Glowing Snail: Scripps studies bizarre illuminating mollusk

This was a fun piece of news that caught my eye from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California. It seems there is a small sea snail that can produce bioluminesence, strong enough with which it can illuminate the entire shell.

Researchers Dimitri Deheyn and Nerida Wilson have studied a particular species of "clusterwink snail" which has the ability to produce light but uses it in a way that is different from other bioluminescent creatures. Typically, bioluminesence is more focused - a dangling light lure atop a deep sea angler fish, a row of lights along a fish's lateral line, or literally a pair of high beams under the eyes. But with this particular snail, the light is emitted in all directions and the shell adds to the overall effect.

"It's rare for any bottom-dwelling snails to produce bioluminescence," Wilson said. "So its even more amazing that this snail has a shell that maximizes the signal so efficiently."

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), the researchers theorized that the bioluminesence acted as a kind of "burglar alarm" triggered at the presence of a predator. The diffusion of the light caused by the shell perhaps makes the snail look bigger than it is and therefore a less appealing easy catch for a hungry crab or shrimp. The researchers are interested in the implications of how light can be transmitted through various materials, like the shell. Also curious is one of the study's funders, the U.S. Air Force, who would be interested in how this research could perhaps provide new approaches to better illuminate instruments and aircraft data readouts.

"Our next focus is to understand what makes the shell have this capacity and that could be important for building materials with better optical performance," said Deheyn.

Military applications aside, I find it very fascinating. It reminds me of the various little "glow-in-the-dark" plastic critters I had as a kid that would illuminate my room when the lights went out. But nature's parlor tricks are always way cooler.

Read the Scripps news release on the glowing snail.

UN Proposes End To Fishing Subsidies: restructuring could avoid collapse of fish stocks

Throughout many fisheries worldwide, overfishing has greatly reduced fish stocks and the response of some governments has been the subsidization of fleet expansion - more vessels, more nets and related equipment - so as to maintain or increase catch levels of a dwindling resource. Unfortunately, while this logic may make some sort of economic sense, it also most certainly hastens the inevitable collapse of the species and the industry itself - a sort of Band-Aid solution for a festering, terminal wound.

In a recent report put out by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), a drastic reduction in commercial fishing subsidies is being proposed as a way to save both the fishing industry and fish populations. The report recognizes that approximately 20 percent of the world population depends on seafood as a primary food source and that there are over 170 million people involved in commercial fishing and processing. But the report also recognized that by 2003 , 27 percent of the world's marine fisheries had collapsed. And without a major restructuring of how this marine resource is utilized, that number was bound to increase.

According to UNEP, $27 billion (USD) is being spent each year as subsidies - $8 billion of which is earmarked for managing marine protected areas, but the rest is being spent on propping up fishing fleets to maintain or expand fishing capacity when that capacity already exceeds what is sustainable. UNEP proposes a systematic restructuring in subsidies, focusing more on buying up excess vessels and retraining fishermen, thereby reducing commercial fishing to a level that would be more in line with enabling fish populations to provide their "maximum sustainable yield."

Would this allow commercial fisheries to meet increasing demand from an ever-growing human population? Probably not, but it would forestall the total elimination of one fishery after another, while alternatives are developed such as aquaculture. Others have indicated that taking any food from the sea will lead to its eventual elimination, that "sustainable fishing" is a myth. Whether that is true or not, it must be recognized that a demand for seafood will always exists and so steps must be taken to best preserve what is most certainly not an endless resource.

Some have also suggested that the economic rationale that supports farm subsidies - where, instead of expansion, productive farmland sits idle for the purpose of maintaining stable prices - may need to be re-examined in the face of the moral dilemma of developing nations in need of food staples for an undernourished populace.

You can read more about UNEP's commercial fishing subsidy proposals - part of an overall strategy for a "Greener Economy" - by clicking here (PDF download) or reading UNEP's latest press release.

Information source: SeaWeb.org.

G-20 Summit: Mission Blue, TED, and Oceana take on overfishing

After the disastrous March CITES conference, where conservation groups made heartfelt arguments for protecting tuna, sharks, and other critically important marine species - only to have well-oiled political machines representing commercial interests successfully block all proposals for protection - another opportunity for sensible conservation is presenting itself in June.

The G-20 Summit will be held in Toronto, Canada and several major conservation and think tank groups are working together to make up for lost ground. The Mission Blue project, a arm of the Sylvia Earle Foundation and supported by TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) - an innovation think tank - will be focusing on the government subsidizing of commercial fisheries and how that has exacerbated overfishing. With government support, commercial fisheries have pushed themselves into overcapacity, propping up an industry that is no longer economically feasible by perpetuating overfishing in a vicious cycle.

According to a press release from Oceana, who is also working with Mission Blue in preparation for the conference:

“'We believe that the G-20 nations have a powerful opportunity this summer to halt the practice of fishing subsidies and put the world’s fisheries back on a path to recovery and towards an abundant future,' said Chris Anderson, TED curator. 'Nearly all of the world’s fisheries are in jeopardy from overfishing and could be beyond recovery within decades if current trends continue.'

Despite international consensus on the dire state of the oceans, many governments continue to provide major subsidies to their fishing sectors. These subsidies promote overfishing by pushing fleets to fish longer, harder and farther away than would otherwise be economically feasible. The fleets are overcapacity – as much as 2.5 times what is needed to fish at sustainable levels. Destructive fisheries subsidies are estimated to be at least $20 billion annually, an amount equal to approximately 25 percent of the value of the world catch.

'Governments are paying companies to overfish our oceans,' said Andrew Sharpless, chief executive officer of Oceana and Mission Blue participant. 'It’s taxpayer-financed ocean depletion and it’s crazy. Cutting government subsidies that produce overcapacity in the world’s fishing fleets is the silver bullet to restoring our world’s fisheries.'"

You can learn more about Mission Blue at their web site and Facebook page. TED is a fascinating organization with conferences and online videos that cover a plethora of subjects. And of course, Oceana is one of the leading ocean conservation organizations.

The G-20 Summit in late June - another opportunity to get policy makers attuned to the reality of many threats facing our oceans and the urgency needed to address them.

Read Mission Blue press release about Mission Blue/TED strategy.