climate change and overfishing. Overfishing reduces the number of tuna and swordfish, which are natural predators of jellyfish. Take a look:
Dead Jellyfish Stings Over 100 People at New Hampshire Beach
The Boston Globereports that a large, dead jellyfish stung 100 to 150 people at a New Hampshire beach. The jellyfish broke apart offshore and its tentacles spread out in the water stinging many people. The jellyfish was reportedly a Lion's mane jellyfish, which is one of the largest sized jellyfish. Take a look:
Maurizio Porfiri, an Assistant Professor of Engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, believes a robotic fish may one day help lure schools fish out of danger areas like those created by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Porfiri says the most difficult part of building the robotic fish has been determining what makes a fish a leader.
Porfiri says, "If you take a propeller and you put it into the water it may swim as fast as the fish, but the fish may not like it. If you can make something that can swim like a fish, then the fish may perceive it as a mate, even if it looks different."
You can read more about Porfiri's research here. Take a look:
Photo: Dr. Maurizio Porfiri and his Robot Fish/ Polytechnic Institute of New York University
Newly Discovered Pancake Batfish Lives in Gulf Oil Spill Region
A newly discovered species of batfish, Halieutichthys intermedius, lives in the waters completely encompassed by the Gulf oil spill. New research published in the Journal of Fish Biology describes two new species of pancake batfishes (Halieutichthys intermedius (pictured above) and H. bispinosus) and re-describes another (H. aculeatus), all of which live in waters either partially or fully encompassed by the recent oil spill. The researechers say H. intermedius does not have a known population outside of the Gulf of Mexico.
"One of the fishes that we describe is completely restricted to the oil spill area," says John Sparks, curator of Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History. "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. These discoveries underscore the potential loss of undocumented biodiversity that a disaster of this scale may portend."
Pancake batfishes are members of the anglerfish family Ogcocephalidae, a group of about 70 species of flat bottom-dwellers that often live in deep, perpetually dark waters. Pancake batfishes have enormous heads and mouths that can thrust forward. They are also able to cryptically blend in with their surroundings, which gives them an advantage for capturing prey. The pancake batfish "walk" using their stout, arm-like fins. They are said to resemble a walking bat when they move.
Researchers at the Department of Marine Ecology at the University of Gothenburg have been following the invasion of the American comb jellyfish, Mnemiopsis, for several years. They have discovered that the jellyfish contains larvae from a sea anemone that lives on it as a parasite. Researchers believe this parasite causes skin rashes on sea bathers in the United States.
The sea anemone, which the Gothenburg researchers believe to have identified through DNA analysis as Edwardsiella, is common in the comb jellyfish's natural environment in the West Atlantic, but has not previously been found in Swedish waters or anywhere else that the comb jellyfish has spread to. The sea anemone's larvae live as parasites on the jellyfish. The parasites cause skin irritation in humans when they come into contact with human skin. The researchers believe these parasites may become problematic for Swedish sea bathers too.
"The American variety of the sea anemone causes a skin complaint known as sea bather's eruption, which doesn't generally require treatment, but takes the form of quite a nasty rash that lasts for a few days," says researcher Erik Selander. "But the anemone we have found is confusingly similar to a Swedish anemone called Edwardsiella carnea, and we won't know which of the two species it is, or whether there actually are two species involved, until we have carried out further genetic analysis. If it is the American Edwardsiella that has come here, we could see isolated cases of sea bather's eruption here in Sweden too as we move towards autumn."
This video from CreatureCast.org shows a Siphonophore. Technically, it is a colony of Siphonophora. The Jellies Zone says some siphonophores can form chains over 100 feet long. CreatureCast explains that the jellyfish like creature seen below is actually a colony of organisms.
What looks like one long body in this video is actually a free-swimming colony of clones — many genetically identical bodies that are all attached. But each body in the group isn't just like its neighbor. They each do a specific job for the colony. Some individuals will swim, some will catch food, and some will reproduce.
You can see a couple other interesting videos of Siphonophores here and here.
