This is amazing! It was just discovered that the nine-spined stickleback fish (found in the UK) uses a technique called “hill climbing” to select the place where to be most successful for finding food. Basically, the fish stands aside and watched other fish and their feeding habits to learn from their successes and challenges! Read more at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090616205515.htm
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Basically, there is a very high demand for the fins of sharks in China for a soup. The current practice is to cut off the fins off sharks and toss the body back into the ocean.
The shark does not grow a fin back like a seastar would regenerate an arm.
The shark will not be able to swim and not be able to have oxygen over its gills.
The shark will die.
Some may say sharks have a reputation that might grant this type of control. However, they only produce a few young every one or two years and take up to ten years to even be mature enough to make babies.
Sharks populations are being fished at rates above a safe biological limit. Sharks are crucial top predators in the ocean ecosystem. Without sharks at a stable population the balance of the sea is at stake.
Please visit this page for information on how to stop the practice of shark finning: www.change.org/oceanconservancy/actions/view/stop_shark_finning
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Barnacles are crustaceans. Other crustaceans include crabs and lobsters.
Big difference is that barnacles are permanently attached to a solid surface.
Also, what is obviously missing is the sensory parts, such as eyes and feelers.
What is still there on barnacles are the same type of bony plates that you find on crabs and lobster.
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Agar is a form of red algae. It can be used as the agar gel that lines the bottom of scientists petri dishes. Agar is also a stabilizer for some foods, including ice cream (not Breyers’). It is also a stabilizer in cosmetics and paint.
Carrageen, from a red algae called Irish moss, is also used in food. It helps in foods that needs ingredients to be suspended prior to refrigeation. For instance, it is in chocolate milk to make certain the chocolate does not sink to the bottom.
Kelp, a leafy green algae found in the Pacific, is used as a fertilizer in some parts of the world.
Betcha didn’t know many different types of seaweeds have been used in medicine that help treat tuberculosis, arthritis, influenza, the common cold and some worm infections.
Also, algae is a major source of oxygen and the very important beginning of the ocean food chain.
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First of all, let’s chat biotechnology, or, ‘biotech’, as those in the industry call it.
The concept of biotech has been around for ages, just, not given the fancy term. For instance, planting seeds to produce food, fermenting juice for wine and churning milk into cheese are all processes that use some derivative of a plant or animal to benefit mankind. In the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields of today, the Atlantic horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) blood is a very important component in the process for testing drugs that can benefits humans.
The Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) test is used to test for gram negative bacteria contamination in certain products before being released to the public. What is unique with the LAL, is that LAL does not distinguish between living or dead gram negative bacteria and detects either.
You do not want anything with a gram negative bacteria contamination. Gram negative contamination include: Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Neisseria meningitidis, Hemophilus influenzae, Klebsiella pneumonia.
The blood of the horseshoe crab has this unbelievable property where it will congeal in the presence of either living or dead gram negative bacteria (both are undesirable). This adaptation has never been able to be duplicated and consequently horseshoe crabs are often captured to have their blood drained and then released, all in the name of science.
Many thanks go out to Ben for his major contribution to this post. He’s a researcher with a biotechnology company and actually does do the LAL quite often.
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- The female lays her eggs in the male’s tummy pouch, he then incubates them for about 30 days, then they hatch.
- Seahorses do not have a stomach; they eat constantly to help get enough food to digest.
- Seahorses do not have teeth; they have a fused jaws, so they kind of suck up their food like a straw.
- Seahorses can be an inch to a foot more in size.
- They are very monogamous.
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Some products need a little something extra to basically hold it together. Certain ice creams, lip sticks and even beer use a derivative of red seaweed, called carrageenan, to emulsify the products.
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No. I mentioned in the very first BCS blog entry that the horseshoe crab is a “sweetheart of an animal” and I will continue to defend that statement. Some people may think that the tail spine, or telson, is poisonous. What the telson is simply used for is to flip the animal over when a wave turns it onto its carapace. The tip of the telson is jabbed into the sand and the horseshoe crab rights itself over, somewhat like the act of throwing a javelin.
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Sea glass can be thought of as a well traveled piece of history. The hard substances
that you find have spent a considerable amount of time floating in the ocean. It has been tumbling along the sand and water for so long that that the glass, slate or what have you, has been polished by the sand grains.
Usually the brightly colored pieces are collected quickly by beachcombers. If you spend time investigating the wrack line you will surely discover some more subtle pieces – if you are lucky you will find some with faded descriptions of their original containers.
Photo (c) freefoto.com
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According to the Discovery Health Channel, it is estimated that 1 in 3 beach goers do not know how to swim. The rational is that if you were not taught as a child then there is a hesitation to learn to swim as an adult.
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