Jurassic Squid Ink Same as Modern Squid Ink

From Discovery News: Jurassic Squid Ink Same as Modern Squid Ink

nk from 160-million-year-old giant squid is essentially identical to today's squid ink.

The discovery suggests that the ink and the ink-screen escape mechanism of squid have not evolved much (if at all) since the Jurassic Period. The finding, published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, might just prove that if it isn't broken, nature isn't going to fix it.

Researchers came to the determination after studying ink sacs from two giant squid fossils found two years ago in England. The primary component of squid ink is melanin, a substance that gives skin, hair and certain other things color. It's why squid ink is so dark in color. (On a side note, some studies show that squid ink has some anti-tumor properties.)

Since melanin hasn't changed much over the years, this research indicates that melanin could be preserved intact in the fossils of a range of organisms. Recent research has revealed, for example, the color of certain dinosaurs and other long-gone animals.

"Though the other organic components of the squid we studied are long gone, we've discovered through a variety of research methods that the melanin has remained in a condition that could be studied in exquisite detail," co-author John Simon said in a press release. He's a chemistry professor and the executive vice president and provost at the University of Virginia.

One of the ink sacs studied is the only intact prehistoric ink sac ever discovered.

Simon and his colleagues used a combination of direct, high-resolution chemical techniques to determine that the melanin had been preserved. The researchers also compared the chemical composition of the ancient squid ink remains to that of modern squid ink from Sepia officinalis, a squid common to the Mediterranean, North and Baltic seas.

"It's close enough that I would argue that the pigmentation in this class of animals has not evolved in 160 million years," Simon said. "The whole machinery apparently has been locked in time and passed down through succeeding generations of squid. It's a very optimized system for this animal and has been optimized for a long time."

Usually animal tissue, made up mostly of protein, degrades quickly. All that's then left of prehistoric animals is their skeletal remains -- or so we used to think. The preservation of melanin proves that some organic matter can survive.

"Out of all of the organic pigments in living systems, melanin has the highest odds of being found in the fossil record," Simon said.

Look for more such studies to come.

Massive Peru Dolphin Die-off Not Linked To Seismic Surveys

From Red Orbit.com: Massive Peru Dolphin Die-off Not Linked To Seismic Surveys
A study by an environmental group that suggested explosions from oil exploration were to blame for the deaths of nearly 900 dolphins off Peru’s coast has been refuted by the government on Wednesday, which said the dolphins died of natural causes.

At least 877 dolphins have died since the start of the year. According to Fisheries Minister Gladys Triveno, Peru’s Maritime Institute (IMARPE) found the massive die-off was not the result of lack of food, hunting, poison, contamination, and infection or virus. It also said there was no conclusive evidence that linked seismic offshore exploration by oil companies to the dolphin deaths.

“We have reached the conclusion that the deaths were from natural causes. It’s not the first time that this has happened” Triveno said, citing similar cases of dolphin deaths in New Zealand and Australia.

Environmental groups are unconvinced with the government’s finding and continue to believe oil exploration in the area was the cause of the massive die-off. The Scientific Organization for the Conservation of Aquatic Animals (ORCA) said it had tested 30 of the dead dolphins and found they had broken ears and damaged organs, consistent with them suffering from decompression sickness, due to noise and pressure waves caused by explosions.

“We found cells that had injuries due to bubbles that are associated with decompression sickness,” Carlos Yaipén-Llanos, director of ORCA, told Reuters.

The government and independent scientists said it is impossible to prove the dolphins died of decompression sickness. And Houston-based BPZ Resources said the dolphin deaths were occurring even before they started their seismic surveys on February 8. Another company, Savia Peru, said it was not working in the area during the time of deaths.

Both oil companies said seismic surveying is used widely around the world and has never been linked to massive die-offs before.

IMARPE left open the possibility that unusually warm surface waters and high levels of algae could have played a role in the dolphins’ demise, calling for further analysis to determine if any red and brown plankton species were toxic, Triveno noted.

The warm surface waters are also being blamed for massive die-offs of pelicans in the area. The abnormally warmer surface temperatures drove anchovies lower down in the cooler depths where pelicans are unable to dive deep enough to reach them. As a result, about 5,000 pelicans starved to death.

While there is no link between the pelican and dolphin deaths, experts said Peru’s northern coast is often affected by temperature oscillations between the warmer equatorial waters and the frigid Humboldt current that runs north from Chile.

