Shedd's seahorse exhibit closing
CNN notes the closing of the Sheed Aquarium's "Seahorse Symphony" exhibit. Alison & I saw this in 1998 or 1999, and it was wonderful. (More recently, we took Katie to see it at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, but it wasn't nearly as good.) I had no idea that the exhibit was such a big deal scientifically, in that seahorses had never been kept in captivity successfully for very long periods of time.
Transgenic fish, coming to a store near you
So you've heard of GloFish ™, right? They're the world's first transgenic freshwater fish (specifically, zebra danios with bioluminescent genes from a jellyfish species) that to be available to consumers. Now, apart from the obligatory questions about such a development, there are two angles to this that I find particularly interesting (and disturbing).
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Consider this item from the GloFish FAQ:
What will happen if a fluorescent zebra fish escapes into the waterways?
Zebra fish are tropical fish and are unable to survive in non-tropical environments. They have been sold to pet owners worldwide for more than fifty years. Despite all these years of aquarium ownership, zebra fish are only found in tropical environments, such as their native India .
Now this is utter horseshit. I don't claim to be an authority on danios in particular, but I do know that, like their cousins, goldfish, they prefer cooler water temperatures (~68 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit) than truly "tropical" fish, which are best in the 78-82 degree range. Goldfish and koi are often kept year-round in outdoor pools, even in freezing temperatures. Although I've never heard of anyone doing this with danios (they're far too small to be interesting in an an outdoor pond), it's unlikely that they'd be killed off during a surface freeze. I'd guess that it's very likely that these GloFishes could survive in the wild. Interestingly, the FAQ makes no mention of the fish being sterile--in fact, reports are that it breeds true. (Admittedly, because danios aren't native to the New World, it's highly unlikely that they'd find an introduced population to mix with.)
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Perhaps more sinister is that the companies behind the GloFish are taking a cue from agribusiness giant Monsanto by declaring that:
Because fluorescent fish are unique, their sale is covered by a substantial number of patents and pending patent applications. The providers of GloFish™ fluorescent fish, 5-D Tropical and Segrest Farms, are the only distributors that have the necessary licenses to produce and market fluorescent fish within the United States . The production of fluorescent fish by any other party, or the sale of any fluorescent fish not originally distributed by 5-D Tropical or Segrest Farms, is strictly prohibited.
This has become a hot topic on the mailing list for our local fish club. Like most fish clubs, ours holds a few auctions each year for livestock and equipment. Would reselling (or even trading) a GloFish violate 5-D Tropical or Segrest Farms' patents? Some members suggested simply not accepting these fish for trade or auction, but that led someone else to surmise that if a person wanted to get rid of some GloFish that he owned, but couldn't return, trade, or auction them off, he'd be faced with a decision between killing the fish, or dumping them in a local waterway. And that, my friends, should be not a little worrisome.
This is pretty cool:
