Friday Fishy News - October 20

[Flattieman]

Jumping fish signal Hawaii's earthquake

Dana Thiede

Kare 11 News - Hawaii

16 October

It's said that earthquakes strike without warning, but that may not be the case on Hawaii's Big Island.

Minutes before the 6.7 magnitude quake rumbled through Kailua-Kona, a local television reporter noticed fish leaping into the air from the ocean. "The fish started to jump out of the water in a lagoon, like jump out of the water like a jolt," said Erik von Ancken. "Obviously, they sensed it before we did and then everything started shaking."

The report does not surprise Tony Davi, curator at the Mall of America's Underwater World. "Fish have sensitive mechanisms in their body to sense pressure, that's a defensive thing they use to tell when predators are coming, or when prey is nearby to catch it," Davi said. "I think the animals are sensing this long before we realize it happened, simply because they have organs that can do that."

Some members of the scientific community believe animals can sense natural events, either with superior hearing ability, or by sensing changes in barometric pressure.

Others say a change in the electric field that comes with an earthquake can throw an animal off. "During the tsunami a couple of years ago, there were reports of animals running for higher ground beforehand, and I would say again, it's probably the same thing. You hear the dogs start howling before the earthquake, I think they sense some of the minor changes in the earth's crust, based on seismic waves, that we don't really notice," said Davi.

While some remain skeptic, Underwater World visitor Eric Rodine is not among them. "The animals know before the humans know, because their instincts still work for them," he explained. "When we're up in Northern Arizona, on a horse farm up there, the horses know and turn their backs to the storm when it's coming, so animals have those instincts. They still use them."

Big fish bouncing back

By Curtis Morgan

Miami Herald

16 October

The goliath grouper, the largest beast on the reefs, has rebounded. But the question is whether it's ready to be back on the dinner plate.

The goliath grouper, nearly gone from Florida waters two decades ago, is back in a way befitting a fish that commonly grows larger than a refrigerator.

Finned hulks routinely frustrate anglers off the southwest coast, gulping would-be catches and busting tackle. They lurk on reefs and wrecks off the Keys, where dive captain Spencer Slate sees them regularly enough to nickname one 250-pounder ``Bruiser.''

''He's a huge fish and just a delight for divers,'' said Slate. ``They are absolutely the most docile creatures in the world.''

Docile, aside from the occasional bump, bite or freakish fatal encounter with humans that show goliaths aren't the super-sized puppy dogs with scales they often seem. They're the biggest beasts on the reef, short of the largest of passing sharks, and freight-train strong when they decide to kick tail.

Last month, a diver off Key West speared one of modest size and drowned when the powerful fish bolted under a coral head, entangling him in a trailing line.

SPECIES RECOVERING

The goliath grouper has now rebounded to the point that federal fishery managers in the Gulf of Mexico are, for the first time in 16 years, considering at least partially lifting a ban against killing them. If approved, a small but undetermined number of anglers might get to keep their goliath catches under a program to provide samples for scientists.

A decision is a year or more away. But a growing number of fishing groups and guides, who have clamored for years to relax restrictions, believe there are plenty of fish to support dropping the ban now.

Some even argue there are too many in some areas. The biggest brutes, which can top a quarter-ton, are particularly thick on wrecks and other hot spots in the Gulf, where many anglers blame them for vacuuming up lobster, fish and everything else.

''An awful lot of people out there believe things are out of balance,'' said Karl Wickstrom, editor-in-chief of Florida Sportsman magazine, which put the goliath on its cover this month. ``You create problems when you get too many of one species.''

Wickstrom isn't advocating an unregulated season, but what he called a ''conservative'' phase-in -- a six-month window when recreational anglers could keep one fish per boat.

Under state and federal restrictions imposed in 1990, anglers must release any goliaths they catch. Spearing them or selling their meat is illegal.

No one disputes the biggest member of the grouper family has rebounded. In March, the National Marine Fisheries Service dropped goliaths as a ``species of concern, a list of stocks at risk of overfishing.

But scientists aren't ready to pronounce goliaths recovered enough to catch and filet.

There is much uncertainity about them and not so much data, said Nancy Thompson, director of the Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Miami, which is overseeing a goliath study for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Council.