The region is also in a transition phase from the La Nina to El Nino weather phenomena that occur in the southeastern Pacific, according to Bill Patzert, an oceanographer at Jet Propulsion Laboratories in California.

The warm surface waters often bring foreign plankton to coastal areas, said Patzert. “When you see a massive die-off of bird species and marine mammals, often it’s some kind of weird toxic bloom,” he told Reuters reporter Caroline Stauffer.

Triveno said there would be a separate report into the pelican deaths.

Back to our regularly scheduled blogging

Visiting relative  has left, traveling has done, and I'm ready to devote myself to this blog again.

So thanks for  your patience!

I crave your indulgence

My mother's sister is visiting for three days.


My mom's deaf as a post, my dad can't be bothered to get out of his chair, so I will be doing the entertaining - the chauffeuring and the talking and the communicating - for the next three days.


So I'll be posting back here Thursday.


Thanks for your patience.

Jellyfish key to Pacific leatherback turtle survival

From MSBC: Jellyfish key to Pacific leatherback turtle survival
When it comes to leatherback turtles, the world's largest species of sea turtle, there's a conundrum: The species itself is critically endangered, but at least one leatherback population is stable — on the rise, even — while others plummet.

Now, researchers may have discovered why some of these turtles are doing better than others. Studying two leatherback turtle populations, one that is declining and one that seems to be increasing, the researchers say the answer might be simple: food.

"We saw very big differences in their traveling speeds from their nesting beaches to their foraging grounds," said Helen Bailey, an ecologist at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science who led the study. "We take that to mean one population is stopping to forage on a nice dense patch of prey, while the other group keeps moving because it's constantly in search of food."

These differences in swimming and eating habits may hold important clues for helping leatherback turtles around the world recover and thrive, Bailey told OurAmazingPlanet.

Atlantic leatherback turtles seem to be doing OK, but the Pacific population could be extinct in the near future, Bailey said.

Leatherback turtles everywhere are often victims of bycatch, the unintentional netting and killing of turtles while fishing for other animals, but leatherbacks in the Pacific Ocean face another problem. Climate patterns like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation cause huge variations in temperature and productivity in the Pacific Ocean, making it hard for some animals to find reliable food supplies. These challenges, combined with leatherbacks' advanced breeding age (around 15 years for females), mean that the Pacific leatherback turtle population has taken a serious hit over the last two decades.

To figure out the difference between these two groups, Bailey looked at how the turtles swim. Using data from leatherbacks that had been tagged and tracked by satellite, she found that Atlantic leatherbacks have two modes of travel: fast (12-28 miles per day, or 20-45 kilometers per day) and slow (less than 9 miles per day, or 15 km per day). Pacific leatherbacks, on the other hand, have only one: a cruising speed of about 13 miles per day (21 km per day).

Atlantic leatherbacks seem to run from one smorgasbord to another, stopping at a dense patch of jellyfish (their main food source) to eat until it's gone. Pacific leatherbacks never find dense patches of jellyfish, so they swim at the same rather fast speed the whole time, Bailey said.

"They're constantly searching for food," Bailey said. "If you have to keep moving, you're not gaining quite as much energy because even if you manage to eat along the way, you're still expending some energy by traveling."

In other words, the main difference between the two populations is that Atlantic turtles can dine in and chow down, while Pacific leatherbacks have to settle for the drive-through window and eating on the run.

Bailey's findings, detailed in the May issue of the journal PLoS ONE, point to new leatherback turtle conservation strategies.

"It's really highlighted very strongly the importance of protecting adult leatherbacks," Bailey said in an interview.

Because leatherback turtles have long life spans (about 30 years), they've adapted to survive jellyfish shortages by waiting to build nests and lay eggs after they've found a stable food supply. So far, most efforts have focused on protecting leatherbacks' nesting beaches. That's still important, Bailey said, but it may be even more important to protect adult turtles that are old enough to reproduce.

"They really have not adapted in any way to being harvested," Bailey said. "So when adults are killed by, for example, getting caught in fishing nets, then that does have a huge impact on the population and its ability to increase."

