The exploitation of the Manta Ray
What is a Manta Ray? Click on this link R. Aidan Martin and the ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research and spend 15 minutes to read about Manta Rays. Facinating creatures. You may spend 15 more minutes to read on the Biology of the Manta Ray. These gentle giants are passive and impose no threat to humans. What I am about to describe is occuring in countries all around the globe, Manta Rays are being slaughtered in unlimited numbers. What is being spread is just like the exploitation of Shark Finning, Manta Rays are being killed off for the same reasons, their gills for soup and traditional medicines to the asian continents. We do know that the slow maturation and reproductive cycles are cause for concern. The reproductive rate of the Manta Ray is slow. With the slughtering occuring at rates … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Fish, Manta Rays, Reference, Report, Sharks
Hard-to-find fish reveals shared developmental toolbox of evolution
(PhysOrg.com) — A SCUBA expedition in Australia and New Zealand to find the rare embryos of an unusual shark cousin enabled American and British researchers to confirm new developmental similarities between fish and mammals. Elephant fish, a relative of sharks, utilize the same genetic process for forming skeletal gill covers that lizards and mammals use to form fingers and toes, researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Cambridge found. The precise timing of when and where that gene is expressed during embryonic development produces dramatic anatomical differences between elephant fish and their close relatives, the dogfish. The study, published online January 10th by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirms that organisms separated by hundreds of millions of years of evolution share similar genetic programs for … Read entire article »
Sharks – What do you believe?
I am sitting here reading about one of my favorite species, Sharks. It does not matter which kind, any shark. What I am seeing and reading concerns me. This morning I was reading on a website dedicated to sharks. I went to the page in hopes to find resources on the subject. What I find are commercials to dive with the sharks. This is done by bating, bringing in food to attract the sharks so others may interact with them or photograph them. It is not natural for sharks to be fed by humans and to associate humans with food. The next association will be man is food. When this occurs, humans will scream sharks are human killers, never looking at the past for the cause and reasons for the … Read entire article »