| From: Jon Koplik | 5/7/2016 12:39:45 AM | | | | | | WSJ -- Discovery of big-clawed U.S. lobsters in Europe prompt push to ban live imports ..................
May 5, 2016
Marauding American Lobsters Find Themselves in Hot Water
Discovery of big-clawed U.S. species in Europe prompt push to ban live imports
A lobsterman checks a lobster while hauling traps on a boat near Cape Elizabeth, Maine, in August 2013. The state’s congressional delegation is fighting Sweden’s push to ban imports of live American lobsters to European Union countries. Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters
ByWilliam Mauldin
The male American lobster is clawing his way toward hegemony. Scientists say his unusually large crusher claw compared with other species can be irresistible to female lobsters and menacing to less-endowed males.
This means war—or at least a trans-Atlantic trade war.
Homarus americanus
Claw size is at the center of a push by Sweden to ban imports of live Homarus americanus to all European Union countries. The effort began with the release of an 89-page report in December by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, featuring a full-color, half-page photo of an American lobster and 13 instances of the words “invasive alien species.”
“Once the American lobster is established, it will be impossible to eradicate,” says Gunvor Ericson, state secretary at the Swedish ministry for climate and the environment. The report contends that American lobsters have the potential to spread diseases to Europe’s smaller, native Homarus gammarus.
Sweden says big-clawed Americans could spawn a new generation of hybrids and eventually crowd out European lobsters. The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, is expected to start deliberating the import-ban proposal in June.
A shell-shocked American and Canadian lobster industry is fighting back. On Monday, the Massachusetts congressional delegation complained in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and two other Obama administration officials that the proposed ban is based on dubious science.
“I think the issue is our lobsters are better,” said Bill Morneau, Canada’s finance minister, on a recent trip to Washington. Europeans cite a study in a food journal that argues European lobsters fetch a higher price because they taste better than the American ones.
Jamie Lane packed live lobsters last December in York, Maine, for shipment outside the U.S. European Union countries get about 20% of all U.S. lobster exports. Photo: Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press
Trans-Atlantic sales of live lobsters total about $200 million a year. Major importers include Italy, Spain, France and Great Britain, according to the EU’s statistics office. In Sweden, the most prized crustacean is actually crayfish, the centerpiece of a summertime party tradition.
In the long history of America’s global cultural dominance, little has provoked horror as fast as Homarus americanus.
In 2014, about two dozen American lobsters were reported found in Gullmar Fiord, or “God’s sea,” on the western coast of Sweden. One of the recaptured American females carried eggs that were fertilized by a European male lobster. Swedish authorities launched an investigation.
It isn’t clear how long the invaders had been there or how they got there. According to the report, some smaller lobsters were still wearing a fat rubber band, the telltale sign of an imported lobster. Wholesalers sometimes illegally store live imports in offshore nets, which are vulnerable to escape.
Other lobsters are deliberately released by softhearted Swedes and perhaps purposely introduced to local waters in hopes that a lucrative new lobster fishery will take hold there, some lobster-industry officials say.
U.S. officials scoff at the small number of lobsters cited in Sweden’s report. The report also notes ominously: “One should bear in mind that the number of lobsters reported is probably only the tip of the iceberg.”
Ann-Lisbeth Agnalt of Norway’s Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, says her own research demonstrates the risks from marauding American lobsters.
A “very nice and beautiful” male named Allan had scars from shell disease, which returned, “ate up all his carapace” and killed him, Ms. Agnalt says.
European scientists say part of the Homarus americanus exoskeleton is thinner than in the Homarus gammarus, making American lobsters more susceptible to damage and shell disease. Ms. Agnalt says the Americans could spread their problems to Europe’s smaller, native lobsters.
Norway banned the import of live American lobsters in January. Norway and Sweden also offer a reward for any captured Homarus americanus.
The biggest sticking point in the fight is the assertion by European scientists that male lobsters from across the Atlantic Ocean have overgrown crusher claws that could give Americans “an advantage over a male European male when competing for a European female,” as Ms. Agnalt puts it.
On the cold, cruel floor of the northern Atlantic, a powerful crusher claw is a vital tool for catching and dismembering prey. Big claws also help lobsters defend their home from intruders, doubly important during mating season.
