Friday Fishy News

[Flattieman]

Firstly, I'd like to wish all Raiders a very safe and happy Christmas and New Year (with a bit of fishing mixed in, of course!). If fishing is on your list, you might just be able to catch one of these:

Russian Customs Authorities Seize Diamonds Inside Dead Fish

By Komfie Manalo

All Headline News - Russia

December 7

Russian Customs authorities held a 51-year-old woman at an airport in Polyarny, Russia after her smelly luggage was found to contain a dead fish packed with large uncut diamonds.

Officials said the woman was stopped from boarding a flight to Moscow from Polyarny because of her smelly luggage.

Customs authorities inspected her bag and discovered a three-foot pike with 25 large uncut diamonds inside.

The police had started an investigation to determine the origin of the diamonds which they believed are stolen, and have called on experts to determine the value of the gems.

A spokesman for the police said, "The woman thought the stink from the fish would be enough to put guards off asking too many questions if she was stopped. Luckily, the guards were keen fishermen and didn't mind at all."

First-ever co-ordinated hunting seen between fish species

By Eileen Hoftyzer

Discovery Channel - USA

December 8

Two different species of fish with two different hunting methods would seem like unlikely teammates. But scientists have found a simple form of communication that improves both species' success, according a new study published in the Public Library of Science Biology.

Groupers hunt in open water, while moray eels stick to coral reefs where they slither through crevices to find food. Scientists have seen groupers following moray eels around and eating fish the eels have stirred up. And it appears that this is no coincidence.

Researchers from the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland were studying a reef community in the Red Sea when they saw different groupers approach moray eels in the reef and shake their heads. The pairs would then swim away and started hunting together.

The study reports that groupers that were unsuccessful in a hunting trip were more likely to recruit eels than groupers that weren't hungry, and working as a team improved groupers' hunting efficiency five times over hunting alone.

Though the communication between the two species is not well understood, the study suggests that moray eels may become conditioned to associate a grouper's headshake with a nearby fish.

Coordinated hunting, particularly between different species, is extremely rare. The researchers say this is the first time that it has ever been seen in fish.

New species of Antarctic fish discovered

Monstersandcritics.com

December 19

U.S. scientists have found a new species of Antarctic fish that are about 13-inches long, thrive in the cold and have an interorbital pit with two openings.

The new species of fish were discovered by Paul Cziko and Kevin Hoefling, members of a University of Illinois-Champaign research team working in McMurdo Sound in November 2004.

The scientists were diving in the area in search of dragonfish eggs for a study concerning antifreeze proteins that was published earlier this year.

'We just came across this fish,' Cziko recalled. 'It was just sitting on the bottom, like most other fish in the area. There are only about a dozen species that swim in the area, with four to five easily distinguishable species. This one jumped out at us. First of all it was pretty big, and it looked quite different than the others.'

The species was named Cryothenia amphitreta. Cryothenia translates from Greek as 'from the cold,' while amphitreta literally means 'an orifice with two openings.'

The research is detailed in the December issue of the journal Copeia.

Whole grains and fish may protect against asthma

Reuters - UK

December 12

Children who eat goodly amounts of whole grain products and fish seem to have a reduced risk of developing asthma, according to findings published in the medical journal Thorax.

"The rise in the prevalence of asthma in western societies may be related to changed dietary habits," write Dr. H. A. Smit, of the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, in Bilthoven, the Netherlands, and colleagues.

They note that studies of children have shown that asthma is less likely with increasing intake of "fruits, vegetables, dairy and whole grain products, and fish."

The researchers examined the intake of these foods in relation to asthma in 598 Dutch children between the ages of 8 and 13 years enrolled in the International Study on Allergy and Asthma in Childhood 2 (ISAAC-2).

Parents completed food questionnaires, which were used to estimate the kids' dietary intakes. Wheezing and asthma were also determined with questionnaires, as well as from medical tests.

No clear associations were observed between asthma or wheezing and intake of citrus fruits, vegetables, and dairy products, but there was a link with consumption of fish and whole grain products.

"The crude prevalence of current wheeze was observed to be 19.4% in children with a low intake of both foods compared with 4.2% in children with a high intake of both foods," Smit's team reports. "For current asthma the crude prevalences were 16.7% and 2.8%, respectively."

After adjustments, whole grains and fish were linked to a reduction of 54 percent and 66 percent, respectively, in the likelihood of having asthma, and similar reductions of 45 percent and 56 percent for wheezing.

The researchers recommend forward-looking studies to further clarify the relationship between dietary factors and asthma, and the possible effects of diet modifications.

SOURCE: Thorax, December 2006.

Fish oil helps world’s "fattest" man loose 349lbs!

sawf.org

December 15

The world’s fattest man just got lighter by 349lbs, all thanks to a celeb diet that includes guzzling fish oil.

Manuel Uribe hit his, and the world’s, highest weight when he tipped the scales at a massive 1314lbs – that of five baby elephants put together.

Unfortunately, no diet seemed to help the 41-year old Mexican, who even turned to a quack who advised him to spray himself with lambs’ blood.

“I had tried everything, even spraying myself in lambs’ blood as recommended by a quack,” The Sun quoted him, as saying.