Robotic Fish to Monitor Pollution in Spanish Harbor
CBS News reports that a school of battery-powered robotic fish will monitor pollution in the Spanish harbor of Gijon. The robotic fish contain special sensors to help them avoid rocks, ships and other objects so they won't need to be remotely monitored or remote controlled.
The robotic fish will patrol the harbor of Gijon, in northern Spain under a $3.6 million grant from the European Union. Hu said Gijon was chosen because port authorities there had expressed an interest in the technology.
The plan might seem "like something straight out of science fiction," said Rory Doyle, a researcher working on the project, but he explained that there was a very simple reason for choosing fishlike machines to monitor the harbor's environmental health.
"The design of fish which nature has produced is a very energy-efficient one," Doyle said. "The fish's efficiency is created by hundreds of millions of years' of evolution. Submarines come nowhere near it."
Information gathered from the robo-fish would be transmitted to the port's control center using a wireless Internet signal when the devices surfaced. The data gathered would be used to create a three-dimensional pollution map of the harbor's area.
Here's a video (no sound) that shows the robotic fish in action. (via Daily Mail, Ecofriend.org)
Histiophryne psychedelica is new species of fish that appears to bounce on the ocean floor like a rubber ball. Live Science says the carnivorous frogfish has eyes like ours as well as a fleshy chin and cheeks. More articles about the fish can be found at The Guardian, Science Daily, USA Today and Seattle Times.
Below is a video of a crab hitching a ride of a jellyfish. The iReport entry says the video was shot 30 miles southwest of Sanibel Island in the Gulf of Mexico. (via Twang of the Voice and Boing Boing)
Scientists Worried About Lionfish Population Explosion
You have probably heard of the jellyfish invasion but scientists are also concerned about a population explosion in the number of lionfish. Lionfish are venomous and they are considered a danger to people, coral reefs and commercial fisheries. They are considered a pest as they eat smaller fish. Practical Fishkeeping has an article about the growth of the Lionfish off of New York here. Science Daily has an article about how the lionfish are a major threat to coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean. The video below about the lionfish population explosion is from the Associated Press.
Jellyfish Population Booming and Frustrating Beachgoers
There seem to reports of jellyfish problems around the Globe. There may be giant Jellyfish in the Sea of Japan but smaller ones are causing a problem even in the U.S. Beaches in the Northeast have been suffering from a jellyfish invasion. CBS News reports that thousands of competitors in the recent New York City triathlon were stung by jellyfish in the Hudson Bay.
"We were here a few weeks ago and there were a lot of jellyfish. We didn't even go in the water. It was horrible," one teen told CBS News correspondent Susan Koeppen.
And with thousands being stung by jellyfish this summer, lifeguards at Long Beach are armed with spray bottles filled with alcohol and water to take away the pain, says Koeppen.
"We didn't get these a lot years ago," says Chief Lifeguard Paul Gillespie, "but now they're, we're getting, the frequency of them a lot more. ... We've had some of them that were just (so) tremendous that we have to come and pick off the beach."
It's not just beaches seeing a problem, Koeppen points out. "During the recent New York City triathlon, thousands of competitors were stung by jellyfish in the Hudson River.
Here's a video from CBS that blames things like global warming, pollution and over-fishing on the global jellyfish problem.
This National Geographic video shows a massive school of jellyfish. These jellyfish are 95% water, brainless and have been around for 65 million years.
This puffer fish in a river delta in Tanzania, Africa manages to avoid being made into a snack by a river otter. The puffer fish inflates itself into a beach ball sized version of itself. The otter eventually gives up and swims off - a good thing for the otter because the puffer fish has a poisonous gall bladder.
The Mola Mola Can Gain Over 60 Million Times Its Birthweight
This Mola Mola or Ocean Sunfish is one of the largest and stangest animals found in the sea. The Mola Mola is the world's largest bony fish. As the National Geographic video below describes it - the Mola Mola looks like a "massive swimming head." The Mola Mola can weigh up to 4,000 pounds. It can gain over sixty million times its birthweight. For more on this strange fish check out the listings on Fishbase.org, OceanLight.com and Wikipedia. The Ocean Sunfish website also has lots of facts, photos and news.
