BABY CORALS NEEDS HEALTHY CORAL REEF TO SETTLE.

Coral reefs and crevices create complex underwater structures. When turbulence is generated by these hard structures, it creates eddies that catch the coral larvae. Because coral larvae are poor swimmer, and are not able to suitable settlement sites on their own, depend on the structures that help shape these eddies, otherwise they are basically lost at sea, with no chance to settle and grow up. 

Nowadays, coral reefs around the globe suffer from repeated environmental disturbances, which are only compounded with climate change. According to coral reef experts, maintaining structural complexity of scales on reefs is vitally important in terms of aiding reef recovery. Relevant management actions include limiting factors that reduce complexity, such as destructive fishing practices, and promoting factors that enhance complexity, as algae-eating fish to the area to prevent algae from growing and smothering corals. 

Photo: A Flabellum thouarsii coral larvae, showing tentacles and a mouth, by Susie Blaser.

so small

he gets swept away

he hide

one big claw one small claw

a sandy boy

How do blind cavefish find their way?

Imagine living in perpetual darkness in an alien world where you have to find food quickly by feel or starve for months at a time. The limestone caverns of Mexico’s Sierra del Abra Tanchipa rainforest contain deep cisterns cloaked in utter blackness. This is where researchers at the University of Cincinnati traveled to find a little fish (Astyanax mexicanus) that has evolved to feast or endure famine entombed hundreds of feet below the ground. Pictured here, a micro CT scan shows differences in bone structure between a surface fish, left, and a cavefish. The eye orbit has collapsed and the jaws are more pronounced in the cavefish, among other differences. Image credit: Amanda Powers. 

SHARK JOURNEY: A BLUE SHARK SWIMS FROM CHILE TO NEW ZEALAND IN ONE YEAR

The blue shark (Prionace glauca) had been tagged on March 23, 2016, off the coast of Valparaiso in central Chile, and it appeared on the outskirts of New Zealand. The shark traveled about 8.000 km in 415 days (1 year, 1 month and 19 days). This mark-recapture proyect is part of the tagging program of highly migratory organisms that the Institute of Fisheries Promotion of Chile (IFOP) has been doing for some years.

The proyect is led by Dr. Patricia Zárate, who explains “these small brands, teach us a lot at the time of recapture, we can learn what the recaptured animal has shifted and sometimes we can also know how much has grown”. The female shark, at the time of tagging was 106 cm in length, but when it was recaptured had grown 24 cm in one year and 50 days. According to Zárate, despite we know blue sharks are migratory sharks, this is the first results of a trans-ocean migrations of these blue sharks in the South Pacific, remarking the importance of knowing more about them and how they move in the ocean.

I guess the moral of the story here is to take risks. It’s the only way to be successful in Science. Sometimes it fails (most of the time) but every now and again you get lucky. And when you get lucky, take advantage of it.Don’t turn it down hoping something better will come along.