Thankfully for Uribe, help came in the form of The Zone, a diet devised by American Dr Barry Sears, which is regularly followed by stars such as Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Aniston.

“This is the first diet that has worked. It is a miracle,” he added.

The celeb diet involves eating a lot of chicken, vegetables and salad, as well as a fish oil supplement that reportedly speeds up weight loss by activating fat-burning enzymes.

Uribe now weighs in at 965lbs.

Fish market site's on the nose

By Adam Bell

NEWS.com.au

December 17

SYDNEY Fish Market has been investigating abandoning its run-down Pyrmont home instead of going ahead with a planned multi-million-dollar revamp.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal management discussed a proposal to relocate the Sydney tourist attraction to Glebe Island, on the other side of Blackwattle Bay.

As part of the move, the Fish Market's wholesale operation was slated for a shift to Flemington Markets in western Sydney.

The discussions held over the past six months follow concerns about the viability of a proposed $130 million makeover of the old complex which has become a smelly eyesore.

And while it is understood the relocation proposals have recently been scrapped, they have delayed progress on the much-needed upgrade of the site.

The Sydney Fish Market attracts more than two million visitors a year and is promoted as a jewel in Sydney's tourism crown.

But after decades of underinvestment, the only world-class thing about the market is the quality of Australian seafood sold by hardworking fishmongers.

Visitors crowd small, dirt-floored dining areas along the waterfront which is often littered with rubbish.

A masterplan to guide redevelopment was approved by the NSW Government with much fanfare in February last year.

But work hasn't begun, with preliminary meetings with architects to work out plans held only last week. Now questions have been raised about the commercial viability of the redevelopment given the constraints imposed in the masterplan.

Sydney Fish Market managing director Grahame Turk said the publicity of the masterplan designs had raised unrealistic expectations.

"People got all excited about it but, in fact, they (the plans) could never have happened because they weren't commercially viable; it was a government architect's dream, basically,'' Mr Turk said.

Mr Turk conceded that work on a development application has still not begun almost two years after the masterplan was approved. He said management had no option but to consider proposals to shift the fish market to other sites.

"We have to consider those options. That certainly was considered, and that is why we have been delayed in putting together the DA for redeveloping where we are, because we spent maybe six months really looking at the relocation option,'' he said.

Sydney Fish Market board chairman Bill Gibson outlined the desperate situation in his foreword to the 2006 annual report.

He wrote: "After a decade of deliberation and deferral of major maintenance and development projects, we can no longer delay rectification of the waterfront, car park, drainage, waste management and other unsatisfactory aspects of the site.''

Sales volumes are down this year but the market managed to turn a small profit of about $1.2million after raising prices.

The longest-serving retailer at the site, Nicholas Georgouras of Nicholas Seafoods, said the estimated cost of the redevelopment was $130 million.

"There is no money to do this level of development in the company and there never will be,'' he said. "The reason they have been so slow is because they are scared stiff of losing control of the site to a developer.''

George Costi of Claudio's Seafood, a fishmonger of two decades, said it was high-time management got on with the job. However, he said it was important that the history, character and atmosphere of the markets was retained.

"We don't want them to go too far because we are a live working fish market. We don't want them to strip out the atmosphere and make it another Darling Harbour or Cockle Bay,'' he said.

The masterplan was touted by the State Government as a surefire path to securing the site's future as "one of the world's premier fish markets''.

It gave in-principle approval for a huge increase in the space for fish retail outlets, restaurants and cafes, particularly along the waterfront.

A new office building was permitted on the corner of Pyrmont Bridge Rd and Jones St and about twice as many parking spaces were earmarked.

And better access for cars, bikes and pedestrians was slated, as well as a new promenade along the foreshore.

Mr Turk said he would meet with the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority in the new year to attempt to negotiate changes to the masterplan.

"We are in the process of putting together a plan that we can go forward with, but it has to be commercially viable.''

Merry Christmas!

Flattieman.

Edited December 22, 2006 by Flattieman

[mrmoshe]

Russian Customs Authorities Seize Diamonds Inside Dead Fish[/size]

By Komfie Manalo

All Headline News - Russia

December 7

Russian Customs authorities held a 51-year-old woman at an airport in Polyarny, Russia after her smelly luggage was found to contain a dead fish packed with large uncut diamonds.

Officials said the woman was stopped from boarding a flight to Moscow from Polyarny because of her smelly luggage.

Customs authorities inspected her bag and discovered a three-foot pike with 25 large uncut diamonds inside.

The police had started an investigation to determine the origin of the diamonds which they believed are stolen, and have called on experts to determine the value of the gems.

A spokesman for the police said, "The woman thought the stink from the fish would be enough to put guards off asking too many questions if she was stopped. Luckily, the guards were keen fishermen and didn't mind at all."

Good yarns today Flattieman..thanks...we've missed your Friday Fishy News.

I wonder if the Russian lady could have got hold of a big jewie and claimed they were the fish's natural jewels...she might have got away with it .

A Merry Christmas to you too, and to all Fishraiders. Hope you all get to wet a line at some stage over the holidays.

Cheers,

Pete.