The Misunderstood Killer

Everyone knows the ominous tone; the string quartet playing the bit that represents the approach of one of the world’s most feared and misunderstood creatures. Of course, the creatures that I am speaking of are sharks, and the tone is made infamous from the 70s classic Jaws. People all around the world know about these creatures. A good majority of them have a fear of them, some so great that they refuse to step foot into the ocean. While this fear is not unfounded, there were 82 unprovoked shark attacks in 2010, it is not as pressing as many other life threatening events. In fact, there is a greater possibility of dying from other things that many would think are much less likely. Marine scientists would argue that sharks deserve respect as they are a very important part of our oceans and almost a quarter of our shark species are currently threatened with extinction.


Sharks are often the apex predators of the ocean. In other words, this means that they are at the top of the food chain. Apex predators are very important in their habitats. They maintain the natural order of things by keeping the population of the organisms on which they prey from growing out of control. If you take an apex predator out of a community the effects can be devastating. Unfortunately, this is what is happening today in many cases in the Earth’s oceans.


Sharks are being killed on purpose and for a variety of reasons. They are currently being killed at the alarming rate of one-hundred million sharks per year. That is roughly a quarter of the population of the United States worth of sharks that are dying, many needlessly, every year. Some sharks are killed


Once they reach a certain size to prevent them from attacking humans. This is more common on continents such as Australia and is a much more plausible reason than some of the other reasons that the sharks are dying. Another big way in which the sharks are dying is from bycatch. There are many ways that have been researched to minimize the problem of shark bycatch, but none of them are being used. Sharks also are being killed for their fins. There is a large global market for shark fins and some other types of fish that are used for shark fin soup. Another major factor is that some people just kill sharks simply because they see them, and they do not understand that sharks are not the evil creature that many believe them to be.


Sharks are a very slow growing species, and it is very easy to wipe a shark species out because they are not able to bounce back very quickly like some fish species. Any time that a quarter of the species of a certain type of organism is endangered it is alarming. I cannot imagine a world where some of the most fascinating creatures such as the great white are wiped out. Even the people that enjoy sharks for purely commercials reasons, such as shark week would lose out. This is not an article to make you feel you should protest outside a fishery or become an activist for the cause. But next time you go to an aquarium, drop some spare change in the save-the-sharks box. Trade a little of the fear that you have the next time you step into the ocean for respect; you are after all in their world.

 --- Zak Palmer


Harris, Richard. "Ancient And Vulnerable: 25 Percent Of Sharks And Rays Risk Extinction." 

NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.


"Next Generation Diving - Underwater Vehicles..." Shark Quest – Best Sharks Place. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <http://best-diving.org/adrenalin-diving/139-shark-quest-best-sharks-place>.

It’s a fish…it’s a gator…it’s a Hellbender??

Imagine, the next time you go fishing in the local river you latch on to something big, something slimy, something that belongs on the SyFy channel! You just caught an Eastern Hellbender, a 25 inch aquatic salamander! Perhaps you’ve heard of these gargantuan amphibians referred to as “snot otters”, “mud-devils” or the “Allegheny alligator”, but their true name is the Eastern Hellbender, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis.  If this sounds more like a prehistoric monster than a modern day salamander, well it sort of is.  The hellbender has been roaming the most pristine rivers for the past 65 million years.  It takes these monsters about 60 years to reach their impressive maximum length of around 25 inches.  To put an age relationship on this, a full grown adult hellbender today was probably hatched near the end of the Korean War! When this baby boomer was hatched from under a large rock in a very clean river it had large external gills that it used to get oxygen from the water in order to breath.  After about two years our salamander underwent a small change where it lost its external gills and developed lungs (like us) to breathe with.  By age 5, our salamander learned all about “the birds and the bees” and soon after began its reproductive life.

Although you may think it seems like a glamorous life for any salamander to live an amazing 60 years, our friend the Eastern Hellbender has undergone many challenges and sorrowful times.  You see, hellbenders require the very cleanest and pollution free waters to live in.  However, the effects of general pollution, putting dams on waterways and poor farming habits (like overuse of fertilizers, herbicides/insecticides, and removal of trees along waterways) have lowered the quality of much of the waterways in Ohio.  Consequently, the population of the eastern hellbender has plummeted.  The once well-established populations of hellbenders has been recently placed on the list of the endangered species by the Ohio Division of Wildlife and has presumed it to be completely extirpated from the western part of the state, of where it once thrived.  Luckily though, there are groups who are trying to help with the conservation and recovery of the Eastern Hellbender in Ohio. 

