Farting on a school bus – bad; Farting as part of a school of herring – ok

Recently two Ohio middle school boys were suspended from riding the bus for farting on the bus. If these boys were part of a school of herring they’d have no repercussions. In fact, they’d be making the grade in language arts.

Back in 2003 an article published in the U.K. science journal Biology Letters explained a phenomenon discovered by scientists at the Bamfield Marine Science Centre, British Columbia, Canada, where herring produce high-frequency sound bursts followed by a fine stream of bubbles, dubbed Fast Repetitive Tick (FRT).

The noise can be up 22 kilohertz.

It is suspected that these FRTs are not to be a call to hunger or a call to breed but rather are triggered while the fish are swimming at night while in large densities as a means of communications. According to a National Geographic article on the subject, “It might seem an amusing idea to us that herring communicate using farts. But for herring and the mammals that prey on them, FRTs may signal safety—or the next meal.”

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It’s as easy as A, B, Sea: Y for Yellowfin Tuna

Yellowfin tuna are the most commercially sought after of all tunas. They have a football shaped body and can reach up to 450 pounds. Which is very impressive since they can also swim up to 30 miles per hour. Yellowfin tuna prefer to swim in schools in all temperate oceans. They prefer to eat fish any fish smaller than themselves and their biggest predator tend to be sharks.

Image (c) ilovebluesea.com

It’s as easy as A, B, Sea: O for Operculum

Operculum is the hard scalelike cover of the gills of bony fishes. Cartilaginous fishes (such as sharks, skates and rays) all lack a gill cover.

Image (c) www.webs.lander.ed

What is the fastest fish in the sea?

The world’s fastest fish is the Indo-Pacific sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus. This sport fish can swim up to 68 miles per hour by standards (a cheetah can run up to 70 miles per hour).  Check out this incredible video from PBS which aired in August of 2010. Marine biologist, Rick Rosenthal, witnesses a rare moment of a sailfish feeding at night. You’ll also see a baby sailfish drawn into the light by Rick’s flashlight. Enjoy!

Whales don’t have scales

That’s right. Whales are covered in blubber because they are mammals like you and I. Now the fish in the sea are another story. You might not realize it, but, if you’ve ever had the opportunity to touch a shark they are covered in scales just like other bony fish. There are several main types of scales that cover fish. See if you can figure out which cover sharks.

1.) Ctenoid scales: These scales are comb-like with the ends having small teeth-like structures.

2.) Ganoid scales: These scales are heavy and diamond-shaped.

3.) Cycloid scales: These are round scales with smooth edges.

4.) Cosmoid scales: These scales are very hard and covered in enamel.

5.) Placoid scales: These scales have teeth-like edges. They are different than ctenoid scales because they lack they rounded front.

Scales grow out of the skin and have modified to quite a few different versions over the years. In fact, the feathers of a bird are a type of evolved scale!

How do fish give birth?

There are three general ways fish in the sea give birth to a new generation.

I will start off explaining what is most familiar to us, fish that give birth to live young. This is called being viviparous. There is a structure similar to the placenta that connects the embryo to the mother’s blood supply. Some shark species are viviparous. In fact, in some shark species such as the shortfin mako, the embryo has been known to eat other eggs developed by the mother.

Next is something similar called giving birth oviviparously. This is when the embryo develops inside of an egg that is inside the mother. The difference between this and viviparity is that the embryo gets no nourishment from the mother. Nutrients are taken from within the egg. Coelacanths are a type of oviviparious fish.

Lastly, I will go over how 97% of fish species reproduce. These are the fish that lay many, many eggs and hide them in a dark corner so predators can’t get to them. This is called being oviparous. With most oviparous fish species fertilization takes place outside the body. But with many types of skates and rays (pictured right) the male will use his claspers to internally fertilize the female eggs before she lays them.

Image (c) www.gma.org

No more fish in the sea

From Good (an on-line web magazine dedicated to enabling  individuals, businesses, and non-profits to push the world forward) an infographic detailing the decline of popular fish species in the last 50 years. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the Untied Nations calculates how many fish are left in the ocean by counting how many fish are allocated for harvesting (assuming the maximum are caught).

‘Drumroll’ means spawning season for some fish species

Did you know the fish species, red drum and black drum (pictured right), are in the same family as spotted sea trout and Atlantic croaker?  All of these fish have an ability to produce a drumming sound on their air bladders … Which, is how they got commons names such as “croaker” and “drum”. This drumming sound is very noticeable during spawning seasons.

Do you have another good question for the Beach Chair Scientist? Go to http://www.beachchairscientist.com and let us know. Or you can e-mail your question to info@beachchairscientist.com.

image (c) landbigfish.com

Swiped bass

The striped bass (Morone saxatilis) is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York and New Hampshire. The fish is commonly referred to as the rockfish. The fish supports a $6.5 billion per year industry with 60,000 jobs as a recreational game species. Read more about this in the November 22, 2009 article in the Washington Times, “Anglers serve time for black-market rockfish trade” by Jim McElhatton.

Image (c) Fish and Wildlife Service via wikimedia

If you have any questions please e-mail beachchairscientist@gmail.com or let us know at http://www.beachchairscientist.com.

The Fisheries Industry is a Ponzi Scheme?

Yes, it is unfortunate. Please read the article from the New Republic “Aquacalypse Now: The End of Fish” by Daniel Pauly (pictured) to find out more.

Daniel Pauly is a professor at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia and the principal investigator of its Sea Around Us Project.

Image (c) carmelfinley.wordpress.com