Still, she agreed, the rise merits at least a look at tweaking the fish's protected status.

''We're being very cautious about it but, yes, we're willing to talk about it,'' Thompson said. 'It's not everybody going out willy-nilly taking a fish and saying, `Here's an otolith (an ear bone used to assess age).' It will have to be controlled.''

One question is whether the rebound extends further up the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, where goliaths were once common.

''It's very difficult to draw conclusions based on seeing a lot of animals in the Keys and Southwest Florida,'' Thompson said. ``It's like looking at a small part of a snapshot and making a conclusion about what the whole picture is.''

EASY CATCH

Then there are the characteristics that got goliath, known as jewfish until the objectionable name was changed in 2001, in deep trouble in the 1980s.

Goliaths move slowly, readily approach humans and will eat just about anything in front of them. Despite their bulk and power, that behavior made them easy targets for seafood trade and trophy hunters.

''I would just like to point out to anyone who is really gung-ho to reopen this fishery that the reason they're off limits is because they're so susceptible to overfishing,'' said Libby Fetherston, with the Ocean Conservancy.

Chris Koenig, a marine ecologist with Florida State University working on the stock assessment, said concerns about goliaths gobbling everything around them are unfounded.

While grouper will certainly make a meal of a struggling fish at the end of an angler's line, no different than sharks and barracuda, Koenig said their main diet is actually unappealing.

''They eat fish that other fish can't or won't eat,'' he said.

The goliath, armed with small teeth but a cavernous mouth, is designed to consume the sea's slow-movers -- stingrays, catfish, blowfish and other prey that depend on weapons, not speed, to survive.

''When they swallow something, they swallow it alive and whole,'' he said. ``Whatever they eat dies in their stomach.''

Koenig also cautioned that the rebound of the last two decades may slow as mangroves, an essential nursery for the fish, continue to disappear outside the protected Everglades and 10,000 Islands.

''If it wasn't for that mangrove habitat, we would never have seen this kind of recovery,'' he said.

Many argue the big brown fish should just be left alone.

Divers have found goliaths, one of the largest sea creatures most people would want to get close to, only add to the underwater attractions.

''My personal feeling is they should let them all go. I'm not anti-fisherman by any means, but I enjoy diving with them,'' said Slate, who owns Cap'n Slate's Atlantis Dive Center in Key Largo. ``That goliath grouper is worth millions down there swimming around.''

Very coy carp - fish are found hiding in pond

Chris Wickham

Richmond & Twickenham Times - UK

19 October

A Barnes woman who thought she had nearly £3,000 worth of Koi carp stolen from her pond last week discovered that the fish had just been trying to keep warm at the bottom of the pond.

The woman, from Lonsdale Road, arrived home after a short break on October 4, and could not find any the 14 Koi Carp, which are worth £2,800, in the pond.

She saw that a bucket was left next to the pond, which belonged to the maintenance company who attend to it.

Two days later the woman saw that some fish had appeared in the pond.

She subsequently noticed that all 14 Koi carp were still present. They had been hiding at the bottom of the pond because they were cold.

Weird News: Fish story quickly turns fishy

The Associated Press

Kansas City Star

17 October

KENNEWICK, Wash. — Austin Kenyon insisted his smallmouth bass was one for the state record books. The state, however, wasn’t hooked.

In fact, it ruled that the bass was packed with lead weights.

Two of Kenyon’s friends signed statements saying the fish had been tampered with when it was weighed on a state-certified scale.

“Our determination is that the fish had been stuffed with lead weights at the time it was inspected,” said Keith Underwood of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Kenyon, 22, of Kennewick, claimed the fish he caught Labor Day weekend was legitimate. He said it weighed 9.32 pounds on a state-certified scale.

Ray Wonacott of Ellensburg holds the record with an 8.75-pound smallmouth bass caught in 1966.

About a half-dozen state officials were involved in a monthlong investigation into Kenyon’s bass.

The fish was caught Sept. 2, weighed Sept. 5 and inspected by state officials Sept. 6. By the time the state wanted a closer look, Kenyon had already taken it to be mounted.

State officials and anglers began questioning the would-be record, saying common formulas used to calculate fish weight didn’t support Kenyon’s claim.

