Cool article - new marine species found

[farslayer]

http://www.livescience.com/animalwor...ing_shark.html

 

[cyclops]

I seen the news reel on it. The shark looks diffrent the way he walks on the sand with his fins. Did you get to see any of the new corals or srimp? Waiting to see what else comes up

here is another link
Treasure trove of new marine species found
Dozens of fish and coral species, including sharks that walk with their fins, have been discovered in the waters off New Guinea, conservationists announced Monday.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14834763/from/ET/

 

[farslayer]

No,I was dying to see the new corals but couldn't find any pictures

 

[cyclops]

I could not find them in either article. I will keep looking and if I do find them I will let you know. I am really interested on how they look.

 

[cagrn]

Thanks for the links guys. That shark video is awesome. The new flasher wrasses they found look really great too.

 

[xdave]

does anyone find it wierd that they found all these new species in the area that is most heavily cyanide fished?

 

[farslayer]

What exactly is cyanide fished?

 

[ophiura]

New species are actually not at all uncommon, they just don't typically make the news. There are very few places that we study closely and as soon as we do, it turns up a lot of new species. But then, there is the question of "what is a species..." and this is open to lots of debate.
As for the cyanide fishing, one of the reasons the area may get the increased attention is because of destructive practices in the area. So people pay attention. How much time we spend looking is actually quite correlated to the number of species described from the area.

 

[farslayer]

Very much like the theory within particle physics: the particle doesn't exist until you look for it But what is cyanide fishing?

 

[ophiura]

cyanide fishing is an unfortunate situation where cyanide is used to stun fish and they are more easily collected. But the long term survival of cyanide poisoned fish is very very poor. It is one of the very ugly sides of collection for the ornamental fish trade

 

[farslayer]

Now that is terrible. My wife is a biologist, actually a level 3 scientist (whatever the next to highest is). They use electro shock to stun fish, remove some scales, take measurements, then turn them back into the wild. I would never have though of poisoning a fish, no wonder there are so many dead ones when they come in off the truck at the LFS.