Tag Archives | fish facts

Academy Award Nominee Drowns For Fish (VIDEO)

February 24, 2013

(OCEANS) In a controversial new PETA commercial, award-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix puts himself into the position of the 1 trillion fish who are killed each year by the fish industry. In the video, shot by famous shark photographer Michael Muller, Phoenix narrates, “In water humans drown, just as fish suffocate on land. It’s slow, and painful, and frighting.” The Master star carries out possibly one of the scariest parts of his career as he desperately trashes underwater, each failed breath further filling his lungs with water. The ad brings awareness to the fact that we often choose to separate fish from land animals simply because they’re different. Read on to learn more about this initiative and view the video for yourself. — Global Animal

Share Your Thoughts

Thousands Of Dead Fish On South Carolina Beaches

January 21, 2013

(OCEANS) SOUTH CAROLINA — Tens of thousands of dead fish washed up dead on the Atlantic Coast last week, with approximately 30,000 to 40,000 menhaden fish, 6 to 8 inches long, spread along a mile and a half stretch of beach from DeBordieu Beach in Georgetown County to Pawleys Island in South Carolina. Similar incidents have occurred in the area before, including two weeks ago when another hundreds of thousands of fish washed ashore Masonboro Island, North Carolina. Marine experts have determined that the fish died from hypoxia, which occurs when the amount of oxygen in the water depletes. Read on to learn more about this entirely natural phenomenon and see what the city plans to do with the dead fish. — Global Animal

Share Your Thoughts

Fish Agree: Majority Rules

November 1, 2012

(ANIMAL BEHAVIOR) All social animals—whether they are packing rats, schooling fish, flocking birds, colonizing bees, herding elephants, or even crowding humans—adhere to the democratic principle of majority rule. Ian Couzin, an evolutionary biologist at Princeton University, states, “One common property we see in animal groups from schooling fish to flocking birds to primate groups is that they effectively vote to decide where to go and what to do.” Because we are social animals, it is in our nature to follow the majority. Read on to learn more about Couzin’s intriguing study. — Global Animal

Share Your Thoughts

Sun Causes First Cases Of Fish Skin Cancer

August 2, 2012

(FISH NEWS) A new discovery shows that coral trout in the waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have developed skin cancer, similar to melanoma in humans. Scientists have related the symptoms to UV rays passing through the largest hole in the ozone. This finding is the first case of skin cancer in fish outside of laboratory tests, in the natural environment. Read on to find out how the depletion of ozone in the earth’s atmosphere is not only harmful to terrestrial beings, but animals in the oceans as well. — Global Animal

Share Your Thoughts

Return Of The Cod

July 2, 2012

(ANIMAL NEWS) Twenty years ago the cod industry was shut down in many places due to overfishing, and scientists are now seeing the first signs of the population returning. The rise in water temperatures in some northern areas is helping the longevity of the fish. Read on for more on the recovery of this species. — Global Animal  

Share Your Thoughts

The Silent Scream Of Fish (VIDEO)

June 5, 2012

(ANIMAL WELFARE) A new PETA ad compares fish suffering with human suffering by linking their silent screams to human screams. It should be no surprise that fish are intelligent and capable of feeling pain like most animals. Similarly, along with much of the animal kingdom, they are unable to voice their suffering. Watch the sad but enlightening video, and read on for how PETA is aiming to create compassion for these underwater animals. — Global Animal

Share Your Thoughts

Male Fish Bait Females With Tail

February 13, 2012

(FISH DISCOVERY) Behavioral ecologists found that within a North American family of fish, males attract pregnant females with a striking yellow band at the end of their tailfin, according to a new study. The female fish, uninterested in mating, mistake the yellow band for food and end up losing out on real feeding opportunities. Read more on this male tactic, and how females have begun to catch on and change their behavior. — Global Animal

Share Your Thoughts

Big Trouble, Little Fish

January 28, 2012

(FISHERIES) CHILE — Fishermen who long ago couldn’t imagine the ocean ever running out of fish are now faced with the daunting realization that it’s happening. Every catch pulled from the depths reveal a pittance compared to decades ago, and the jack mackerel population has dropped an estimated 63% from 2006 to 2011. Now fleets of trawling boats head for the only area untouched by nets: Antarctica. With governments attempting to regulate the amount of fish caught, many boats ignore these slowly ratified policies and continue to pull catches from illegal and unregulated waters, unaffected by the damage they are causing. Since mackerel are an irreplaceable step in the food chain of the oceans, if they disappear, it causes an ecological collapse. Read the full article below for the details and what governments are hurrying to do to protect what is left of the jack mackerel. — Global Animal

Share Your Thoughts

Back to top