The Tale of the Undead Fish

What happens when you roam the seas for 400 million years? Why you become a Coelacanth of course! Meet the fish that have baffled scientists with their unexpected return from the dead.

 10 mind-blowing facts about the Coelacanth

*(pronunciation: SEEL-uh-kanth)

• They were thought to be extinct

Up until 1938, it was assumed that Coelacanths were extinct. The handful of the specimen caught by fishermen was all dead and the rest were fossils; but, in 1938, a live specimen was caught off the coast of South Africa. As of today, there are two known species of Coelacanths in the wild – one near the Comoros Islands, Africa and the other in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Coelacanths are endangered species. Research suggests that there are just between 230 & 650 coelacanths in the wild today.

Coelacanth fossil (Image Source)

• They are the key piece in the puzzle about the Earth’s first terrestrial vertebrates

Fossil records of Coelacanths show that they originated during the Devonian Period which ended 419.2 million years ago. This was the era in evolution when the first terrestrial animals made an appearance.

The Coelacanths’ physiological characteristics resemble in part those traits we observe in land-based creatures today. Scientists believe that Coelacanths may be the missing link that might point us to the exact moment in evolution when the world’s first underwater vertebrates made their foray to the land.

Evolution of vertebrates from the sea to the land (Image Source)

• They have some very unique organs and some vestigial ones

While Coelacanths may be the clue to the evolution of terrestrial vertebrates, they don’t have a vertebral column themselves. Instead, they have a hollow, oil-filled tube called the notochord. The notochord is the embryonic vertebral column that evolves into a full-fledged spinal cord when the embryo develops.

They are also one of the only animals today that have an intracranial joint in their skull, which allows them to unhinge their jaws from the rest of the skull and consume prey almost three times their own size.

While on the one side these fish can’t do without their notochord and intracranial joint, on the other, they canlive without their lungs. Coelacanths’ are the only known fish to have lungs and these lungs develop normally (as in vertebrates) as embryos. But as they grow older, the lungs become smaller and finally stop working, becoming completely useless. To breathe, the fish uses the scaly plates on its body as gills.

Notochord in an embryo. The notochord develops into a full-fledged vertebral column in most species. (Image Source)

• Their brains contain more fat than actual brains

Coelacanths give the term ‘small-minded’ a completely new meaning. Only 1.5% of their cranial cavity constitutes their brain matter. The rest of the cavity is made of fat. Scientists are still unsure what these fish do with the fat in their cranial cavity. But it has been observed that younger Coelacanths have larger brains and lesser fat and this proportion inverts as they age.

• They are nocturnal

Coelacanths spend most of their days in cool and dark caves sleeping. They only come out at night to feed. They are drift-feeders, meaning they let the current drift them along the ocean floor. They hunt fish and cephalopods like squids, nautilus, cuttlefish and more. They aren’t very competitive when it comes to territory and food and are quite willing to share their belongings with fellow Coelacanths.

Coelacanths huddling in the shadow of a cave (Image Source)

• They use an electrosensory system to navigate the seas

Coelacanths possess a rostral organ in their snouts just like Anchovy which is a gel-filled cavity surrounded by a layer of adipose fat tissue. This organ is extremely sensitive to underwater electromagnetic signals and Coelacanths use this organ to navigate the seas, find prey and avoid obstacles.

Anatomy of a coelacanth (Image Source)

• The females are one-man women during the mating season

Female Coelacanths are serial monogamists and mate with just one select mate during breeding season. This mate may or may not change across the seasons and may or may not be shared between two females.

Once, the gender ratio in the world of Coelacanths was so off balance, it was noticed that the young of two females living in close quarters were sired by the same father.

• They give birth to live young

Coelacanths are the only fish in the world to have live births. In 1975, researchers at the American Museum of Natural History dissected a dead specimen to find it pregnant with five embryos. The embryos resembled full-grown Coelacanths in shape and scale-texture, with just a few differences that they were smaller in size and the embryos had a small yellow film covering their bodies and a large yolk sack protruding from their pelvic fins. It’s believed that Coelacanths’ eggs hatch within the mother’s womb and the ‘pups’ are then birthed live.

A coelacanth embryo (Image Source)

• They aren’t dinner-table worthy

Coelacanths are foul tasting, to say the least. Their scales secrete copious amounts of mucous and their bodies contain toxic oils, urea and wax compounds which are both inedible and harmful to the human body. So don’t be in a hurry to get one on your plate.

