SCUBA News 137

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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)
Issue 137 - October 2011
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk
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SCUBA News is published by SCUBA Travel Ltd, the independent guide to diving around the world.

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Contents:
- What's new at SCUBA Travel?
- Creature of the Month: Yellow Saddle Goatfish
- Diving News from Around the World

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What's New at SCUBA Travel?
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Diving Indonesia

Loads of your recommendations for Indonesian dive operators are now at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/indonesia/diving-indonesia.html
along with more dive site descriptions at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/indonesia/indodive.html
Thank you everyone who gave a review.

Diving Colombia

"One of the most beautiful sites to dive in the world. Best of all is still unexploited by tourism" - just one of the comments on the diving off Colombia on our new page at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/americas/colombia.html

For regular announcements of what's new at the SCUBA Travel site see our Twitter feed, our Facebook page or the SCUBA Travel Google+ page.

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Creature of the Month: Yellow Saddle Goatfish, Parupeneus cyclostomus
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Yellow saddle goatfish are a common site on the reefs of the Red Sea: hardly worth noting down in your log book. A team of scientists from Switzerland though have discovered that these fish exibit very unusual behaviour. They work together to catch their dinner. Similar co-operation has only been identified in a handful of species - primarily mammals including chimpanzees, orcas, lions and dolphins. However, Helmut Debelius did document it in a different species of goatfish in his book Red Sea Reef Guide

You can easily identify a goatfish by the 2 barbels on its chin. Yellow Saddle goatfish come in two colours - all yellow or yellow and blue/grey. You see them either alone, or in small groups. Those alone, like other species of goatfish, use their barbels to root around for prey in the sand.

The groups are more interesting. They feed mainly on small fishes, hunting them as a "pack". Any member of the group might initiate a hunt by rapid acceleration. The rest of the goatfish do not simply follow the attacker, but swim around the coral and cut off the prey's escape route.

If the prey tries to hide in a coral crevice, the team of goatfish use their barbels to push it out.

The goatfish groups comprise individuals of the same size: they are not family groups. In fact, the groups often also include a Bird Wrasse.

During frequent snorkelling trips in the Egyptian Red Sea to observe the species, the scientists found that the goatfish groups spent most of their day chasing prey.

As more people study fish, presumably more behaviours previously thought to be unique to mammals and birds will be observed.

Further Reading:
On Group Living and Collaborative Hunting in the Yellow Saddle Goatfish (Parupeneus cyclostomus)
BBC Nature News: Reef fish live and hunt as a team
Coral Reef Guide Red Sea by Ewald Lieske and Robert F. Myers
Red Sea Reef Guide by Helmut Debelius

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Diving News From Around the World
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You can display this news, in real-time, on your web site. Just grab our news feed from http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/scuba.xml. For more details see http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/newsfeed.html. You can also read it on our Twitter page
Isle of Man Finally gets a Marine Nature Reserve

Ramsey Bay has been designated as the Isle of Man's first Marine Nature Reserve. The area will be protected from damaging activities, fisheries will be safeguarded and it is hoped it will become a centre for diving and research.

Marshall Islands creates world's biggest shark park

The Republic of the Marshall Islands has created the world's biggest shark reserve: so large that all of Mexico could fit comfortably inside. With new legislation, commercial shark fishing is now completely banned in Marshall Islands' 768,547 square miles (1,990,530 square kilometers) of ocean.

More fish and healthy seas petition

WWF are calling on the European Union to end overfishing and ensure our fisheries and marine environment can thrive again by reforming the Common Fisheries Policy. They invite you to sign their petition.

McDonald's ocean rescue: Sea change or greenwash?

From this month, all of McDonald's Filet-O-Fish sandwiches sold in Europe will now bear a label from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), a British environmental watchdog, certifying that the fish used was caught in a sustainable way. That means 100 million fish sandwiches a year will be made with fish caught in ways that should not leave oceans desolate and marine life at risk.

Experts Identify World's Most Threatened Sea Turtle Populations

Top sea turtle experts from around the globe have discovered that almost half of the world's threatened sea turtle populations are found in the northern Indian Ocean. The study also determined that the most significant threats across all of the threatened populations of sea turtles are fisheries bycatch - accidental catches of sea turtles by fishermen targeting other species - and the direct harvest of turtles or their eggs for food or turtle shell material for commercial use.

Corals might learn to adapt to warmer seas

Coral could adapt to rising sea temperatures without switching their symbiotic algae and bacteria - but survival might be short-lived.

Coral reefs more vulnerable than they appear, but collapse is avoidable

Coral reefs that appear healthy may in reality be heading for collapse. The study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups showed that overfished reefs undergo a series of at least eight important changes before final collapse.

Coral Reefs likely to disappear by the end of the century

Coral reefs will be gone by the end of the century, according to a top UN Scientist. This would give coral reefs the dubious accolade of being the first entire ecosystem to have been destroyed by human activity.

Study identifies molecules used by certain species of seaweed to harm corals

Scientists for the first time have identified and mapped the chemical structure of molecules used by certain species of marine seaweed to kill or inhibit the growth of reef-building coral. Chemicals found on the surfaces of several species of seaweed have been shown to harm coral, suggesting that competition with these macroalgae could be a factor in the worldwide decline - and lack of recovery - of coral reefs.

Decline and recovery of Hawaii coral reefs linked to 700 years of human and environmental activity

Changing human activities coupled with a dynamic environment over the past few centuries have caused fluctuating periods of decline and recovery of corals reefs in the Hawaiian Islands. Using the reefs and island societies as a model social-ecological system, a team of scientists reconstructed 700 years of human-environment interactions in two different regions of the Hawaiian archipelago to identify the key factors that contributed to degradation or recovery of coral reefs.

NOAA's 'early warning' coral reef observing network expands to the Pacific

Coral reef managers in the Northern Mariana Islands will now receive early warning of dangerous environmental conditions that can weaken and kill high value coral reefs, thanks to a new coral observing station added today in Lao Lao Bay, Saipan. The new station is a first-of-its-kind for the Pacific region and joins a network of other monitoring stations in Caribbean and Atlantic tropical waters that assist officials conserve, protect and manage reef ecosystems.

Italians illegally use drift-nets

The European Commission has called on Italy to take measures and comply with an October 2009 Court of Justice ruling on Italy's continued illegal use of drift-nets. The Court found that Italy had failed to adequately control and enforce the EU ban on the use of drift-nets.

Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon Spill Effects on Fish Revealed

Despite low concentrations of oil constituents in Gulf of Mexico waters from the Deepwater Horizon spill, fish were dramatically affected by toxic components of the oil.

Fishing boats kill up to 320,000 seabirds a year

Study published in the journal Endangered Species Research reports that some seabird species are being pushed towards extinction as many fishing fleets fail to implement simple measures to prevent bycatch.

Marine sanctuary to become Research Area

The southern third of NOAA's 22-square mile Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary off the Georgia coast was designated a research area, where scientists can study how human activities and natural processes affect the sanctuary's marine resources. The new designation will take effect after a 45-day Congressional review. Fishing and diving will be prohibited.

Ocean Nitrogen Rising

Changes in the ratio of nitrate to phosphorus in the oceans off the coasts of Korea and Japan may influence marine ecology and the makeup of marine plants, according to a new study.

Explaining glowing seas

It has long been known that spectacular blue flashes--a type of bioluminescence--that are visible at night in some marine environments (currently including coastal California waters) are caused by tiny, unicellular plankton known as dinoflagellates. However, a new study has, for the first time, detailed the potential mechanism for this bioluminescence.

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