Many tourists and natives would go snorkeling to see the many beautiful and colorful fish that lived in the reef - but now due to what many people think is over fishing - they are no longer being given this opportunity. Ecologists say that these animals were important in maintaining the coral reefs and keeping them healthy. They would keep them clean when they grazed the algae - which can quickly overgrow the stony coral and eventually cause them to collapse.

Alan Friedlander, a federal fisheries ecologist, said Hawaii still has relatively healthy reefs. “So everything hasn’t collapsed yet,” he said. “But we need to protect healthy reefs, because it’s so much easier and safer to conserve now than it is to try to rebuild later.”

If studies show that the decrease in fish is due to over fishing than it is possible that the government will simply put in a law that will prohibit fishermen to a limited amount or will set boundaries for them.

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The Churaumi Aquarium – which is also known as the “Kuroshio Sea” is 26 feet high by 73 feet wide and two feet thick. It has to be this thick in order to hold the pressure of all that water. Inside the tank you will see a variety of fish including four whale sharks.

Whale sharks are the largest fish. The water is pumped into the tank 300 feet offshore. It is something that everyone can enjoy and is a wonder to look at.

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Researchers stated that over the past 50 years the areas that are experiencing a decrease in low oxygen levels of the central and eastern equatorial Atlantic and equatorial Pacific oceans have expanded. Continued expansion of these zones could have dramatic consequences for both sea life and coastal economies, said the team led by Lothar Stramma of the University of Kiel in Germany. The finding was not surprising, Stramma said, because computer climate models had predicted a decline in dissolved oxygen in the oceans under warmer conditions.

Warmer water does not have the capability to absorb the amount of oxygen that cold water can – explained Gregory C. Johnson – the co-author of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. “There are complex biological and chemical interactions in these low-oxygen regions,” Stramma said, also adding that these need to be more carefully and closely studied. Frank A. Whitney of Canada’s Institute of Ocean Sciences said, “As oceans lose oxygen, this will reduce habitat for many organisms.”
“Many species will lose their deep habitat, meaning competition will become stronger in the remaining favorable habitat, and increased vulnerability to predation will likely occur,” said Whitney, who was not part of Stramma’s team.

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No one has ever seen a living, grown colossal squid in its natural deep ocean habitat, and scientists hope their examination of the 1,089-pound, 26-foot long colossal squid, set to begin Wednesday, will help determine how the creatures live. The thawing and examination are being broadcast live on the Internet.

The squid, which was caught accidentally by fishermen last year, was removed from its freezer Monday and put into a tank filled with saline solution. Ice was added to the tank Tuesday to slow the thawing process so the outer flesh wouldn’t rot, said Carol Diebel, director of natural environment at New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa. After it is thawed, scientists will examine the squid’s anatomical features, remove the stomach, beak and other mouth parts, take tissue samples for DNA analysis and determine its sex, Diebel said.

“If we get ourselves a male it will be the first reported (scientific) description of the male of the species,” Steve O’Shea, a squid expert at Auckland’s University of Technology, told National Radio. He is one of the scientists conducting the examination. The squid is believed to be the largest specimen of the rare deep-water species Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or colossal squid, ever caught, O’Shea has said. Colossal squid, which have long been one of the most mysterious denizens of the deep ocean, can grow up to 46 feet long, descend to 6,500 feet into the ocean and are considered aggressive hunters.

At the time it was caught, O’Shea said it would make calamari rings the size of tractor tires if cut up — but they would taste like ammonia, a compound found in the animals’ flesh. Fishermen off the coast of Antarctica accidentally netted the squid in February 2007 while catching Patagonian toothfish, which are sold under the name Chilean sea bass. The squid was eating a hooked toothfish when it was hauled from the deep. Recognizing it as a rare find, the fishermen froze the squid on their vessel to preserve it. The national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, later took possession of it.

The previous largest colossal squid ever found was a 660 pound female squid discovered in 2003, the first ever landed. Researchers plan to eventually put the squid on display in a 1,800 gallon tank of formaldehyde at the museum in the capital, Wellington. Colossal squid are found in Antarctic waters and are not related to giant squid found round the coast of New Zealand. Giant squid grow up to 39 feet long, and are not as heavy as colossal squid.

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Several species of trout were introduced to Australia and New Zealand by amateur fishing enthusiasts in the 19th century, effectively displacing and endangering several upland native fish species. The introduced species included brown trout from England and rainbow trout from California. The rainbow trout were a steelhead strain, generally accepted as coming from Sonoma Creek. The rainbow trout of New Zealand still show the steelhead tendency to run up rivers in winter to spawn. The speckled trout, a very famous trout is found in the Gulf of Mexico, and in many other places in the United States.