One group trying to help the hellbender is “The Ohio Hellbender Partnership”.  This group is working to survey the rivers so they can keep tabs on the status of the giant salamanders.  When they do catch a hellbender they give it a stress test by looking at their blood and they test the immune abilities of the salamander.  The researchers are also collecting eggs so they can hatch young in captivity, in hopes of increasing the success rate.  Some researchers are even placing radio chips in the adult salamanders so that they can be monitored without being caught/disturbed again.  After 65 million years of roaming the rivers of Ohio and the eastern United States it would be a shame to lose these amazing animals.  Although joining a hellbender conservation group may not be your thing, you can still help by just limiting pollution.  So quit polluting and help raise a little hell-bender!

This is a picture of Greg Lipps, one of the leading researchers on the Eastern Hellbender. He is measuring an adult hellbender around 23 inches that we caught in Captina Creek, Ohio. There were EPA members present also who took blood samples and inserted the radio chips.

Written by Scott Spreng

           

Hellbender. Department of natural resources. Retrieved from http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/SpeciesGuideIndex/hellbender/tabid/6659/Default.aspx

Lipps, Greg. The Ohio Hellbender Partnership. Retrieved from http://home.greglipps.com/surveys/eastern-hellbender/ohio-hellbender-partnership

The Mantis Shrimp: Beast of the Seas

           Humans have always been infatuated with animals. Animal Planet and National Geographic have always been a huge hit. Pets have been a part of mankind for hundreds of years, and zoos and aquariums are a place of wonder. The ocean is also a place that allows for that wonder to go wild. Along with the wonder that goes along with the ocean, it is also a place that holds so much danger which is also enticing. In this world of danger and wonder is the mantis shrimp. It is a lesser known animal, because it can’t be put on display, and for good reason.

It is well known that humans have eyesight that is below average in the animal world. However, it is hard to think about what creates better eyesight if it is beyond human scope. Let’s put this into perspective: Humans have three color receptors (red, green & blue) which allow us to see all the colors in our rainbow and beyond. If these three cones let us seen every human known color, imagine what it would be like if there were more types. For example, butterflies have red, green, blue, and two other unknown cone receptors that allow them to see even more colors than humans. In contrast the mantis shrimp has sixteen different color receptors. Sixteen! They are able to see colors that humans cannot even imagine. They are also able to see UV light, polarized light, and are the only animal that is able to see circularly polarized light. Can you imagine being able to see how various light waves move in a circular pattern? These mantis shrimp are also able to focus and detect depth independently with each eye and move each of their eyes independently. It is virtually impossible to envision what the mantis shrimp see – but it does make you think what could be invisible right in front of your eyes.

                Not only can the mantis shrimp see every color under the sun, the moon, and the stars but it will also kick your ass. It will attack anything that it doesn’t particularly like that day including anything in the sea, humans in their habitat, or debris that looks at them funny. It has two “dactyl clubs” that are appendages on the front of the shrimp that are usually held close to their body. When they strike at prey the clubs accelerate at the same rate of a 22 caliber rifle. They can break shells of clams, oysters, and other mollusks without becoming injured. They are also able to break through aquarium glass which is why they are only common in the ocean. Not only are they able to break almost anything they come across, they strike at such a speed (75 feet per second!) that they create an area of low pressure which makes vapor bubbles around the strike. When the bubbles collapse they release energy that creates pops of light and an area of heat that reaches over 8,000°F. If they don’t kill their prey with their strike, they can hit them with the boiling water. Although the heat is short-lived, it can still stun the prey and knock them out to give the shrimp another chance to strike and kill to bring dinner back to the family.

                The mantis shrimp the perfect definition of small but mighty. It certainly can pack a punch and may be able to see things that we cannot but we can learn a lot from its way of life. Research has been looking into the hunting clubs of this amazing creature to try and recreate them as weapons. Through dissection, scientists have figured out that the mineral hydroxyapatite is highly present in different forms. This mineral is found in the body as a main mineral in human bones and teeth! Who knows – the future military could be making shields and battering rams to mimic the technology learned from this impressive sea creature. 

References and Picture Sources

http://phys.org/news/2013-09-mantis-shrimp-world-eyesbut.html

http://www.chicagonow.com/greenamajigger/2013/04/the-peacock-mantis-shrimp-punches-hard-enough-to-break-aquarium-glass/

http://news.sciencemag.org/earth/2012/06/mantis-shrimp-smash

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/01/absurd-creature-of-the-week-4/