Eels re-introduced in Ontario to rid invasive fish

Canadian Press

October 13

TORONTO — The American eel is being restored in Ontario waters as a new weapon in the battle against invasive fish species.

About 50,000 young eels were released from commercial fishing boats into the St. Lawrence River near the Thousand Islands in eastern Ontario on Thursday.

Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay says American eels are an important part of the biodiversity of the Great Lakes ecosystem.

They are predators that consume other species, including the non-native, invasive goby.

Stocking the eel in the St. Lawrence River is the first step in a multi-year plan to restore the American eel to greater numbers in Lake Ontario.

The American eel was once abundant in Ontario waters, but in 2004, the Ontario government banned commercial eel fishing in Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence River and ended the sport fishing of eels across Ontario.

The most common cause of fish losses is old age

Bury St Edmunds Today - UK

16 October

Coarse anglers often fail to understand that just because a water once held extra large fish of a particular species, it does not mean that it always will.

Big fish are inevitably old fish and, like all forms of life, old means approaching death.

Surprisingly, it seems not to occur to some anglers that often the death rate from natural causes is the largest single reason for the depletion in fish stocks.

It is easy to blame cormorants, pike, zander, otters, mink and pollution for fish losses and, of course, they take their share but advancing old age is normally the most common cause of fish losses.

A fisheries scientist once told me that there was probably an annual death rate from all causes of about 40 per cent in most fisheries and this subject dominated the line of conversation the other evening in the Mucky Duck.

Quite how we got on to it I am not too sure but I believe it came about from the eager anticipation of their coming 'season' by a couple of avid pikers who were putting together the final touches of preparation for their series of pike matches.

Anglers are great ones for reminiscences and on that occasion we 'ordinary' fishermen had to put up with the pikers' tales of huge predators in a local river in years gone by.

Now, they boasted, there were 'only' fish of 25 to 30lb and even they were not as common as they used to be.

It sounded to me to be a clear case of terminal old age. I mean, let's face it, pike have a relatively short life span of about 15 years and, unless there is annually a good year, it sometimes happens that there are no large fish coming along to replace the ones that die off.

Small lakes are typical examples of a sudden lack of larger pike that seem to be replaced by hordes of small jacks.

When this happens, it often takes several years for the missing larger specimens to 're-appear' but really the apparent resurrection has been brought about by a new batch growing on.

On the subject of pike, there is one assertion that always puzzles me.

Pikers maintain that if larger specimens are removed from a water, it will cause an explosion of jacks because the big fish that would otherwise eat them have gone.

Okay, I can see some logic in that. What I cannot understand, however, is why those in pursuit of pike using a bait always seem to use a sea fish or a roach, rudd, chub or trout etc. But hardly ever a jack pike.

Why not if they are supposed to be such a tasty dish for another, larger pike?

After many years spent in the countryside observing nature's quaint little ways, I still come across goings-on that stump me.

Lately, it has been the bird life. I know that every species has its own funny quirks but some seem to be at such variance with the others.

At a small lake that I visit regularly, I always derive much pleasure from watching the kingfishers. Last week was no exception but the difference was that five of these birds were chasing each other all round the lake.

It was an antic new to me but I have come to the conclusion that the reason for the behaviour must have been territorial.

Either new birds were trying to muscle in on the lake or else parents were making it known to offspring that they were no longer welcome at the family home.

Another thing that seemed odd was that a pair of pigeons was working like crazy carrying twigs to build a nest. At this time of year?

I have heard that doves breed for most of the year but I did not know – if it does – that that applied to wood pigeons too.

Perhaps there is something weird about this lake because I have seen moorhens halfway up trees, a bat circling throughout the day and snakes swimming across the water well into autumn.

Maybe I should take a bit more water with it!

One Study Calls Fish a Lifesaver, Another Is More Cautious

By Marion Burros

New York Times

18 October

A REPORT about the risks and benefits of eating seafood, released yesterday by the Harvard School of Public Health, said consumption of fish reduces the risk of coronary death by 36 percent and total mortality by 17 percent.