Trout have fins entirely without spines, and all of them have a small adipose (fatty) fin along the back, near the tail. There are many species, and even more populations that are isolated from each other and morphologically different. However, since many of these distinct populations show no significant genetic differences, what may appear to be a large number of species is considered a much smaller number of distinct species by most ichthyologists.

The trout found in the eastern United States are a good example of this. The brook trout, the aurora trout, and the (extinct) silver trout all have physical characteristics and colorations that distinguish them, yet genetic analysis shows that they are one species, Salvelinus fontinalis.
Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), like brook trout, actually belong to the char genus. Lake trout inhabit many of the larger lakes in North America, and live much longer than rainbow trout, which have an average maximum lifespan of 7 years. Lake trout can live many decades, and can grow to more than 30 kg (66 pounds).

Trout generally feed on soft bodied aquatic invertebrates, such as flies, mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, and dragonflies. In lakes, various species of zooplankton often form a large part of the diet. In general, trout longer than about 30 cm prey almost exclusively on fish, where they are available. Adult trout will devour fish exceeding 1/3 their length. As a group, trout are somewhat bony, but the flesh is generally considered to be appetizing. Additionally, they provide a good fight when caught with a hook and line, and are sought after recreationally. Because of their popularity, trout are often raised on fish farms and planted into heavily fished waters, in an effort to mask the effects of overfishing. While they can be caught with a normal rod and reel, fly fishing is a distinctive method developed primarily for trout, and now extended to other species. Farmed trout and char are also sold commercially as food fish.

Trout that live in different environments can have dramatically different colorations and patterns. Mostly, these colors and patterns form as camouflage, based on the surroundings, and will change as the fish moves to different habitats. Trout in, or newly returned from the sea, can look very silvery, while the same “genetic” fish living in a small stream or in an alpine lake could have pronounced markings and more vivid coloration. It is virtually impossible to define a particular color pattern as belonging to a specific breed; however, in general, wild fish are claimed to have more vivid colors and patterns.

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The hammer shape of the head was once thought to help sharks get food, aiding in close-quarters maneuverability and allowing the shark to turn sharply without losing stability. However, it was found that the special design of its vertebrae allowed it to make the turns correctly, more than its head. But as a wing the hammer would also provide lift; hammerheads are one of the most negatively buoyant of sharks.

Like all sharks, hammerhead have echolocation sensory pores called ampullae of Lorenzini. By distributing the receptors over a wider area, hammerheads can sweep for prey more effectively. These sharks have been able to detect an electrical signal of half a billionth of a volt. The hammer-shaped head also gives these sharks larger nasal tracts, increasing the chance of finding a particle in the water by at least 10 times as against the ability of other ‘classical’ sharks. Wider spacing between sensory organs better enables an organisms to detect gradients and therefore the location of a gradient source such as food or a mate. The peculiar head of this shark can be thought of as analogous to the antennae of an insect.

The hammerheads are aggressive predators, eating fish, rays, cephalopods, and crustaceans. They are found in warmer waters along coastlines and continental shelves. They can also be spotted in the Gulf of Mexico along the Western coast of Florida. They are often caught by fisherman however released back into the wild, as they are protected species. Hammerheads have disproportionately small mouths and seem to do a lot of bottom-hunting. They are also known to form schools during the day, sometimes in groups of over 100. In the evening, like other sharks, they become solitary hunters.

Hammerheads are notably one of the only creatures in the animal kingdom to acquire a tan from prolonged exposure to sunlight, a feature shared by pigs and humans. Tanning occurs when a hammerhead is in shallow waters or close to the surface for long periods. Reproduction in the hammerhead shark occurs once a year with each litter containing 20 to 40 pups. Hammerhead shark mating courtship is a violent affair. The male will bite the female until she acquiesces, allowing mating to occur. Unlike many other shark species, the hammerhead shark has internal fertilization which creates a safe environment for the sperm to unite with the egg. The embryo develops within the female inside a placenta and is fed through an umbilical cord, similar to mammals. The gestation period is 10 to 12 months.

Once the pups are born the parents do not stay with them and they are left to fend for themselves. Young hammerheads are often born headfirst, with the tip of their hammerhead folded backward to make them more streamlined for birth. A world-record 1,280 pound (580 kg) pregnant female was caught off Boca Grande, Florida on May 23, 2006. The shark was carrying 55 pups, which suggests scientists had previously underestimated the number of pups per gestation.

In May 2007 scientists discovered that Hammerhead sharks can reproduce asexually through a rare method known as parthenogenesis, as they have the ability to fertilize their own eggs. At first the announcement was considered skeptically, due to the fact that a female shark can store sperm inside her for months, even years, but it was confirmed through DNA testing that the pup lacked any paternal DNA. This is the first documented case of any shark doing this.

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“The wounds have healed very nicely. The problem is she doesn’t swim very well,” said Jeff George, curator at the nonprofit Sea Turtle Inc., a 31-year-old turtle conservation facility that treats and returns injured sea turtles to the wild. Now, her caregivers hope to make her what’s believed to be the first sea turtle fitted with a prosthetic flipper.