S. China Sea Dispute Blamed Partly on Depleted Fish Stocks

From Voice of America: S. China Sea Dispute Blamed Partly on Depleted Fish Stocks
BANGKOK - China and the Philippines have announced temporary bans on fishing in areas of the South China Sea they both claim as sovereign territory. The bans may help cool tempers after ships from the two sides faced off in April. But, political analysts say a more permanent solution is needed to address a cycle of conflict partly caused by depleting fish stocks.

China every year imposes a ban on fishing for several weeks in a northern part of the South China Sea.

Beijing says the restriction, used for more than a decade, allows fish stocks to replenish.

While the Philippines and Vietnam complain it is just another way for China to assert its claims on maritime territories that they also dispute.

Ian Storey is with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. He says while Beijing's annual ban on fishing may seem like a good idea for fish stocks he agrees it may have an ulterior motive.

"Well, I think the primary reason for this fishing ban is for China to be able to demonstrate its claimed sovereign rights in the South China Sea," said Storey.

Storey says if the dispute was taken to the international court of justice Beijing could cite the ban as an example of exercising effective and continuing jurisdiction in support of its territorial claim.

Kim Bergmann is editor of the Asia-Pacific Defense Reporter and Defense Review Asia. He says the unilateral ban had put China and the Philippines on a path of confrontation.

"But, now that Manila has also come up with its own ban I think that that's a way of making sure, or at least, assisting a process of negotiation, and it's likely, in my opinion, to reduce tensions at least in the short term rather than heighten them," Bergmann noted.

Filipino and Chinese ships faced off last month over Chinese fishing in the disputed Scarborough Shoal, known as Huangyan Island in China.

The tensions led to protests from both sides to respect their sovereign territory.

China claims most of the South China Sea, putting it in conflict with competing claims by Brunei, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

One of the central drivers of the South China Sea dispute is competition over mineral and fishing-rich areas.

Bergmann says geologists believe the South China Sea contains enormous reserves of oil and natural gas, much of it in disputed areas. "Cumulatively, the South China Sea probably has about 80 percent of the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia," Bergmann added. "So, we're talking many billions of barrels of oil and many trillions of cubic feet of natural gas." The ongoing tensions have prevented comprehensive surveys of oil and gas deposits. But when it comes to fishing the South China Sea is known to be rich. The region provides about ten percent of the world's catch, but growing demand means fish stocks are more quickly depleted. Storey says competition for fish has led to conflict at sea. "Certainly, fishing vessels are operating further out and for longer periods because fish stocks are being depleted," Storey explained. "What needs to happen is there needs to be an agreement among various countries in Southeast Asia and China to try and preserve these fish stocks. But, because of the territorial dispute that hasn't happened." China's halt to fishing will go through August 1 while the Philippines did not indicate a time period for its ban.

Whales and coal on collision course

From the Gladstone Observer: Whales and coal on collision course
WHALES and the coal industry are on a collision course according to Greenpeace.

Conservationists claim a study in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series raises serious concerns over the likely impact of the coal and gas rush on humpback whales.

A specific area of concern is the breeding and calving grounds offshore from Mackay.

Speaking to the Daily Mercury yesterday, Greenpeace campaigner John Hepburn said the humpback population was increasing by about 10% "and coal ship movements escalating annually".

He said it was only a matter of time before more whales were hit.

"This study reveals that humpback whales are literally on a collision course with the coal industry," Mr Hepburn said.

"We are talking about building a coal superhighway right through primary breeding grounds."

The study identified an area off the coast of Mackay as a likely breeding and calving ground, and an area off the coast of Gladstone as an important migration route.

Greenpeace claims industry plans will result in more than 10,000 ships slicing through the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area every year - equivalent of more than one coal ship every hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke is planning the implementation of a comprehensive strategic assessment of the impacts of development on the Great Barrier Reef.

But Greenpeace claims Mr Burke has failed to rule out the approval of major new coastal developments during the assessment period.

Projects that could be approved include the world's biggest coal port at Abbot Pt.

"What's the point of doing the study if you are going approve everything in the study?" Mr Hepburn asked.

He said he feared for the vast numbers of humpback whales off Mackay during the calving months of July and August.

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke said environmental approvals have to be based on the best possible science.

"Issues affecting whales are considered in all federal environmental assessments in the Great Barrier Reef and I've already made clear that shipping movements are front of mind," he said.

A departmental spokeswoman said the Australian and Queensland governments were working together to undertake a comprehensive strategic assessment of the entire Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.