Fish News

June 15, 2024

Top Headlines

Dolphins With Elevated Mercury Levels in Florida and Georgia

June 13, 2024 — Scientists found elevated mercury levels in dolphins in the U.S. Southeast. The highest levels were found in dolphins in Florida's St. Joseph and Choctawhatchee Bays. Researchers study dolphins because they are considered a sentinel species for ...

Paleontology: New Fossil Fish Genus Discovered

June 13, 2024 — Paleontologists have identified a new genus of fossil goby, revealing evolutionary secrets of a lineage that stretches back millions of ...

Cocaine Trafficking Threatens Critical Bird Habitats

June 12, 2024 — In addition to its human consequences, cocaine trafficking harms the environment and threatens habitats important to dozens of species of migratory birds, according to a new ...

No Bones About It: 100-Million-Year-Old Bones Reveal New Species of Pterosaur

June 12, 2024 — New research has identified 100-million-year-old fossilized bones discovered in western Queensland as belonging to a newly identified species of pterosaur, which was a formidable flying reptile that ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:02pm EDT

The Gender Gap in Life Expectancy: Are Eggs and Sperm Partly Responsible?

June 12, 2024 — Researchers have found that germ cells, which develop into eggs and sperm, drive sex-dependent differences in lifespan in vertebrates. Female and male germ cells increase and reduce lifespan, ...

Fish in Schools Have an Easier Time Swimming in Rough Waters

June 6, 2024 — Swimming through turbulent water is easier for schooling fish compared to solitary swimmers, according to a new ...

Novel Virus Identified in Zebrafish from the Pet Trade Causes Disease in Laboratory Fish

May 30, 2024 — Zebrafish in the pet trade are asymptomatic carriers of previously undescribed microbes, including a novel virus that causes hemorrhaging in infected ...

Fish out of Water: How Killifish Embryos Adapted Their Development

June 6, 2024 — The annual killifish lives in regions with extreme drought. A research group now reports that the early embryogenesis of killifish diverges from that of other species. Unlike other fish, their body ...

'Open Gates' in Warming Arctic Are Expanding Salmon Range

June 5, 2024 — New research has connected warming ocean temperatures to higher Pacific salmon abundance in the Canadian Arctic, an indicator that climate change is creating new corridors for the fish to expand ...

Fishy Mystery of Marine Reptile Solved

June 5, 2024 — The identity of a prehistoric marine reptile has finally been revealed after experts discovered that some of its remains actually belonged to ...

Early Summer Fishing Can Have an Evolutionary Impact, Resulting in Smaller Salmon

June 5, 2024 — A new genetic study found that heavy fishing in the early part of the fishing season may result in younger and smaller Atlantic salmon. This ...

How Sharks Survived a Major Spike in Earth's Temperature

June 3, 2024 — The sharks we know today as the open ocean's top predators evolved from stubby bottom dwellers during a dramatic episode of global warming millions of years ...

Trout in Mine-Polluted Rivers Are Genetically 'Isolated'

May 30, 2024 — Trout living in rivers polluted by metal from old mines across the British Isles are genetically 'isolated' from other trout, new research ...

Marine Protected Areas Don't Line Up With Core Habitats of Rare Migratory Fish, Finds New Research

May 29, 2024 — 62% of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) designated to protect rare migratory fish species are outside of their core habitats, according to a new ...

How Killifish Embryos Use Suspended Animation to Survive Over 8 Months of Drought

May 28, 2024 — The African turquoise killifish lives in ephemeral ponds in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. To survive the annual dry season, the fish's embryos enter a state of extreme suspended animation or ...

Finding the Beat of Collective Animal Motion

May 23, 2024 — Virtual Reality experiments have illuminated the rhythmic glue that could keep animals moving in ...

Constantly on the Hunt for Food: Harbor Porpoises More Vulnerable Than Previously Thought

May 23, 2024 — Constantly on the hunt for food: Harbor porpoises more vulnerable than previously thought to the disturbances from humans. The small whales spend more than 60 percent of their day hunting small fish ...