A similar report released simultaneously by the the Institute of Medicine, part of the the National Academy of Sciences, was not as optimistic, concluding that there is only enough evidence to say that consumption of fish, especially fatty fish like salmon and mackerel, “may” reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The Harvard study, to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association today, said the benefits of eating fish high in omega-3’s strongly outweighs risks from contaminants like PCB’s and dioxin found in high concentrations in fish like farmed salmon. Calling those risks “greatly exaggerated,” Dr. Darius Mozaffarian, one of the two authors, said, “Seafood is likely the single most important food one can consume for good health.”

Dr. Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, who described the “very sunny Harvard study” as “astonishing,” remains unconvinced. “The report’s conclusion that the risk of death can be reduced by 36 percent is just stunning,” she said. “It would indeed make eating fish the single most important decision you can make for your health. But those of us who have been in nutrition for a long time have seen miracle foods come and go: vitamin E for heart disease, beta carotene to prevent cancer; now it’s fish.”

Dr. José M. Ordovas, a member of the institute’s panel and a professor of nutrition at Tufts, agrees with Dr. Nestle and said the 36 percent figure “is based on circumstantial evidence that does not provide definite proof.”

Dr. Mozaffarian agreed that, because the evidence is based on observational studies and clinical trial data, it is not definitive, but he added, “It’s the best evidence we have.” As for the study’s finding that total mortality could be cut by 17 percent, he said, “While one can argue over the precise size of benefits, even if the benefit is only one-half or one-quarter as large, it still greatly outweighs the risk.”

The report from the Institute of Medicine tells the government that much more research is needed. Dr. Malden C. Nesheim, chairman of the institute’s committee and a provost emeritus at Cornell, said, “We are quite cautious because the studies we looked at are not controlled for all the variables, and we can’t distinguish between the effects from omega-3’s or replacement of other foods in the diet.”

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration had requested the institute’s report because it said consumers were confused about how much and what kind of fish they should eat. The two studies, which conflict in important aspects, seem unlikely to provide much clarity. “The high degree of certainty in one report and the extreme caution in the other,” said Rebecca Goldberg, a senior scientist with Environmental Defense, an advocacy group, “will make people more confused than ever.”

To the surprise of Institute of Medicine officials, NOAA sponsored the hastily called press conference at which the Harvard report was released, even though that study conflicted with the one prepared by the institute. “We’re just trying to make consumers feel good,” said William T. Hogarth, assistant administrator for fisheries of the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of NOAA.

Both reports have come under criticism from environmental groups and from the Consumers Union. “In addition to being concerned about the failure of the JAMA and I.O.M. reports to address the risks of mercury in tuna,” said the consumer organization, “we are also concerned that both reports dismiss concerns about PCB’s in most fish.”

“These reports are urging Americans to eat more seafood as if it were a crisis,” Dr. Goldberg said. “According to NOAA’s own statistics, per capita consumption of seafood has risen from 14.8 pounds in 2001 to 16.6 pounds in 2004.”

Jane Houlihan, the research director of the Environmental Working Group, another advocacy group, said, “The Harvard study reads like an advertisement for the seafood industry.”

Both studies reinforce advice from the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency in 2004, to eat about six ounces of fish a week, preferably high in omega-3’s, with a caveat for women of childbearing age and children under 12 not to eat swordfish, shark, tile fish or king mackerel and to limit their intake of albacore (white meat) tuna to six ounces a week to avoid mercury. For those who eat more fish, both reports advise eating a variety of species to reduce the level of contaminants.

“Once again pregnant women are being told it’s O.K. to eat tuna,” Ms. Houlihan said. “The reality is, 90 percent of women would exceed government’s level for a safe dose of mercury if they ate six ounces of albacore tuna every week as the F.D.A., E.P.A and now I.O.M. recommend.”

Dr. Nestle finds the situation so confusing “no rational person can possibly figure out how to make sense of it,” she said. “Fortunately, Environmental Defense and Monterey Bay Aquarium, who specialize in both health and environmental fish issues, provide advisory cards for choosing fish, and no one can manage this without one.”

Biologists track fish with antennae

By Keith Eldridge

Komo 1000 News Radio

14 October

PIERCE COUNTY - Fish biologists armed with radio antennae were out tracking trout on Friday. They are on the White River in King and Pierce Counties trying to help out the Bull Trout -- a species that is on the Threatened List.

