Ocean Genome Legacy | Spring 2015 Newsletter
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On March 2nd, OGL was highlighted among Northeastern
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| | OGL's new education booth. |
University's most ambitious and engaging programs at the NU Empower Event in Fort Myers, Florida. OGL Director Dan Distel illustrated how DNA barcoding is used to test seafood for correct species labeling at OGL's newly created Education Booth. By examining some of OGL's specimens and sampling kits, guests learned about the valuable genetic information contained in tiny tissue samples, and how that information may affect their future.
Next stop: Dubai, United Arab Emirates!
Read more about Northeastern's Empower Campaign here.
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Collections Manager Charlotte Seid Joins OGL
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OGL welcomes Dr. Charlotte Seid as the new Staff Scientist for Collections.
Charlotte completed her Ph.D. in Biology at MIT, where she studied bacterial genetics and collaborated with OGL for an independent project on marine fish biodiversity in Nicaragua. She also volunteers in the Research Department of the New England Aquarium, where she is investigating potential treatments for shell disease in American lobsters.
In March, Charlotte participated in the Regional Aquatics Workshop in Monterey, California and learned about recent projects in aquarium animal care, health, research, and conservation.
Says Charlotte, "I am thrilled to be joining OGL and using genomic tools to protect marine biodiversity. I am really looking forward to expanding our collections and our impact through new collaborations."
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 Dragon Discovery
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A New Species of Seadragon
One of the strangest branches of the fish "family tree" has just added a stunning new relative. With exquisite camouflage and mythical appearances, seadragons are bizarre and beautiful relatives of seahorses. The ornate Leafy Seadragon and the twig-like Weedy Seadragon were the only two species known...until this February, when a new species was revealed! The Ruby Seadragon, bright red and arch-backed, was discovered by researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Western Australia Museum.
While studying DNA from tissue samples provided by the Museum, Scripps graduate student Josefin Stiller noticed that one of the seadragon specimens was genetically unlike the others. By examining the preserved seadragon, photographs, genetic evidence, and three other archived specimens, the researchers determined that the vibrant red seadragon represented a new species. The Ruby Seadragon has never been observed alive in the wild, but documentation from the specimens suggests that it lives in deeper waters than its relatives.
This discovery illustrates a key role for biological collections and DNA tools in conserving biodiversity. Leafy and Weedy Seadragons are found only off the southern coast of Australia, and both species are considered Near Threatened due to coastal pollution and habitat degradation. If the Ruby Seadragon is similarly threatened or endangered, its discovery from the museum archives may have come just in time. With clues from DNA samples and the well-documented specimen collection, it may soon be possible to find, study, and protect this entrancing new species in the wild. OGL congratulates the Scripps and WAM team on their discovery!
Read the full press release here.
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| | The newly discovered Ruby Seadragon. (Credit: Stiller et al. 2015, Royal Society Open Science.) |
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The Largest Predatory Fish Are Getting Smaller
Grandpa may tell you that the fish were bigger back in his day, but are his fish stories just an exaggeration? For sharks and other predatory fishes in the Gulf of Mexico, there's truth to those historical declines. The body size of prize-winning fish has drastically decreased over the past few decades, and this trend isn't just a disappointment to fishermen. In many fish species, larger fish produce more offspring than smaller fish, and the offspring from larger mothers have a better chance of survival. Sharks, groupers, and other predatory fishes are important for keeping marine food webs in balance, so both ecosystems and ambitious fishermen benefit from large individuals of top predator species.
Since 1929, deep-sea fishing tournaments have reported the largest sharks caught annually in Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. A team of fisheries researchers, including Dr. Steven Scyphers at Northeastern University, used these historical records to compare shark sizes over time. Up to the 1980s, enormous 800-pound sharks frequently won the tournaments, but the prize-winning sharks are now 50-70% smaller. Additionally, Tiger Sharks and Bull Sharks, both important top predators, have become more rare among the tournament winners. A previous study in Key West, Florida showed that other trophy fish have become smaller over the past 50 years, due to the increasing rarity of groupers, jacks, and other large predators.
For sharks and other fishes that grow slowly and take many years to reach reproductive maturity, the loss of large individuals threatens the future of the population. Shark populations worldwide are at risk from commercial overfishing, particularly for the shark fin trade. The researchers from the current study noted that intense longline fishing for sharks during the late 1980s may have contributed to the rarity of large sharks in the following decades. Other giants such as the Goliath Grouper and Nassau Grouper were endangered by overfishing during the 1990s and now face a slow and uncertain recovery.
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| | An 830-pound tiger shark was caught during the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo in 1990. In the following decades, sharks of this size have become increasingly rare. (Credit: Mobile Press Register, via Houston Chronicle online.) |
Public awareness is an important tool for protecting the ecologically and reproductively valuable large individuals of a species. For example, the "Big Mamma" awareness campaign, developed by the World Wildlife Fund in 2004, used community discussions, an educational cartoon, a radio jingle, and a short video to encourage Caribbean fishermen to conserve the biggest reef fish.
The publication on prize-winning sharks was itself the winner of "Best Paper of the Year" by the American Fisheries Society in 2013. Dr. Scyphers continues to study fisheries management as a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern's Marine Science Center. He hopes that this research will highlight the positive roles of fishing community involvement and public awareness in promoting the recovery of shark populations.
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Remembering Dr. Eugenie Clark
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| | Dr. Eugenie Clark examining specimens in 1980. (Credit: David Doubilet via New York Times online.) |
Dr. Eugenie Clark, the pioneering ichthyologist popularly known as the "Shark Lady" and the founding director of the Mote Marine Laboratory, passed away on February 25th at the age of 92. Dr. Clark investigated shark behavior and physiology, studied poisonous fishes in Palau and the Red Sea, and conducted more than 70 submersible dives, including one 900 feet deep on her 88th birthday.
Through her books, lectures, and public outreach, Dr. Clark also inspired popular audiences with her scientific discoveries, descriptions of unusual fish adaptations, and exploration of exotic underwater habitats. Dr. Clark's research on shark learning, her firsthand encounters with various shark species, and her message in several documentaries all helped to dispel misconceptions about sharks in the years after "Jaws." OGL commemorates Dr. Clark's legacy of exploration, discovery, and conservation.
Read more here.
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Coming Soon... Biodiversity and the Nicaragua Canal
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Cichlid fish in Nicaragua's lakes are important subjects of genetic and evolutionary research. We will hear about the implications of a cross-country canal for these unique fish. (Credit: Ad Konings via Nature online.)
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In Nicaragua, construction is progressing on a controversial new cross-country canal that would link the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea via Lake Nicaragua. This major "continent-reshaping" project is being conducted by a private company, without the benefit of the results of an ecological impact study that won't be completed until the project is well underway. In our next issue, we will hear about Dr. Jorge Huete-Perez, President of the Nicaraguan Academy of Sciences, longtime friend and former guest scientist at OGL, and outspoken critic of the Nicaraguan Canal Project.
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Want to help OGL document and preserve the spectacular genetic diversity of our world's oceans?
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Thank you for your continued support!
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