Free Republic

Missing Link or Another Fish Story? by Frank Sherwin, M.A. * Recently there has been some celebration from the Darwinian community regarding a discovery of a fossil 1 that allegedly links terrestrial animals to their future aquatic relatives: the ichthyosaurs. Cartorhynchus lenticarpus is proclaimed by some evolutionists to be an amphibious ancestor of the ichthyosaurs, aquatic reptiles whose name means "fish lizards." Rachel Feltman of the Washington Post was jubilant, saying this "fossil could prove a problem for creationists."2

According to a study published in Nature, oceanic mercury levels have tripled since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Far surpassing earlier estimates, data collected during research cruises from 2006-2011 in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans has revealed a 340% increase in surface-level mercury content. During the cruises, deep seawater samples (depths up to 5km) were compared to surface water samples. The analysis implicates the burning of fossil fuels as the primary culprit of this dramatic rise, with mining activities thought to have also contributed a significant amount.

Scientists discovered two new species of sea-dwelling, mushroom-shaped organisms, according to a study published September 3, 2014 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jean Just from University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues. Scientists classify organisms based on shared characteristics using a taxonomic rank, including kingdom, phylum, and species. In 1986, the authors of this study collected organisms at 400 and 1000 meters deep on the south-east Australian continental slope and only just recently isolated two types of mushroom-shaped organisms that they couldn't classify into an existing phylum. The new organisms are multicellular and mostly non-symmetrical, with a dense layer...

Raising fish on land seems like the sort of idea you’d get while recovering from general anesthesia. But for three McGill University researchers, it made perfect sense. How else would you find out what behavioral and physiological changes might have taken place when fish first made the move from sea to land over 400 million years ago? "I used to look at fins and their motion, and I always thought it was so interesting and complex," says Emily Standen, lead author of a study published in Nature today, and an evolutionary biomechanics researcher who now works at the University of...

The Endangered Species Act has wreaked havoc for decades on rural communities, but a newly filed lawsuit could force San Francisco urbanites like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to share their pain. A federal complaint filed this week contends that the Hetch Hetchy Project, which supplies water to San Francisco and the Bay Area, has unfairly enjoyed an exemption from the “severe cutbacks” required in rural California in order to save endangered fish species. Craig Manson, who heads the Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy and Reliability (CESAR) in Fresno, said the lawsuit is aimed at addressing the “double standard” that...

On a recent weeklong cruise along the shores of southeast Alaska, the dining room menu included wild salmon, Dungeness crab and sablefish. Many of my fellow 63 passengers had neither heard of nor tasted sable. No wonder: Almost all of this delectable, nutritious fish caught by Americans is exported, along with about one-third of all our wild catch. Instead, we dine on farmed seafood imported from countries like China, Thailand and Chile; 86 percent of the seafood we consume is imported. Despite the overwhelming popularity of shrimp among Americans, none was served on the trip. A naturalist who lectured on...

Large turnouts are expected at two upcoming public hearings on proposed changes to the Mexican wolf management plan, including expansion of the wolf-management areas in Arizona and New Mexico. The hearings, Aug. 11 in Pinetop, Ariz., and Aug. 13 in Truth or Consequences, N.M., will be the final opportunity for verbal testimony on proposed changes to management of the endangered Mexican gray wolf population in the two states. Public hearings last year in Albuquerque and Pinetop drew a total of around 1,000 people, most of whom were not allotted time to speak. ... The Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to...

Now, the population of the cormorants on East Sand Island has burgeoned from about 100 breeding pairs to 14,900, and a federal agency wants to have thousands of the seabirds shot to protect the fish, including some that are protected or endangered. The birds eat lots of endangered wild fish, as well as hatchery stocks — an estimated 11 million a year — mainly in May as the young fish head for their years in the ocean. In June, the corps released its plan to kill 16,000 of the birds. A public comment period has been extended to Aug. 19....

An experimental underwater speaker system designed to repel invasive Asian carp is up and running in Genoa, University of Minnesota officials confirmed this week. The announcement is a win for researcher Peter Sorensen and his team from the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Center, who have been raising funds for the project since April, but at least one local stakeholder is voicing concerns about the project’s impact on the Mississippi River. Mark Clements owns and operates Clements Fishing Barge below Lock and Dam No. 8, where the speakers are installed. He fears the sounds emitted — which researchers say have been...

Austin Goncalves, 15, is recovering after going into a coma. He went into the coma after he got fish poisoning from a snapper in the Bahamas. Austin is finally eating food for the first time in week. “I’m on anti-seizure medication,” he told WTSP. Earlier this month, Austin caught a mutton snapper that his mom cooked for dinner. “I couldn’t eat, couldn’t breath,” Austin told the station. “This was very serious,” his mom, Karen Goncalves added. “It could have ended our lives.” Austin, his friend, Karen, and her boyfriend were all suffering from Ciguatera, which is a potentially fatal illness...