A coelacanth in the wild (Image Source)

• They are the only species of fish to have an operetta to their name

Remember the dead Coelacanth with the five embryos in her womb? Well, as it turns out, she was the muse to a musically-inclined scientist’s operetta.

Dr Charles Rand, a haematologist from Long Island produced his quirky ode to the pregnant fish in an operetta entitled Quintuplets at 50 Fathoms Can Be Fun, also called A Coelacanth’s Lament. It was set to the music of the Gilbert and Sullivan song ‘Tit Willow’ and is one of the American Museum of Natural History’s best creations.

The first coelacanth sketch made by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the museum curator who discovered the first live coelacanth specimen. (Image Source)

Now that you know so much about the coelacanth, it’s time to meet one in person.

-NISHA PRAKASH

P.S: Featured Image

Your Guide to 2018’s World Environment Day

 

June 5th is celebrated as World Environment Day each year. While some years focus on saving wildlife, others focus on cleaner water. This year, 2018, the theme for World Environment Day is:

#BeatPlasticPollution

 

Here are 5 facts about this year’s World Environment Day celebrations:

 

• India is leading the charge with their campaign #BeatPlasticPollution and is hosting the global celebration and observation of this all-important day.  Pan-Indian plastic clean-up drives are being organized and schools are being mobilized to conduct neighbourhood marches, to spread the word about the terrifying impact of plastic on the world. In fact, in states like Gujarat, companies are reusing the 200 metric tonnes of plastic by-product from their paper manufacturing plants to power cement production plants across the state.

 

• Peru has come up with a supremely unique solution to ending plastic pollution while helping their poor. The country recycles its plastic bottles and makes out of them – ponchila – which is a combination of “poncho” and “mochila”, a coat-bag amalgamation, made specifically for the poor children in the Andes. The product is a bag/poncho which can be used to carry books and transformed into a poncho to wear. The children, most of whom do not have warm clothing and who must travel several miles to reach their schools, are given these weather-proof and recyclable ponchila to use. Watch this video to see a ponchila in action.

 

• Samoa recently had one of its own receive the Environmental Award for the Asia-Pacific Low-Carbon Lifestyles Challenge from the United Nations. Angelica Salele was awarded US$10,000 for her invention – the reusable cotton sanitary napkin. Not only are Salele and her partner Isabell Rasch normalizing conversations about menstrual hygiene in Samoa, but they’re tackling a big issue – the 44.9 billion plastic-coated pads that fill-up landfills globally each year. The reusable cotton pads are made from skin-friendly material and do not contain any trace of plastic or related materials.

 

• The International Olympic Committee has made a commitment to reduce the production and usage of single-use plastics from the institution’s offices and events. The committee has also partnered with the International Union for Conservation of Nature to make sports environmentally sustainable. As part of this project, the IUCN has provided the IOC route maps of all the places that will be touched during the Summer and Winter Olympics, in each of the countries who have applied to host them till 2026. The maps indicate plastic disposal sites and waste management sites, amongst other places, which can help the IOC curb plastic waste.

 

• The United Nations Secretary-General Mr. António Guterres has made a global appeal asking for the end of usage of single-use plastic. As you’ll see in this video, Secretary-General Guterres makes a compelling argument why plastic should be banned. Just to re-iterate, here is his message:

A healthy planet is essential for a prosperous and peaceful future. We all have a role to play in protecting our only home, but it can be difficult to know what to do or where to start. That’s why this World Environment Day has just one request: beat plastic pollution.

Our world is swamped by harmful plastic waste. Every year, more than 8 million tonnes end up in the oceans. Microplastics in the seas now outnumber stars in our galaxy. From remote islands to the Artic, nowhere is untouched. If present trends continue, by 2050 our oceans will have more plastic than fish.

On World Environment Day, the message is simple: reject single-use plastic. Refuse what you can’t re-use.

Together, we can chart a path to a cleaner, greener world.

– António Guterres

 

Now that you know what’s happening around the world today, here are some tips to recycle and reduce plastic pollution.

 

If you’re interested, you can even take this fun and engaging quiz on key environmental movements around the world. It’ll just take 2 minutes.

 

 

-NISHA PRAKASH 

 

P.S: Featured Image

Pledging To Protect The Planet From Plastic

One of the most dangerous man-made creations and a deathtrap for many, plastic is destroying the global ecosystem and its inhabitants. This World Earth Day 2018, let’s take a look at how plastic affects our planet and what we can do, to stop its damaging effects.