Both types also have a slightly smaller claw used for cutting.
Robert Steneck, a lobster expert at the University of Maine, agrees that the American crusher claw does “get inflated in the males as they get bigger, and that does not happen in the European.”
But he doubts claw size is that important. If big claws were so pivotal to mating, then evolution would have bestowed them on the European variety of lobster, too, Mr. Steneck says.
He says the size of a lobster’s claw is only a small part of a complicated mating ritual that can involve everything from relaxing pheromones and ambient water temperature to the female’s dramatic undressing, or removal of her shell during molting.
A worker at New Meadows Lobster in Portland, Maine, packs lobsters into a box. Some lobsters reported found in a Swedish fiord in 2014 were still wearing a fat rubber band, the telltale sign of an imported lobster. Photo: Carl D. Walsh/Portland Press Herald/Getty Images
“You have to wonder if this isn’t protectionism wrapped up in a cloak of science,” says Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent.
Swedish officials say it isn’t. The government report cites an eerie parallel to the country’s endangered, indigenous Noble crayfish population, nearly wiped out since the 1960s by a plague that arrived with North American crayfish.
In the wild, lobster hegemony will remain murky no matter how EU officials rule on the proposed ban. European fishermen frequently find odd-looking lobsters. Shell color provides a clue, but the only way to reliably tell Homarus americanus and Homarus gammarus apart is genetic testing.
Write to William Mauldin at william.mauldin@wsj.com
Copyright © 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
.
|
| | I Love to Fish | Pastime Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Jon Koplik | 5/28/2016 11:27:05 AM | | | | | | Scientists find minivan-sized sponge, world's largest
Miami Herald - 13 hours ago
Researchers in Hawaii have been absorbed by a sea creature they discovered last summer, and their findings are pretty big. The team of scientists on a deep-sea expedition in the waters off Hawaii discovered what they say is the world's largest known ...
Is that a minivan or a sea sponge? Scientists find possible oldest animal.
Christian Science Monitor - 3 hours ago
Scientists have recently discovered the largest, and possibly one of the oldest, sea sponges ever recorded as remote controlled diving vehicles scoured the ocean floor. By Corey Fedde, Staff May 27, 2016. Save for later Saved. close. A close-up of the ...
This Minivan-Sized Sea Sponge Is Thought To Be Planet's Largest
Huffington Post - 13 hours ago
The ancient brain-like organism was found at a depth of 7,000 feet in waters off Hawaii. 05/27/2016 10:15 pm ET. Chris D'Angelo Associate Editor, HuffPost Hawaii. Scientists exploring a deep swath of ocean in the Hawaiian archipelago got an unexpected ...
Massive Sea Sponge The Size Of A Minivan Discovered Near Hawaii
Headlines & Global News - 19 hours ago
Researchers have stumbled upon an ancient sea sponge the size of a minivan near Hawaii that could be thousands of years old. By Tyler MacDonald | May 27, 2016 04:02 PM EDT. Massive Sea Sponge. Researchers have stumbled upon an ancient sea ...
Study: Scientists document world's largest known sponge
WWSB ABC 7 - 18 hours ago
HONOLULU (AP) — A team of scientists on a deep-sea expedition in the waters off Hawaii has discovered what they say is the world's largest known sponge. A study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Marine Biodiversity described the massive ...
World's Largest Sponge Discovered
iTech Post - 5 hours ago
ast year, a team of researchers went on a deep-sea expedition in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off the coast of Hawaii, USA, and found a hitherto-undiscovered sea sponge of enormous proportions on the ocean floor. Like Us on ...
World's Largest Sea Sponge Found Offshore Hawaii
Northern California News - 3 hours ago
An extremely enormous sea sponge was cited by scientists during a deep-sea expedition offshore Hawaii, reminding of the unfathomable extent of deep sea world. Researchers stated that this sponge, which is nearly as large as a minivan, was discovered at ...
A sea sponge the size of a minivan could be one of the world's oldest living animals
Washington Post - May 26, 2016
The deep sea is dark and full of mysteries. Way below the water's surface north of the Hawaiian islands, a remotely operated vehicle has spotted a massive creature hitherto unknown to science. The ROV captured footage of the spectacularly large sponge ...