Three-flipper turtles can return to the sea and two-flipper turtles can survive in captivity. But those left with only one after predator attacks or run-ins with boat propellers are usually killed. Allison, named for the daughter of one of the tourists who found her, was spared because an intern begged for a chance to nurse her back to health the summer she was found. Since then, Allison has adapted and grown to normal size for her age.

“With Allison, from the day she arrived, she was a fighter,” said Lucia Guillen, the nonprofit’s resident biologist and educator. But because an Atlantic green sea turtle like Allison can grow to 450 pounds and live a century or so, her long-term prognosis with only one flipper is not promising. “She would be destined to shallow water for the rest of her life and that becomes a quality-of-life issue,” George said.

That’s when they got the idea for a kind of bionic turtle. A group of veterinary and medical professionals — including an assistant professor at the world-renowned University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the UT Dental Branch in Houston — have volunteered to help fit a prosthetic flipper to her left rear side.

She has a small bony stump there that could help hold a fake flipper, while making it difficult for her to use her clamping jaw to rip it off. Allison may have been the victim of a shark attack. University of Texas’ Dr. Sudarat Kiat-amnuay plans to develop a prosthetic using the same kind of silicon she uses to create facial prosthetics for humans. Her dental expertise helps because the kind of tiny hardware used in dental implants are probably the best size match for Allison’s bones.

Kiat-amnuay plans to use the same technique she would to create a prosthetic nose or ears for a human patient. She’ll use sculpting wax and molds created from a dead turtle’s flipper and then custom fit one for Allison. The silicon, now only tested in saliva, will be tested in sea water to make sure it holds up, she said.

Kiat-amnuay said she even plans to hand color the fake to match Allison’s natural flipper. The first trial flipper could be ready within a few weeks, though Kiat-amnuay and Sea Turtle Inc.’s veterinary director are still figuring out how to attach it.

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When an appropriate place is found the cyprid larva cements itself headfirst to the surface and then undergoes metamorphosis into a juvenile barnacle. Typical barnacles develop six hard armour plates to surround and protect their bodies. For the rest of their lives they are cemented to the ground, using their feathery legs (cirri) to capture plankton and gametes when spawning. They are usually found in the intertidal zone.

Once metamorphosis is over and they have reached their adult form, barnacles will continue to grow, but not moult. Instead, they grow by adding new material to the ends of their heavily calcified plates. Like many invertebrates, barnacles are hermaphroditic and alternate male and female roles over time.

Barnacles often attach themselves to man-made structures, sometimes to the structure’s detriment. They even attach themselves to whales. Other members of the class have quite a different mode of life. Some barnacles are edible by humans, and goose barnacles are treasured as a delicacy in Portugal, Spain, and Greece and other Mediterranean countries.

The resemblance of this barnacle’s fleshy stalk to a goose’s neck gave rise in ancient times to the notion that geese, or at least certain seagoing species of wild goose, literally grew from the barnacle. Most notably, the wild Barnacle Goose, whose eggs and young were rarely seen by humans because it breeds in the remote Arctic, got its popular name because it was imagined to grow from gooseneck barnacles.

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Seahorses feed on larval fishes and amphipods, such as small shrimp-like crustaceans called mysids (”opossum shrimp”), sucking up their prey with their small mouths. Many of these amphipods feed on red algae that thrives in the shade of the kelp forests where sea dragons live.

The male becomes pregnant when “The female inserts her ovipositor into the male’s brood pouch, where she deposits her eggs, which the male fertilizes. The fertilized eggs then embed in the pouch wall and become enveloped with tissues.” New research indicates the male releases sperm into the surrounding sea water during fertilization, and not directly into the pouch as was previously thought. Most seahorse species’ pregnancies lasts approximately two to three weeks.

Hatched offspring are independent of their parents. Some spend time developing among the ocean plankton. At times, the male seahorse may try to consume some of the previously released offspring. Other species immediately begin life as sea-floor inhabitants.

Seahorses are generally monogamous, though several species are highly gregarious. In monogamous pairs, the male and female will greet one another with courtship displays in the morning and sometimes in the evening to reinforce their pair bond. They spend the rest of the day separate from each other hunting for food.

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Characteristic of this species is an acute incision or notch above the nares. All true (pure) specimens show this trait, whereas commercial hybrids are occasionally performed by breeders to sell them as Orinoco Angelfish, will most likely not show this trait or show it to a much lesser degree.

The true wild caught Orinoco Angelfish is among the most challenging among tropical fish to breed in captivity. The species is the largest of the genus and specimens exceeding 50 cm in height (from tip of dorsal to tip of anal fin) have been reported in the wild; in aquariums, specimens are known to have grown to +40 cm.

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