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When the steel claw of an excavator slashes into the berm of the Great Works Dam on Monday morning, it will mark the start of a multimillion-dollar project to allow endangered and dwindling species to return to their historic spawning grounds along Maine’s longest river, the Penobscot. When the project is done - scheduled for 2015, after an additional dam is razed and another bypassed - it will open access to 1,000 miles of habitat for the native fish, including endangered Atlantic salmon and short-nosed sturgeon that journey from the Gulf of Maine to breed in the cold, fresh waters...

Nguyen Thanh Nhan in Binh Minh district, the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long last Friday caught a 2 kilo fish that has a jaw looking like a duck beak. According to Nhan, he was sitting on a boat on Hau River when he saw two strange fish rising up from the water. He used a net to catch one. Hearing about Nhan with the strange fish, locals throng his house to watch but no one could tell what kind of fish it is. Although having a body of a fresh water fish, it has a head looking like an...

Getting paid to fish sounds like a dream come true to some. But does it have the same appeal if you're going up against a "fish from hell" that can travel on land and sink its teeth into a steel-toed boot?

It turns out sawfish actually wield their snouts like chainsaw-toting madmen On second thought, that's not entirely accurate. Comparing a sawfish to a "madman" might give you the impression that these cousins of stingrays are unruly or careless when it comes to dispatching prey with their serrated snouts, when, in actuality, recent evidence suggests the exact opposite to be the case. Truth be told, sawfish are a lot more like chainsaw-toting surgeons. This observation was made by University of Queensland Biologist Barbara Wueringer, who used chunks of mullet and tuna meat to observe the predatory behavior of juvenile Pristis microdon...

CHICAGO – People who eat baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis may be improving their brain health and reducing their risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). "This is the first study to establish a direct relationship between fish consumption, brain structure and Alzheimer's risk," said Cyrus Raji, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "The results showed that people who consumed baked or broiled fish at...

This golden retriever really is a salty sea dog. Five-year-old Becky amazed her owner when she went bounding into the sea and returned with a catch that would make most anglers jealous - a sizeable cod. Tony Smith, 71, had been walking Becky at Minsmere Sluice, near Aldeburgh, Suffolk, when she swam out to sea. ...

The Obama administration is taking steps to extend new federal protections to a list of imperiled animals and plants that reads like a manifest for Noah's Ark - from the melodic golden-winged warbler and slow-moving gopher tortoise, to the slimy American eel and tiny Texas kangaroo rat. ... With a Friday deadline to act on more than 700 pending cases, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service already has issued decisions advancing more than 500 species toward potential new protections under the Endangered Species Act... Patrick Parenteau, an environmental lawprofessor at the University of Vermont. "They are moving through this large...

The Norfolk headquarters of People for the Ethical treatment of Animals was vandalized this weekend when someone dumped dead fish and crabs outside the building. PETA employees found the foul mess Sunday. Someone had also smeared fish.

It is a stark reminder that the Asian carp infestation that has overwhelmed stretches of river in the Mississippi River basin and is now threatening the waters of the Great Lakes isn't going to go away anytime soon: The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has hired a Louisiana chef for a made-for-media event this week to demonstrate just how good these fish can be to eat. It's part of the Target Hunger Now campaign, a state-sponsored humanitarian effort to turn the jumbo jumping carp into "healthy, ready-to-serve meals" for the needy. The program also provides venison to the poor. It...

A highly aggressive species of fish has been found in Lake Tahoe, and environmental scientists are afraid the nonnative invader will gobble up native fish and ruin decades of work to improve water clarity, researchers said Tuesday. ... "It really shocked us. You can think of it this way: There is a new bully in the neighborhood," said Sudeep Chandra, a university limnologist who was working with the California Department of Fish and Game on a study of invasive species when the discovery was made six weeks ago. .. The Department of Fish and Game has been working with Chandra...