-----------------------------
.
.
. |
| | I Love to Fish | Pastime Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Jon Koplik | 6/7/2016 11:11:58 PM | | | | | | USA Today -- Electric eels can jump out of the water to attack ..................................
usatoday.com
Electric eels can jump out of the water to attack
By Mary Bowerman,
USA TODAY Network
8:21 a.m. EDT
June 7, 2016
(Photo: Courtesy of Kenneth Catania / Vanderbilt)
New research reveals that electric eels can spring out of the water and administer powerful electric shocks to would-be predators.
Electric eels will attack large, partially submerged objects by raising up out of the water and zapping perceived threats, according to a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research lends credibility to a legendary account by 19th-century explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who said he witnessed electric eels leaping from the waters of the Amazon and shocking horses.
Vanderbilt University biologist Kenneth Catania, who lead the study, said in a statement that many were skeptical of von Humboldt’s account. In part, because in the 200-some years since von Humboldt shared his experience, there have been no similar scientific reports of eels acting similarly.
“The first time I read von Humboldt’s tale, I thought it was completely bizarre,” said Catania. “Why would the eels attack the horses instead of swimming away?”
Catania said he discovered that eels act “even more dramatically than von Humboldt described,” by accident, while transferring eels he was studying from one tank to another.
While using a net with a metal rim handle to transfer the eels, he noticed that many of the eels stopped trying to dodge the net and instead went into attack mode, rising out of the water, and plastering their chins to the handle, “all while generating a series of high-voltage pulses.”
Catania notes that luckily he was wearing rubber gloves, so he didn’t get shocked by the eels.
To test what was happening, Catania placed a conductive rod attached to an aluminum plate partially into the aquarium water, and measured the strength of the electric pulses the eels produced as they jolted the object.
Catania found that when an eel was submerged in the water, the power of its electrical impulse traveled though the water and was much weaker, but when the eel extended out of the water, the jolt of electricity was distributed from its chin directly to the believed threat.
“This allows the eels to deliver shocks with a maximum amount of power to partially submerged land animals that invade their territory,” Catania said. “It also allows them to electrify a much larger portion of the invader’s body.”
To illustrate just what this tactic can do to a perceived threat, Catania covered a plastic alligator head with a conductive metal strip and LED lights.
“When you see the LEDs light up, think of them as the endings of pain nerves being stimulated," Catania said. "That will give you an idea of how effective these attacks can be."
Catania notes that in the experiment, the eels tended to attack more often when the water in the tank was low, suggesting that the "shocking leap" behavior is used to protect themselves during the dry season in the Amazon, when they are vulnerable.
Follow @MaryBowerman on Twitter.
--------------------------------------------------
END. |
| | I Love to Fish | Pastime Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Greg or e | 7/19/2016 11:11:46 AM | | | | | | Monster of the deep: Chinese fishermen shocked after catching 'mysterious carnivorous creature'Father and son netted the freshwater fish in Wuhan, China, on July 16Images of the bizarre-looking creature have caused great interest Experts said it could be a hybrid between Kaluga and another species By Tracy You For Mailonline
dailymail.co.uk
Published: 11:43 GMT, 19 July 2016 | Updated: 13:50 GMT, 19 July 2
Two fishermen from central China are shocked after they reportedly netted a bizarre-looking fish that is described as vicious and carnivorous.
The mysterious creature was caught on July 16 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, and measured seven feet in length and 220 pounds in weight, reported People's Daily Online.
Pictures of the river fish have been widely shared online in China while media are claiming that the species might date back to the age of dinosaurs.
SHARE PICTURE
Copy link to paste in your message
+4
What is it? Zhang Chuanzhou and Zhang Xiaogang caught the fish in Wuhan, China's Hubei Province
Copy link to paste in your message
+4
Mysterious species: Chinese media are claiming that the species might date back to the age of dinosaurs
RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next
 Chinese couple given 15 days detention after abandoning...  A forest of bambrew! Chinese villagers use new way to make...  Is this the world's most travelled pooch? Meet Harry the...  Cycle race ends in chaos as spectator crosses road at the...
Share this article
Share
435 shares
According to the report, the fish was caught by two fishermen in part of the Yangtze River at around 8am last Saturday.
