Friday Fishy News - June 15

[Flattieman]

Jumping fish knocks woman unconscious

The Star - Toronto, Canada

June 12

ROCK BLUFF, Florida – A woman was injured over the weekend by a leaping sturgeon, the latest incident involving the flying fish on the Suwannee River, officials said.

Tara underwaters, 32, of Bell, was knocked unconscious by the animal on Sunday while boating on the river north of Rock Bluff, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported.

She was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and was expected to recover, the agency reported.

The large, prehistoric-looking sturgeon have hard plates along their backs. They can grow to almost 2 1/2 metres long and weigh as much as 90 kilograms.

In April, a leaping sturgeon severely injured a 50-year-old woman from St. Petersburg who was riding a personal watercraft on the Suwannee River. She suffered a ruptured spleen and had three fingers reattached by surgeons, but she lost her left pinkie finger and a tooth.

Fight to survive heats up for reef fish

ScienceAlert - Australia

ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

June 13

An Australian study reveals that survival is not easy for young fish living on the Great Barrier Reef - and may be even harder under climate change.

Environmental differences experienced early in life not only have immediate consequences for survival of baby fish, but also profoundly influence their chances of success later in life.

This is the finding of research by Dr Monica Gagliano and Dr Mark McCormick of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) and James Cook University (JCU), and colleague Dr Mark Meekan from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).

The team have studied hundreds of Ambon damselfish from egg to adulthood to establish the extent to which parental quality and environmental rearing conditions shape the survival of these fishes.

"Even long before spawning, mothers mould the quality of their babies, thereby influencing their chances of survival," Dr Gagliano said, "however, the mother's effort isn't the only thing that influences their survival."

The team's research at Lizard Island on the northern Great Barrier Reef showed that elevated temperatures experienced during development of the young fish have devastating consequences for the future survival of baby fish.

"Survival of fish embryos was dramatically compromised at 31°C, which is not uncommon at this location during summer," Dr Gagliano said.

"There is no doubt that the quality of parents and the early environment experienced by fish as they develop have major effects on who will survive.

"For the first time, we have been able to establish the fate of young fishes in their natural environment by following them through time, from leaving their parents up to months after settling back on the reef," she said.

The team's findings, recently published in prestigious science journals including Oecologia, Journal of Animal Ecology and Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Science, showed that the effects mothers have on young fish and the environment encountered during their early life, have long-lasting consequences in determining who survives to repopulate the reef into the future.

The team's detailed look at the struggles of growing up on the Great Barrier Reef and their findings help us understand how these, and other reef fish, can be managed and protected so that they can survive through the threats of climate change.

"While a privileged upbringing of good quality parents and a high quality environment can significantly define an individual's success in life, the major environmental changes taking place today may well undermine these prerequisites for survival," Dr Gagliano said.

"Our ability to understand what shapes the life of these fish is pivotal to our success in predicting their responses to today's rapidly changing environment."

As reef environments may experience dramatic shifts in the face of climate change, understanding the complex lives of reef fish becomes essential to ensuring they survive into the future, since the colourful damselfish, along with the many other species of reef fish on the Great Barrier Reef, are all of vital importance to the area's environment - and part of the attraction that drawn $4.5 billion worth of tourism to the region.

Together with her colleagues from CoECRS, JCU and the AIMS, Dr Gagliano now aims to investigate how the impact of environmental changes occurring today will be translated in the future.

"The possibility that stressful conditions experienced by today's fish may be transmitted on through successive generations of offspring remains largely unexplored, but it seems very likely in light of our recent findings," Dr Gagliano said.

Need to Properly Manage Fish Genetics

UN Press Release

June 12

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called for better policies to conserve fish genetic resources and enhance global food security, warning of the adverse environmental and social impacts of failing to do so. “A lack of coherent management of the world’s fish genetic resources is becoming a serious problem,” the agency warned in Rome, at the start of the week-long meeting of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture – the only global body dealing with all genetic resources in agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

This year’s session marks the first time the Commission, comprised of 167 countries and the European Union (EU), has tackled the issue of how best to manage the genetic diversity of the planet’s oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, wetlands and fish farms to safeguard their contributions to food production.

The rapid expansion of aquaculture – the cultivation of aquatic plants and animals – and the over-exploitation of many fisheries have created conditions where “irresponsible” use of natural resources can result in adverse environmental and social impacts, conflicts and unsustainability, according to a paper by FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Department.

The paper argues that a successful transition to more responsible, sustainable and productive aquaculture and fisheries will depend largely on effective management of fish genetic resources.

According to FAO, most of the world’s fisheries are already at least fully exploited or in decline and their production levels have reached a plateau. By 2030, an additional 40 million tons of fish per year will be needed to meet global demand. Aquaculture, which provides 44 per cent of all fish eaten, is a logical and practical way to fill this need.

Flattieman.