Sexual Parasitism Helped Anglerfish Invade the Deep Sea During a Time of Global Warming

May 23, 2024 — Members of the vertebrate group including anglerfishes are unique in possessing a characteristic known as sexual parasitism, in which males temporarily attach or permanently fuse with females to ...

A Rise in Sea Urchins and Related Damage to Kelp Forests Impacts Oregon's Gray Whales and Their Food

May 21, 2024 — A recent boom in the purple sea urchin population off the southern Oregon Coast appears to have had an indirect and negative impact on the gray whales that usually forage in the region, a new study ...

Cloudy Waters Causes African Fish to Develop Bigger Eyes

May 20, 2024 — Variations in water quality can impact the development of the visual system of one species of African fish, suggests a new ...

After Hundreds of Years, Study Confirms Bermuda Now Home to Cownose Rays

May 20, 2024 — Using citizen science, photographs, on-water observations and the combination of morphological and genetic data, researchers have provided evidence that the Atlantic cownose ray has recently made a ...

Evolutionary History of Extinct Duck Revealed

May 20, 2024 — The study's findings show mergansers arrived in the New Zealand region at least seven million years ago from the Northern Hemisphere, in a separate colonisation event to that which led to the ...

Scale Matters in Determining Vulnerability of Freshwater Fish to Climate Changes

May 17, 2024 — A team explored the influence the spatial extent of research -- the geographical coverage of data collected -- has on evaluating the sensitivity of different fish species to climate ...

Otters, Especially Females, Use Tools to Survive a Changing World

May 16, 2024 — Sea otters are one of the few animals that use tools to access their food, and a new study has found that individual sea otters that use tools -- most of whom are female -- are able to eat larger ...

Jet-Propelled Sea Creatures Could Improve Ocean Robotics

May 15, 2024 — Scientists have discovered that colonies of gelatinous sea animals swim through the ocean in giant corkscrew shapes using coordinated jet propulsion, an unusual kind of locomotion that could inspire ...

Killer Whales Breathe Just Once Between Dives, Study Confirms

May 15, 2024 — A new study has confirmed a long-held assumption: that orcas take just one breath between dives. The researchers used drone footage and biological data from tags suction-cupped to 11 northern and ...

Final Dust Settles Slowly in the Deep Sea

May 15, 2024 — 'Dust clouds' at the bottom of the deep sea, that will be created by deep-sea mining activities, descend at a short distance for the biggest part. Yet, a small portion of the stirred-up ...

New Viruses That Could Cause Epidemics on the Horizon

May 13, 2024 — Suddenly they appear and -- like the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus -- can trigger major epidemics: Viruses that nobody had on their radar. They are not really new, but they have changed genetically. In ...

Rapid Oyster Reef Restoration Gives Hope for Repairing the Sea

May 9, 2024 — After a century of functional extinction on the Australian mainland, a Flat oyster reef has been successfully restored along a metropolitan Adelaide ...

Scientists Find Ancient, Endangered Lamprey Fish in Queensland, 1400 Km North of Its Previous Known Range

May 8, 2024 — Scientists have confirmed the identity of an unusual, ancient and Endangered species of fish that is living in the coastal rivers of Queensland, about 1400 km north of where it was previously known ...

DDT Pollutants Found in Deep Sea Fish Off Los Angeles Coast

May 6, 2024 — As the region reckons with its toxic history of offshore dumping off the California coast, new findings raise troubling questions about whether the banned pesticide remains a threat to wildlife and ...

Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Is Shifting the Ecological Balance of Caribbean Reefs

May 3, 2024 — A new study shows stony coral tissue loss disease is causing drastic changes in the Caribbean's population of corals, which is sure to disrupt the delicate balance of the ecosystem and threaten ...

Human Activity Is Causing Toxic Thallium to Enter the Baltic Sea, According to New Study

May 2, 2024 — Human activities account for 20% to more than 60% of toxic thallium entering the Baltic Sea over the past eight decades, according to new research. Currently, the amount of thallium, which is ...

Artificial Intelligence Enhances Monitoring of Threatened Marbled Murrelet

May 2, 2024 — Artificial intelligence analysis of data gathered by acoustic recording devices is a promising new tool for monitoring the marbled murrelet and other secretive, hard-to-study ...