The two man have been named Zhang Chuanzhou and Zhang Xiaogang and are father and son.
At first, they thought it was a normal Chinese sturgeon, a critically endangered species native to the area.
It's understood that they soon realised it looked too odd and contacted a local reporter.
An unnamed marine expert told Chinese media that the creature is a hybrid of a Kaluga fish and another unidentified species.
The expert added that the bizarre fish is not native to the area and could have been released to the waters by someone who had purchased it.
The fish has been sent to the local wildlife rehabilitation centre.
Copy link to paste in your message
+4
Shocked: Pictures of the animal, which is described as vicious and carnivorous, have been widely shared
Copy link to paste in your message
+4
Hybrid: An expert told reporters that the fish could be a cross between a Kaluga and another unidentified species
Kaluga, which are unique to the Heilongjian Basin in north-east China, are thought to have been around for 130 million years and are among the largest freshwater fish in the world.
An adult Kaluga can weigh more than 1,100 pounds.
The species is listed as critically endangered as it has been fished almost to extinction for its valuable roe. |
| | I Love to Fish | Pastime Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Jon Koplik | 7/23/2016 2:44:00 PM | | | | | | Wash. Post -- How a massive lobster was rescued from its fate at a South Florida restaurant .............
July 23, 2016
How a massive lobster was rescued from its fate at a South Florida restaurant
By Sarah Larimer
I’m just guessing here, but this probably isn’t what restaurant owner Joe Melluso was expecting, when he procured this really, really big lobster.
To be honest, it’s probably not what the lobster was expecting, either.
But this week, the lobster which was destined to become the dinner of some restaurant patron in South Florida was saved from that fate.
The crustacean has now been given a name, Larry. And, according to reports, Larry the lobster is headed to a new destination, too the Maine State Aquarium.
“It’s something different that I’m proud of that we did,” Amir Rossi, one of the people who rescued Larry, told Local 10 News in South Florida. “How many people can actually say that they saved a lobster?”
Here’s how this all happened: Larry is, in lobster terms, pretty big. Almost 15 pounds, in fact. After he arrived at the Tin Fish restaurant in Sunrise, Fla., earlier this week, the massive lobster was featured in a WPLG report.
“A Maine lobster that is older than Broward County will soon be served at a Sunrise seafood restaurant,” the ABC affiliate reported earlier this week.
Rossi spotted a Facebook post from the station, according to the Miami Herald. (The social media post was about the lobster, in case that wasn’t clear. I’m assuming it was this one.) He contacted John Merritt, of the group iRescue Wildlife, Inc. More people, including Erik Martinez and Brooke Estren, joined the effort, too.
Merritt contacted the restaurant with the plan to buy the lobster and send him back to his natural habitat, Maine. Meanwhile, Martinez and Estren scrambled to learn about shipping a live lobster.
“Before the sun went down [Tuesday], I ran to the beach because supposedly you need to use a giant towel that’s soaked in saltwater,” Estren said. “And you have to put it in the freezer. They wrap him in it, I guess as it melts, it keeps him alive. I didn’t know about that.”
It cost $300 to purchase the lobster, Estren told the Herald. And that’s not including shipping.
Larry the lobster is believed to be … well, for now let’s just go with “super old.” The Associated Press put its estimated age at between 60 and 110 years old. But the Portland Press Herald spoke to experts in the field, who told the newspaper that there wasn’t really an “established method” for figuring out exactly how old lobster is.
“My whole life’s been about fish and seafood,” Melluso, the Tin Fish chain founder and owner, told the Herald. “I’m happiest when I have a knife in my hand and fish filleted. I’ve trained and learned from all the great old guys. I think I have a responsibility to be awesome and to teach and carry on some of the heritage that’s associated with it.
“At first, when I heard there were organizations involved, I was like, ‘Ah, that’s so silly,’” he continued. “Then, I was like, ‘They’re looking to protect and serve the species in a responsible way. I should be thinking like that.'”
Jeff Nichols, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Marine Resources, told The Post in an email Friday that Larry had not yet arrived, but would be quarantined to “protect the health of other marine life on display,” and staff would monitor its health. The aquarium doesn’t have any plans beyond that, Nichols wrote.