An angler who caught a huge fish in the White River and kept it but didn’t accurately identify his catch may be paying as much as $1,500 for his mistake as well as losing his licenses for three years, according to a press release from the state. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, Ryan McCullough of Bethel was fishing downstream of the federal fish hatchery in Stockbridge on July 25 when he hooked and landed a 9.5-pound anadromous Atlantic salmon that measured 31½ inches long. He misidentified it as a brown trout and kept it. A photo of the...

First kittens, then puppies and hamsters and now goldfish? San Francisco's Animal Control and Welfare Commission is recommending that the City ban the sale of goldfish, tropical fish and guppies in its borders, according to Matier and Ross. The recommendation to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is part of the commission's ongoing efforts to discourage "impulse buys" of animals. The commission's ban would cover pet stores and breeders in the City. It comes after more than a year of study and findings that aquarium fish are often mass bred under inhumane conditions or stripped from the wild.

More mysterious animal deaths have surfaced, this time in a volcanic lake in the Philippines. Reports say that 800 tons, or 1.6 million pounds, of fish have turned up dead in a lake near the Taal volcano, which is located south of the capital city of Manila. Officials say the deaths may have been a result of sudden temperature change in the water.

Scientists aiming their gene sequencers at commercial seafood are discovering rampant labeling fraud in supermarket coolers and restaurant tables: cheap fish is often substituted for expensive fillets, and overfished species are passed off as fish whose numbers are plentiful. Yellowtail stands in for mahi-mahi. Nile perch is labeled as shark, and tilapia may be the Meryl Streep of seafood, capable of playing almost any role. Recent studies by researchers in North America and Europe harnessing the new techniques have consistently found that 20 to 25 percent of the seafood products they check are fraudulently identified, fish geneticists say. Labeling regulation...

TOLEDO — Wildlife researchers in northern Ohio want to know what’s killing thousands of walleye in Lake Erie. Many of the dead fish have been washing up on beaches between Toledo and Port Clinton in recent weeks. Ohio Department of Natural Resources biologist Roger Knight says it looks like the worst might be over. The walleye is Lake Erie’s most popular sport fish and draws anglers from across the Midwest and beyond.

Today, a redneck friend was trying to explain the difference between a Sunni Muslim and a Shi'ite Muslim. He says that, when Osama was dumped into the sea, he was a Sunni Muslim. But after being eaten by the fish and crabs, he was digested and converted into a Shi'ite Muslim. Somehow, my friend does not strike me as an expert on Islam, and I have to seek a second opinion. What is the difference between a Sunni and a Shi'ite Muslim?

We've got a book review for Baseball Fans-George Will's "Men At Work". Yes the man's a Conservative Pundit but he knows a thing or two about baseball. Or a thousand, or a million, things or two. Couple of TV reviews-For the 2011 season, a "Dancing With the Stars" update as well as what will turn out to be the best season ever for "Celebrity Apprentice". Also, a former Desperate Housewife turns Medical Examiner in "Body of Proof". Some political tidbits, including a horror story of the gubmint coming to "help" and our terror at same. Some Delaware politics and an update on...

A 55 feet long fish has been found in the seashore of Guangdong, China. According to a local newspaper, the big fish weighs at least 10,000 pounds. Hwang, a 66-years-old fisherman living in the near area, said he has never seen anything like this in his whole life and that the fish was tied with ropes when it was first found. Many people have flocked to see this strange specimen since its discovery, although its rotting corpse already emits a foul smell. The people living in the area think the fish was caught by some fisherman but was abandoned due...

Wanna go fishing?..bring your boat and a net. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Bf0WhvsNk&feature=player_embedded

Biologists have just discovered two new species of freshwater stingray in the Amazon rainforest, informally christening them "pancake stingrays" for their distinct IHOPian appearance (see below). Naturally, one of their first orders of business was to x-ray one of the specimens, the unearthly result you see above. The two new species, Heliotrygon gomesi and Heliotrygon rosai, are quite large, though other stingray species in this family (comprised of freshwater stingrays from the New World tropics) can reach an unnerving five feet in diameter. The x-rayed specimen is a preadult male in the Heliotrygon gomesi species, found in the rainforest near...