Parrotfish eat algae and seaweed. These brightly colored fish with beaklike mouths inhabit coral reefs, the wellsprings of ocean life. Without them and other herbivores, algae and seaweed would overgrow the reefs, suppress coral growth and threaten the incredible array of life that depends on these reefs for shelter and food.
This was happening in Bermuda, until the government stepped in 30 years ago and banned fish traps that were decimating the parrotfish population. Today, Bermuda’s coral reefs are relatively healthy, a bright spot in the wider Caribbean, where total coral cover has declined by half since 1970.
Last month, in a reminder of just how dire the situation facing the world’s coral reefs is, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was listing 20 species of coral as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, including all of what were once the most abundant Caribbean corals.… Seguir leyendo »
Anticipando un día caluroso, se había levantado pronto para recorrer las rocas del litoral en busca de marisco aprovechando el frescor de las primeras horas del día y la bajamar. Al alcanzar la orilla del mar se sentó sobre sus talones y se dejó invadir por el sonido de las olas que acariciaban la suave pendiente de la playa en su devenir, humedeciéndola en un juego de cambiantes texturas y color. Era su momento preferido del día.
Esta escena podría describir las sensaciones del lector de vacaciones en la costa, pero igualmente podría referirse al habitante de la cueva situada junto a la orilla del mar en Sudáfrica que representa el asentamiento de humanos modernos más antiguo conocido, y cuyos habitantes se alimentaban hace ya 170.000 años de moluscos, erizos y otros productos del marisqueo.… Seguir leyendo »
Late last year, a flotilla of fluorescent jellyfish covering 10 square miles of ocean was borne by the tide into a small bay on the Irish Sea. These mauve stingers, venomous glow-in-the-dark plankton native to the Mediterranean, slipped through the mesh of aquaculture nets, stinging the 120,000 fish in Northern Ireland’s only salmon farm to death.
Closer to home, the Asian carp, which has been working its way north from the Mississippi Delta since the 1990s, is now on the verge of reaching the Great Lakes. This voracious invader, which weighs up to 100 pounds and eats half its body weight in food in a day, has gained notoriety for vaulting over boats and breaking the arms and noses of recreational anglers.… Seguir leyendo »
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