A century ago this river and all of the Northwest rivers were teeming with bull trout. Now you rarely spot one. But if you do, you might see one with a radio transmitter attached.

"This is a good fish, this is an easy fish," Puyallup Tribe fish biologist Eric Marks said while holding a radio receiving out the window of a moving truck. "You can just do it from the truck like this."

It is an easy fish to track, but not an easy one to see. Their numbers are few, so few that the Bull Trout has been placed on the Threatened List to be protected from extinction.

Biologists from the Puyallup Tribe are listening for a telltale radio chirping sound. It's coming from a tiny transmitter implanted in ten of the Bull Trout early in the summer.

"Yeah, this is a strong signal," Marks said while listening to the signal from one of the fish. "He's upstream."

Since the Bull Trout are so few in numbers and since the water is so murky this time of year, this is the only way to track them.

The biologists are up tracking the trout a few times a week. They are watching to see where they go to spawn, where they stay and for how long.

What they're hoping to do with all of the research they're gathering with this is to help the Bull Trout come back from near extinction.

"It's very depressing and it's good that we're here now to get some more baseline information and see what we can do to revitalize the population someday possibly," said biologist Andrew Berger.

Marks is enthusiastic about the work they get to do. "It's fantastic," he said. " I've got one of the best offices in the world and what we're doing is good for the fish."

Radio telemetry is used quite often to keep track of the migration and life cycles of all kinds of wildlife, but this is only the second year they've used this high technology to try to figure out how to bring back the Bull Trout in large numbers to the White River and all the rivers in the Northwest.

A Few Stories from MallacootaPete:

Stingray stings man in boat

Jano Gibson - SMH

19 October

An 81-year-old man is in a critical condition after a bizarre attack by a stingray, which leapt out of the water into a boat and stung him in the chest.

Its poisonous stinger - nearly four centimetres long - lodged close to his heart in an incident similar to the one that killed the Australian TV naturalist Steve Irwin last month.

Fire Department officials at Lighthouse Point, about 50 kilometres north of Miami in the US, said James Bertakis was in a small recreational boat with two grandchildren yesterday when the spotted eagle ray leapt aboard and struck him.

"It's just a real freak thing," said Lieutenant Mike Sullivan, saying the incident occurred on Florida's Intercoastal Waterway, where stingrays are rarely seen leaping in the air.

Mr Bertakis was undergoing surgery at a local hospital to have the stinger removed from his chest.

A spokeswoman at the hospital said: "His condition is critical. He's in surgery.''

Crocodile Hunter Irwin, 44, died when a stingray's barb punctured his heart off Australia's north coast last month.

It is one of only a handful of stingray fatalities on record.

A Lighthouse Point fire spokesman, Acting Chief David Donzella, told the Miami Herald the stingray was at least one metre wide.

"This certainly doesn't happen very often," he said. "It's very odd that the thing jumped out of the water and stung him on the boat."

He said when medical crews reached Mr Bertakis, the barb was still in his chest and he was in severe pain because of the toxins in the barb.

He was taken to a local medical centre with a collapsed lung and a closed chest wound, the paper said.

"He's in pretty bad shape right now," Mr Donzella said.

The stingray was being kept in a garbage bag at the fire station.

Fish fossil fills evolutionary gap

Deborah Smith, Science Editor - SMH

19 October

THE first creature to crawl from the water onto dry land could have been Australian.

An extremely well-preserved 380 million-year-old fossil of a fish with fins strong enough to support its weight in shallow water and propel itself along has been discovered in north-western Australia.

It adds weight to the theory that one of the most important events in evolution occurred earlier in the southern hemisphere than north of the equator.

The head of sciences at Museum Victoria, John Long, said the transition from fishes to land dwellers was a dramatic moment in the history of limbed animals, including humans.

Many fossils from this period, however, were incomplete. "This find helps us fill in the gaps," Dr Long said.

The fossil of the primitive fish, Gogonasus, which lived in a shallow coral sea, was discovered last year by Tim Senden, of the department of mathematics at the Australian National University. A study of the find is published today in the journal Nature.