A new study shows the lesser prairie chicken population has exploded by 20 percent prompting concern by western lawmakers that the Obama administration acted hastily when it listed the bird as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The aerial survey conducted last month by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies showed the grouse species numbers jumped from 18,747 to 22,415. That study plus the Agriculture Department’s tardiness in reporting conservation efforts to Congress as required by law prompted a letter from lawmakers including Colorado Republican Rep. Scott Tipton demanding the report. “We request that your department provide this...

Joel Vasquez Rojas, the mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, married the reptile – dressed in a white gown – at the city hall and then shared a dance in front of packed party of local residents. According to local tradition, the crocodile is a princess whose marriage to the town mayor will bring in an abundance of seafood for fisherman on the Pacific coast. ‘As young people, this means a lot,’ said local resident Eduardo Zarate 'It’s the greatest treasure our ancestors have left us.’ For safety, the crocodile’s jaw was wired shut for the day. ‘It is my wish...

Aerospace giant Boeing finds itself in a fishy fight against Native Americans and environmentalists over pollution in the waterways -- a disagreement that could affect where Washington state's largest employer builds the next generation of planes. At the heart of the fight, which could impact thousands of jobs, is a peculiar question: How much locally caught fish do Washingtonians eat, and what are the health risks? Green groups, alone with Washington state tribes, have sued the Environmental Protection Agency to push for increased fish consumption rates -- currently set at six-and-a-half grams a day. If the number is set higher,...

Fish don't have Facebook to help keep tabs on their schoolmates. Like junior high students before the Internet, they have to hang out for a while to become pals. But a research team at Australia's James Cook University found that ocean acidification, caused by the fossil fuel burning that drives climate change, could be robbing some tropical fish of their ability to remember friends. Under normal ocean conditions, juvenile damselfish take about three weeks recognize their other fish in their schools. But under simulated conditions with estimated carbon dioxide levels in the year 2100, damselfish apparently lose that ability to...

Talk about a big fish. An Atlanta man and his father last week caught an 884-pound sturgeon during a fishing trip to Canada. According to Great River Fishing Adventures, 19-year-old Paul Jarvis hooked the 11-foot-10 white sturgeon Thursday morning on the Fraser River. “In the first few minutes I had it on the line, I couldn’t believe the weight and power of the fish," said Jarvis, who battled the fish with the help of his father, Ron, for about an hour. "I am a big guy, and I could barely hold on to the rod let alone begin to reel...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found that Alaska seafood is safe from Fukushima radiation, but a citizen’s group plans to conduct a separate study of the water in lower Cook Inlet using a crowdsource funding site. “The (FDA) results confirm information from federal, state and international agencies that seafood in the North Pacific and Alaska waters poses no radiation related health concerns to those who consume it,” said a statement released by state health and environmental officials. The FDA review was based on a sampling plan developed by the departments of Environmental Conservation and Health and Social Services,...

He has net himself a 172kg Queensland grouper - and he isn't letting it go. Not even for the $10,000 he claims to have been offered by a businessman from Tianjin, China. Mr Johnny Tan, 52, owner of seafood restaurant Grouper King, bought the rare 2.3m giant for "between $5,000 to $6,000". It was caught by local fishermen in waters off Pedra Branca on Tuesday evening. "It would have been easier for me to just sell the fish, but this is my first 'big' fish of the year," said Mr Tan. He said that fish this size are popular in...

Caught -- and released to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Rob Scott, the Crane Lake, Minn., angler who caught a potential tip-up world-record lake trout in February, pleaded guilty Friday in Fort Frances Provincial Offences Court to keeping one lake trout over his limit. Scott, 65, won't get to keep the fish. He paid a $400 fine plus court costs amounting to about $75, according to Kevin Elliott, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources enforcement supervisor in Fort Frances. Scott, who was represented by an Ontario attorney, did not contest the charges. He caught and kept the fish that unofficially...

A Canadian high school student named Bronwyn Delacruz never imagined that her school science project would make headlines all over the world. But that is precisely what has happened. Using a $600 Geiger counter purchased by her father, Delacruz measured seafood bought at local grocery stores for radioactive contamination. What she discovered was absolutely stunning. Much of the seafood, particularly the products that were made in China, tested very high for radiation. So is this being caused by nuclear radiation from Fukushima? Is the seafood that we are eating going to give us cancer and other diseases? The American people...

Agenda 21 is alive and well in Klamath County, Oregon. Klamath Basin farmers are feeling the wrath of the Klamath Tribes in collusion with the Federal and Oregon state governments. Water is now basically off limits to ranchers unless they get approval from the tribes, and approvals are few and far between. ... The success of this plan spells disaster for not only the Klamath Basin family farmers, but for all family farmers, as it will be a precedent. Without locally grown produce and animal feed, we will be even more dependent on imported food at a much higher price....