There is already a 17-pound lobster at the facility, according to its website.
“He’s been around a long time,” Estren, one of the rescuers, told Local 10 News. “Hopefully, he’ll keep growing and he’ll enjoy his new home.”
© 2016 The Washington Post.
.
. |
| | I Love to Fish | Pastime Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Jon Koplik | 11/28/2016 10:46:54 PM | | | | | | Japanese theme park thought it was a good idea to freeze 5,000 dead fish in a skating rink
Washington Post
November 28, 2016
A Japanese theme park thought it was a good idea to freeze 5,000 dead fish in a skating rink
By Amy B Wang
An amusement park in southwestern Japan has closed its ice-skating rink after public outrage over the rink's key feature: 5,000 dead fish frozen into the ice itself.
Space World, a theme park in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka prefecture, had opened its new attraction Nov. 12. The rink was packed with 25 types of fish purchased from the city's fish market, according to Mainichi Shimbun. Photos of whale sharks and rays also were placed into the ice, the newspaper reported.
Photos of the rink that were previously on the park's Facebook page showed that some of the fish had been embedded with their mouths agape and their heads partially protruding from the ice. Others were laid out in circular and arrow patterns. One “school” of fish spelled out the word 'hello,' according to Britain's Guardian newspaper.
“We had intended to give the feel of the ocean to this ice skating rink, with the image of fish swimming in the ocean,” Space World general manager Toshimi Takeda told the newspaper. “And we intended to make visitors have fun and learn more about fish.”
Instead, the park was flooded by complaints from patrons and on social media.
“It's as if the fish are alive,” one woman told NHK news. “I feel kind of uncomfortable letting my kids skate on them.”
On Twitter, one person said the attraction had been done “in poor taste.”
“When are you going to stop this [expletive] attraction?” tweeted another.
The park operator issued an apology Sunday on social media and through media interviews and said the rink would be shut down.
“We sincerely apologize to everyone who was upset by the 'Ice Aquarium,' " the theme park tweeted.
© 2016 The Washington Post .
.
. |
| | I Love to Fish | Pastime Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Neeka | 12/14/2016 11:46:16 AM | | | | | | "Nova Scotia Firefighters Couldn't Use a Hydrant Because it was Clogged with Fish
fish in fire hydrant
CBC Canada/Aylesford and District Volunteer Fire Department
Posted by Travis Smola
March 11, 2016
Share On Facebook
Firefighters responding to grass fire find themselves in a bizarre situation.
Some firefighters in Nova Scotia found their efforts to fight a grass fire unexpectedly delayed…by fish.
Aylesford and District Volunteer Fire Department personnel were on scene for the first grass fire of the year on Tuesday when they went to use a dry hydrant near a pond to fight the blaze. But when they cranked up the water, they realized something was very wrong.
"We had a hard time getting any suction from the dry hydrant," fire chief Shawn Carey told CBC News Canada.
Suspecting a bad gasket, they took the hydrant apart to see what the problem was. None of them were prepared for the odd sight that greeted them however. They found almost a dozen fish jamming up the hydrant!
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
Brute of an Illinois Buck Awarded to Snowmobiler Who Found Him
How to Quarter a Deer in Your Living Room
This is What Happens When Boar Hunting with a Knife Goes Wrong
"It actually clogged off our pipe so we couldn't get any water," Carey said.
Somehow, the fish had gotten sucked up into the hydrant from the nearby pond. They snapped a photo of the odd obstruction and then cleared out the fish, some of which were still alive and returned them to the pond. They were then able to clear the line and put out the grass fire, which fortunately did not threaten any houses.
While Carey told CBC Canada he's heard of salamanders getting into dry hydrants before, this was a new one for him.
"It was a first for all of us and there were four or five guys standing there and some of them have been firefighters for a long time and nobody had seen anything like that," Carey told CBC Canada.
They plan to head back out there sometime in the near future to try and figure out exactly how the fish got in and fix the problem.
"There's a strainer on the top and on the bottom so we need to take a look and see how they got in there," Carey said.
One thing is for sure, the firefighters of Aylesford and District Volunteer Fire Department now have a very unique and crazy fish story to tell!"
wideopenspaces.com |
| | I Love to Fish | Pastime Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| |