Dr Senden, an expert in X-ray imaging, was on his first field trip with Dr Long and other researchers. "I was the lucky one who made the find of the trip. It was one of the greatest thrills of my life," he said.

His scan of the fossil, using a three-dimensional X-ray microscope, revealed its skeleton had several features that were more like those of a four-legged land animal, or tetrapod, than a fish. They included the structure of its middle ear and the precursors of the forearm bones, the radius and ulna, in its fins.

Gavin Young, a geologist at the university and leader of the team, said that while most studies had assumed animals first moved onto land in the northern hemisphere, the find showed this event could have occurred here about the same time or earlier.

"We know that tetrapods were already living in Australia around 370 million years ago, because of trackways preserved in rocks ... in Victoria, and a single tetrapod jaw discovered years ago near Forbes in central NSW."

Strange fish is washed ashore

Eden.yourguide

12 October

A very large rare fish was washed onto the shores of Aslings Beach on Monday morning.

The fish, a mature louvar, measured 1.8 metres and weighed approximately 80kg.

It was in excellent condition, and likely died very shortly before being beached, or while the surf rolled it in.

It is believed to be the first sighting officially recorded further south than Bermagui.

Little is known about the species as it has a very solitary nature and loves the open ocean much like a sunfish.

The louvar, which can reach over two metres when fully grown, is a pelagic species and spends almost its entire life in the open seas all round the world.

As indicated by its small beak-like mouth, the louvar feeds on small, soft-bodied creatures such as jellyfish and ctenophores.

Fisheries officer Ian Merrington said the fish, which had a large wound to one side of the head, had probably been hit by a boat.

"The fish was in quite good condition. There were no signs of it being hooked or netted and it had likely died only very shortly before being washed up on the beach," he said.

Ian was unable to determine the sex of the fish without performing an autopsy.

But if was a female, it was likely to have been carrying upwards of 47 million eggs in preparation for the breeding season of spring and summer.

Mr Merrington said he had seen one of the fish before, more than six years ago, which had been caught by the longliner Cyclone, which was then owned and operated by the Barbaric family.

Errol Cameron of Southlands Fish Supplies has recollections of one being caught almost a decade ago by local longliner, the 'Terminator'.

Mark McGrouther, manager of the ichthyology collection at the Australian Museum, said that little was known scientifically about the louvar species despite its very unusual appearance.

"It's a really weird fish. It has a huge eye, but it is set very low down in the head.

"It would be a very efficient and fast swimmer, as it has a narrow caudal peduncle and lunacle tail, like a tuna," Mr McGrouther said.

The Australian Museum has three specimens of louvar, including one skeleton and two preserved in an ethyl alcohol solution in tanks.

Edited October 20, 2006 by Flattieman

[mrmoshe]

Thanks again Flattieman..Some gooduns this week.

What about those Goliath Groper eh? I wonder how closely related to our Groper they are?

Have you ever seen a pic of one?

I hope they keep 'em protected like ours.

Looking forward to next Friday's offerings.

Cheers,

Pete.

[Flattieman]

What about those Goliath Groper eh? I wonder how closely related to our Groper they are?

Have you ever seen a pic of one?

Thanks Pete. Here's a pic of the Goliath Grouper (Epinephelus itajara):

And a pic of the Queensland Groper (Epinephelus lanceolatus):

As you can see, they both belong to the Epinephelus genus - they are merely separated by species.

Flattieman.

[mrmoshe]

Thanks for that Flattieman.

I thought they were closely related..just that the goliath must eat more weeties.

Cheers,

Pete.

[harold]

That Groper is one giant fish. Seems criminal to kill one if you ask me, so docile and peaceful.

[kantong]

hey Flattiman

heres one for you:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20601...from=public_rss

Pirahnas!!

cheers

Kantong

[Flattieman]

hey Flattiman

heres one for you:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20601...from=public_rss

Pirahnas!!

cheers

Kantong

Thanks mate. Piranhas seem to be popping up everywhere - did you read the story in Friday Fishy News a few weeks back about the pacu?! People must think that it's OK to release trpoical fish into local rivers!

Flattieman.

[kantong]

yea I read that, its so not good.

education is the key.

cheers

Kantong