Saving Seafood

University of Washington scientist launches effort to digitize all fish

July 27, 2016 — SEATTLE — University of Washington biology professor Adam Summers no longer has to coax hospital staff to use their CT scanners so he can visualize the inner structures of stingray and other fish.

Last fall, he installed a small computed tomography, or CT, scanner at the UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island in Washington state and launched an ambitious project to scan and digitize all of more than 25,000 species in the world.

The idea is to have one clearinghouse of CT scan data freely available to researchers anywhere to analyze the morphology, or structure, of particular species.

So far, he and others have digitized images of more than 500 species, from poachers to sculpins, from museum collections around the globe. He plans to add thousands more and has invited other scientists to use the CT scanner, or add their own scans to the open-access database.

“We have folks coming from all over the world to use this machine,” said Summers, who advised Pixar on how fish move for its hit animated films “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory” and is dubbed “fabulous fish guy” on the credits for “Nemo.”

He raised $340,000 to buy the CT scanner in November. Like those used in hospitals, the CT scanner takes X-ray images from various angles and combines them to create three-dimensional images of the fish.

With each CT scan he posted to the Open Science Framework, a sharing website, people would ask him, “What are you going to scan next?” He would respond: “I want to scan them all. I want to scan all fish.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Researchers register success in breeding Pacific blue tangs aka ‘Finding Dory’ fish

July 25, 2016 — You can call it ‘Finding Dory’ effect, as a rise has been witnessed in the sales of Pacific blue tang since the movie has been released. Blue tangs can only be captured in the wild. As per experts, the methods used for the same are environmentally harmful.

For past many years, researchers have been tried to replicate the species; mating, hatching and growing behavior. Researchers from the University of Florida have achieved success in the same and have been able to breed Pacific blue tangs.

The research was carried out by the university researchers along with Rising Tide Conservation and the SeaWorld-Busch Gardens Conservation Fund. The species is considered to be the most difficult fish. In fact, only 12.5 to 15% of aquarium creatures can be bred in captivity. It has now become vital to increase the percentage.

As mentioned above, only method to get them is from the wild. Blue tangs are not going to become extinct, as they reproduce in large number and live in reefs across the world. But reefs are what giving concerns to scientists.

Read the full story at NorcalNews

Scientists worried ‘Finding Dory’ will threaten fish species

May 17, 2016 — Pixar’s “Finding Dory,” out June 13, might literally take fish out of water.

Australian biologists fear that the regal blue tang — the Dory of the title, voiced by Ellen DeGeneres — may go the way of the clownfish after “Finding Nemo” came out in 2003.

Scientists say that when demand for the vibrant species skyrockets, the fish are often taken from the wild through harmful practices.

“In places like Southeast Asia, they use … cyanide,” Anita Nedosyko, a marine biologist, told the Brisbane Times. “It stuns the fish — it makes it easier to catch them.”

Read the full story at the New York Post