Herring fart to communicate

Tiny bubbles that stream from their anuses in the dark may allow herring to keep in tight schools when they can't see.  Amusing, unlike human farts, herring farts seem to bring the fish closer together.

Herring farts are not gut gas, rather they come from air gulped at the surface and stored in their swim bladder (air-containing organ used to control buoyancy).

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Is your Maine lobster truly wild?

Fishermen are feeding young lobsters in Maine, turning the wild lobster fishery into something less that fully wild.  The way this works is that lobsters enter traps, eat the bait, and then leave (studies show that 90% of lobsters escape after entering traps).  Scientists have found that lobsters get enough food from lobster traps to enhance their growth rate.  Sounds like a cross between fishing and farming to me, something like a lobster feedlot.

Lobstermen know about this, and don't try to hide it.   

"A lot of lobstermen feel that traps are really feeding stations," says Cobb. New England's lobster fishery is in good health - perhaps, says Cobb, because of all the bait that fishermen put out. 

Maine lobsters are great, I can vouch for that.  I wonder, does anyone advertise Maine lobsters as farmed?

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Scary ocean predator you've never heard of..

Watch this big lingcod get caught because it won't let go of it's prey.  Vicious? Stubborn? Not very clever?  Regardless, I'm glad I'm not a fish in lingcod country.

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Lingcod tries to eat salmon

Fascinating underwater video, can the salmon escape the lingcod's trap-like jaws?



Hat tip: Salish Sea News and Weather

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Plants vs. Seazombies in Seattle

Good news, plants defeat seazombies in Seattle.  Urban streams breed seazombies when fall rains wash a chemical stew into creeks where salmon are getting ready to spawn.  Some salmon are killed directly, but what’s worse is that some transform into seazombies—poisoned undead fish that come out of streams to eat your brain. 

Fortunately, scientists have discovered that plants can stop the seazombie plague.  Biofiltration by a soil/plant mixture cleans the toxic stew so it’s harmless, protecting salmon.  

Quick, let’s get more plants working in our city neighborhoods before seazombies take over. 

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