Fish in the News. Each week the Bailey Brothers start the Pet Fish Talk Show with some fun and interesting stories about fish in the news.       In Bohol Seahorse Sanctuary is the best in the Philippines. After sundown, tourists would travel by boat to Jandayan Island off Bohol and go diving to look at the luminous seahorses swimming among corals in the dark waters. For over 10 years, seahorses, like the one shown above, have thrived in the waters off Getafe town in Jandayan, along with fish, corals and other marine life. The fisherfolk and officials of Barangay Handumon helped make this possible. They banded together to put up, manage and protect a marine sanctuary out in the sea since 1995 despite meager resources and little support from the national government. The sanctuary has been adjudged the most outstanding marine protected area (MPA) in the country by the MPA Support Network (MSN), a multisectoral alliance of organizations seeking to protect the marine environment. "To a large extent, they have shown that they were consistently managing their areas," University of the Philippines' Marine Science Institute Prof. Porfirio Aliño, MSN coordinator, said after the awards held at the Celebrity Sports Plaza in Quezon City recently. He added: "You need to show that it has been sustained for a long time. It's quite a challenge if you think that it has been sustained for 20 years." Click here to read more.       From The Scripps Institution of Oceanography Desert Dust Feeds the World's Oceans. In mid-February, at the height of Austral summer, the sun in the Antarctic never sets. Nor did the work ever stop for University of Hawaii oceanography professor Chris Measures and his team of trace-metals oceanographers, shown in the picture above, who worked around the clock measuring dust from the decks of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography research vessel Roger Revelle. The researchers affixed bouquets of trumpet-shaped filters to the ship’s mast to trap dust from the air, and for every degree of longitude, they sampled the sea, plunging a contraption of cylindrical bottles to the depths of the upper ocean, screening water for remnants of dissolved dust and the trace amounts of iron and aluminum they contain. Chemical oceanographers are interested in how chemicals enter and cycle through the oceans. They are particularly interested in iron, a micronutrient necessary for plant growth. Just as pill supplements are a way to get vitamins into human bodies, dust from continental deserts is one way to get iron into the oceans, where phytoplankton use the dissolved form of iron, along with inputs like carbon dioxide, to process sunlight and make food for themselves. In quantifying dust deposition, the researchers hunt for trace amounts of iron and aluminum in the water column. Aluminum is not directly used by plants, but it exists in proportion to iron in desert dust, and its presence in the oceans shows the origins and the paths of iron, long after the iron has been absorbed by plants. Click here to read more.       From the French Institute of Research for Development, Piranhas originated when Amazon was Flooded by Seawater. DNA analysis shows that the piranha populations present in the Amazon flood plain but situated 100 metres above sea-level have been in existence for no more than 3 million years. According to a new hypothesis, during the marine incursion phase some piranha populations would have survived in the upstream parts of the network. Such populations would have differentiated into species following the fragmentation of their zone of distribution, but probably also in response to ecological constraints specific to the basin where they were kept in isolation from each other. Once the ocean had regressed again, 3 million years ago, these piranhas could finally have dispersed downstream, finding their way back to the Amazon's lowland plain which would have served as a gathering ground for biodiversity. What now remains to be found are the ecological parameters that could have favoured the diversification of piranha populations so confined to the upper reaches of the river network. One of the hypotheses advanced highlights water quality as a factor in stimulating ecological and morphological differentiation of species. The field survey observations indicated that some of the species were highly localized, in both geographical and ecological terms. For example, Serrasalmus hollandi is mostly found in turbid, sediment-laden waters flowing down from Andean mountain streams. In contrast, a new species the biologists discovered, lives in the same hydrographic basin but only in rivers with crystal-clear waters bearing very little sediment content. However, water quality cannot be considered as the sole factor behind speciation, seeing that a third piranha species was found living in either of these two categories of river. The research results as a whole suggest that the superimposition of factors linked to geographical history and ecological conditions, intervening at different spatial and temporal scales, is responsible for the diversification of the piranhas. This is an evolutionary progression which should be transposable to other fish communities inhabiting South American waters. Click here to read more.       From the University of Texas at Austin Swordtail's Genes Linked to Behavior. When a female Swordtail, like the one shown above, is attracted to a male, entire suites of genes in her brain turn on and off, show biologists from The University of Texas at Austin studying swordtail fish. Molly Cummings and Hans Hofmann found that some genes were turned on when females found a male attractive, but a larger number of genes were turned off. “When females were most excited—when attractive males were around—we observed the greatest down regulation [turning off] of genes,” said Cummings, assistant professor of integrative biology. “It’s possible that this could lead to a release of inhibition, a transition to being receptive to mating.” The same genes that turned on when the females were with attractive males turned off when they were with other females and vice versa. This is one of few studies to link changes in the expression of genes with changes in an individual’s behavior in different social situations. Click here to read more.       Scientists at the University of Sheffield find Ice Age Imprint on Cod Fish DNA. An international team of researchers, led by the University of Sheffield, has demonstrated how Atlantic cod fish, shown above,  responded to past natural climate extremes. The new research could help in determining cods vulnerability to future global warming. With fishing pressures high and stock size low, there is already major concern over the current sustainability of cod and other fisheries. The new findings show that natural climate change has previously reduced the range of cod to around a fifth of what it is today, but despite this, cod continued to populate both sides of the North Atlantic. The researchers used a computer model and DNA techniques to estimate where cod could be found in the ice age, when colder temperatures and lower sea-levels caused the extinction of some populations and the isolation of others. Click here to read more.       In San Francisco, California, South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project State and federal wildlife officials will unveil an ambitious wetlands restoration plan Wednesday that promises strong levees around South Bay, shown above, homes and businesses, new bayside trails for hikers and more places for bird watchers to spot shorebirds and ducks. The plan is the first phase of a $1 billion, 50-year effort to restore thousands of acres of former Cargill Inc. salt ponds purchased by the government four years ago. Various wildlife agencies will work together to expand the bay's wildlife habitat and build trails and nature centers as part of the long-term restoration. They also will construct solid levees to prevent flooding from periodic storms and rising seas associated with global warming. Click here to read more.   Callers during this Show. Jourdan from Connecticut calls and talks about his homemade aquarium filter in a drinking water bottle and about his trip to Zambia in Africa.   Scott from New Hampshire calls and asks about breeding Mbuna Cichlids in his 120-gallon aquarium.   Dennis from Spokane talks about his 80-gallon aquarium with Mollies, that get sick about every 14-weeks, which is strange.   Evan from Colorado says he bought some Amquel+, and it's worked Miracles in his aquariums and fish bowls.   The Bailey Brothers encourage YOU to call Pet Fish Talk during the show and talk about your pet fish.     Download of this Entire Show Here's how: Right-Click here, then click on "Save Target (or Link) As ...".  Navigate to the folder you prefer, and click on the button labeled "Save". 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