Cold temperatures kills thousands of fish in NW Greece

Luke 21:25,26 “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Important Takeaways:

  • Thousands of fish die from thermal shock as cold sweeps Greece
  • The destruction is huge, it is estimated there are around 50 tonnes of dead fish,”
  • “In all the last years that I have been recording and measuring temperatures in the area, I never expected that we would have such low temperatures in the minuses.”

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Scientists unravel secrets of ultra-black fish swimming the deepest depths

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – For fish inhabiting the immense darkness of the deep sea, being ultra-black offers great camouflage in a fish-eat-fish world. Scientists studying some of these exotic creatures now have unraveled the secret behind their extreme color.

These fish – like the fangtooth, the Pacific blackdragon, the anglerfish and the black swallower – have modified the shape, size and packing of the pigment in their skin to the point that it reflects less than 0.5% of light that hits it, researchers said on Thursday.

They studied 16 species that fit this definition of ultra-black. These spanned six different orders of fish – large groupings that each have a shared evolutionary history – indicating this modification evolved independently in all of them.

“In the deep, open ocean, there is nowhere to hide and a lot of hungry predators,” said zoologist Karen Osborn of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, a co-author of the research published in the journal Current Biology. “An animal’s only option is to blend in with the background.”

Very little sunlight penetrates more than 650 feet (200 meters) below the ocean’s surface. Some of these fish reside three miles (5,000 meters) deep.

At such depths, bio-luminescence – light emission by living organisms – is the only light source. Some of the ultra-black fish have bio-luminescent lures on their bodies to coax prey close enough to be eaten.

The skin of these fish is among the blackest material known, absorbing light so efficiently that even in bright light they appear to be silhouettes, as Osborn discovered when trying to photograph them after they were brought to the surface.

The pigment melanin is abundant in this skin and distributed in an unusual fashion. By packaging perfectly sized and shaped melanosomes – pigment-filled structures within the skin cells – into tightly packed and continuous layers at the skin’s surface, the fish ensure that essentially all light reaching them will hit this layer and never escape.

“This mechanism of making thin and flexible ultra-black material,” Osborn said, “could be used to create ultra-black materials for high-tech optics or for camouflage material for night ops.”

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Soviet sub that sank off Norway in 1989 still emitting radiation

Louise Kiel Jensen (DSA) and Hans-Christian Teien (NMBU) take samples from the Soviet nuclear submarine "Komsomolets", to be analyzed for radioactive substances, southwest of Bear Island in the Norwegian Arctic, Norway in this handout image released on July 10, 2019. Stine Hommedal/Norwegian Institute of Marine Research/HI/Handout via REUTERS

By Gwladys Fouche

OSLO (Reuters) – A Soviet nuclear submarine which sank off Norway in 1989 is still emitting radiation, researchers said on Wednesday following an expedition that used a remotely controlled vehicle for the first time.

The wreck of the Komsomolets lies on the bottom of the Norwegian Sea at a depth of about 1,700 meters (5,577 feet).

Authorities have conducted yearly expeditions to monitor radiation levels since the 1990s but this year’s inspection was the first one to use a remotely operated vehicle called Aegir 6000 to film the wreckage and take samples which will be further analyzed.

The scientific mission’s samples show levels of radioactivity at the site up to 800,000 higher than normal, the Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority said in a statement.

“This is, of course, a higher level than we would usually measure out at sea but the levels we have found now are not alarming,” said expedition leader Hilde Elise Heldal of the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research.

Radioactivity levels “thin out” quickly at these depths and there are few fish in the area, she said.

The Komsomolets sank on April 7, 1989, after a fire broke out onboard, killing 42 crew.

On July 1, 14 Russian sailors were killed aboard a nuclear submarine operating in the Arctic.

(Editing by Jason Neely)

Nevada Officials Find All Fish Dead In Lake

Nevada state wildlife officials are completely baffled as to the reason all the fish in a northern Nevada marina have died.

Over 100,000 trout, bass and catfish have been found dead in the past month in the Sparks Marina near Interstate 80 east of Reno.  A sudden dramatic drop of dissolved oxygen levels in the water is being blamed for the deaths.

Officials say they have no reason for the decreased oxygen.

Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy said that the 100,000 figure is likely a conservative estimate for the fish kill. The Department had been stocking the lake with about 1 million fish since 1998.

“We don’t know if any small fish have survived, but for all intents and purposes, the fishery doesn’t exist anymore,” Healy told the Associated Press.

The Department stocking of the lake scheduled for late February has been cancelled pending further testing.