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Pastimes : FISH FARMS NEED TO BE THE SIZE OF COUNTRIES -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (277)	3/3/2005 4:07:24 PM
From: redfish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 405

WASHINGTON Mar 3, 2005 — A strange world of see-through shrimp, crabs and other life forms teems around a newly explored field of thermal vents near the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, scientists report. Towering white mineral chimneys mark the field, named the Lost City, a sharp contrast to the better-known black smoker vents that have been studied in recent years. The discovery shows "how little we know about the ocean," lead researcher Deborah S. Kelley of the University of Washington said. "I have been working on black smokers for about 20 years, and you sort of think you have a good idea what going on," she said in a telephone interview. "But the ocean is a big place and there are still important opportunities for discovery." The Lost City was discovered by accident in 2000 as Kelley and others studied undersea areas near the midocean ridge. They returned to the area in 2003 to analyze what they had found and were startled to learn how different the new vent environment and its residents were from the ones studied before. Their findings are reported in Friday's issue of the journal Science. Black smokers are chimney-like structures that form when very hot water reaching 700 degrees Fahrenheit breaks through the ocean floor and comes into contact with frigid ocean water. The minerals that crystallize during the process give the chimneys their black color. At Lost City, on the other hand, the temperature of the escaping fluids is 150 degrees to 170 degrees. The environment is extremely alkaline, compared to the high acid levels at black smokers. A variety of unusual creatures have been discovered around black smoker vents, including tubeworms that can grow as long as eight feet. At first the scientists thought there were few animals in Lost City. Then they vacuumed the surface of the white vents and found large numbers of tiny shrimp and crabs, mostly transparent or translucent and less than a half-inch in size, that had been hiding in nooks and crannies, Kelley said. abcnews.go.com wireStory?id=548272&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 PS: I have still not identified a strange fish I caught on the shore which I mentioned a few months ago. I wish I had kept it or at least taken a photo. I think it could have been a mutated bluefish. My next step will be to research the fish of other continents. We have recently had Lion Fish breeding in Florida waters, so it is not out of the question that it could have come here from far away.

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (277)	3/3/2005 5:34:15 PM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 405

Interesting read. American lobsters caught in European waters thought to be discarded from cruise ships. I think some of those chefs are secret animal rights activists in their spare time -g- If I remember correctly the world record 44 pound lobster was caught within the last ten years too. More news on mercury and fish.. theunion.com Gold Rush mercury taints area fish Researcher says to eat local catches sparingly Dave Moller, davem@theunion.com March 3, 2005 A federal research chemist says mercury left in Sierra watersheds by Gold Rush miners could take hundreds of years to flush out naturally. At a recent meeting of the Bear River Watershed Group, Charlie Alpers said the water is safe to drink in Nevada and Placer counties, but as the mercury moves through the food chain, it becomes the toxin methylmercury and is found in fish. Consuming too many of those fish could cause neurological problems in people, Alpers said. His advice was to eat no more than one meal a week of fish caught in the Yuba, Bear and Deer Creek watersheds. Alpers and his colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey have been studying area watersheds for mercury since 1998. Their work led to a 2003 state warning to consume no more than four meals of fish per month from the local watersheds. "It's probably something you don't want to do every day," Alpers said about eating locally caught fish. The USGS studies have found extreme mercury levels at Camp Far West Reservoir, which straddles the Nevada, Yuba and Placer county lines above Wheatland. The Nevada Irrigation District's Combie Reservoir below Lake of the Pines "came in a close second" and needs follow-up study, Alpers said. Rollins Reservoir off Highway 174 had mercury levels that were "quite a bit lower," Alpers said. The cooler temperatures in the lake may be the reason, he said. A new Bear River watershed study that is tracing levels of mercury toxins in the food chain will come out shortly, Alpers told a Higgins Community Center audience on Tuesday night. Readings have been taken from plankton, insects, slugs and fish for that study. Sampling sites have included spots along Camp Far West, Combie, Rollins and the Dutch Flat reservoirs. Stream samplings have been taken on Greenhorn Creek in the You Bet Road area. Alpers said the studies have come to several conclusions. • "Mercury contamination is pervasive in gold mining areas" with more coming from placer than hard rock mines. He estimated that through the years, almost 13 million pounds of mercury were left in the Sierra by gold miners. • Only 1 percent of the mercury left behind has turned into the toxic methylmercury. If that figure was 10 percent, the danger of consuming fish would rise dramatically. • Contaminated sediments in foothill lakes and flood plains are likely to be long-term sources of mercury to the environment "so the benefits of cleaning up mine sites by be a long time coming." WEB SITES ON MERCURY • ca.water.usgs.gov/mercury This federal U.S. Geological Survey site has the findings and fish consumption warnings from the mercury survey done in the Yuba River, Bear River and Deer Creek watersheds. • www.oehha.ca.gov This California environmental health department site has information about mercury in fish and its dangers.