 

5 Ways Plastic Impacts the Planet

• It depletes a lot of non-renewable resources

Plastic is extracted, processed and shaped using scarce and non-renewable resources like petroleum, natural gas through a host of other energy-intensive procedures. These resources take billions of years to form naturally and using them extensively to manufacture something as harmful as plastic is a wasteful effort. A look at current extraction levels shows that we have oil left enough for just the next 53 years.

Image: Renewable v/s Non-renewable sources of energy.

 

• It creates dangerous landfills 

Considering how many types of plastics are non-recyclable and a threat to the earth, incineration was the only feasible method of disposal. But given how we no longer possess the energy and resources needed to incinerate plastic and how we do not possess the technology to curb the pollution it leads to, this option no longer remains viable. That leaves just one option open – fill them in landfills.

As of today, 300 million tons of plastic are made each year, 50% of which are disposed-off in landfills. Chemical leaching from plastic into the ground affects the food we eat and the water we drink. Landfills that crumble and dissolve into water bodies pollute the ocean and threaten the lives of animals.

Image: A large landfill in Dandora, Kenya. This is how most landfills around the world look like.

 

• It pollutes the ocean

The worst impact of plastic on the planet is its impact on the oceans. The Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch contains 7 million tons of plastic that go down to a depth of 9 feet. 9% of the fish in the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch contains plastic waste in their diet. Most of this plastic comes from land after washing down from factories and oil refineries on the shore.

Plastic garbage patches exist in the Indian Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. Essentially, all the oceans in the world today are polluted with plastic; poisoning the water and endangering marine species.

 

•  It kills animals

Plastic is the number 1 cause for the death of millions of marine animals. Today, more than a 100 million marine animals are killed each year as a result of plastic in the oceans. Research shows:

• More than 50% of sea turtles are ingesting plastic on a daily basis; so much so that their digestive system is severely obstructed.

 

Image: A Hawksbill turtle lies unconscious after a plastic wrapper caught around its mouth, restricting breathing.

 

• About 400 stellar sea lions off the coast of Alaska and British Columbia get their fins and throats entrapped in plastic bands, plastic covers and rubber bands each year, which eventually leads to drowning and death.

 

Image: A sea lion caught in plastic wires and old fishing gear.

 

• 98% of the Laysan albatross population has died of internal organ damage after ingesting plastic when hunting fish.

 

Image: Dead body of a Laysan albatross filled with ingested plastic.

 

• Approximately 31% of fish, dolphin and whale populations ingest microfibers from plastic bags and bottles floating in rivers and oceans after confusing them for plankton and algae; of which 22% die due to digestive system obstruction due to plastic.

 

Image: A whale caught in plastic nets left behind by fishermen.

 

Image: 4kgs worth of plastic found in the body of the Cuvier whale that washed-up dead off the coast of Norway.

 

• It hurts people

People who consume fish that have plastic in their digestive systems, people who accidentally inhale/consume plastic in the form of sandwich wrappers, people who heat food/beverages in plastic containers (leading to chemical contamination of food from the plastic) and people who work with/around plastic, may suffer from a host of problems such as digestive concerns, asthma attacks, premature/stillborn births in pregnant women, miscarriage, male infertility, cancer and abnormal sexual characteristics development.

 

Image: Rag pickers search through the plastic-filled Citarum river in Jakarta. They form a large part of the population that die from plastic-induced illnesses. 

 

What can we do to save the planet from plastic?

There are many things we can do to reduce plastic pollution in the world. Try out these tips and make a difference:

• Replace regular plastic with bioplastics and biodegradable plastics and recycled plastics.
• Identify the plastic you depend on and try to find alternatives to replace them. For example, carry your own tableware to the office – metal forks, spoon, knives, cups and plates – instead of using the plastic ones found at the office.
• Avoid purchasing bottled water. Instead, use the water fountain or watering drums placed in public spaces and offices. Carry your own bottle and fill it at a water station.
• Do not buy beauty products that contain microbeads as one of the ingredients. Choose scrubs, soaps and creams that use only natural ingredients like sea salt, yogurt, oatmeal and more.
• Carry home-cooked food. The lesser take-out you buy; the lesser plastic boxes will be manufactured.
• Take jute/cotton bags to the grocery store when making purchases. These bags may cost more than plastic carry bags, but they are sturdier, last longer, look more beautiful and are environmentally-friendly.
• Make your purchases in bulk. This will discourage stores from stocking plastic bag in huge quantities. You can also ask your grocer to stock cloth bags instead.
• Consider second-hand purchasing. From toys to lunch boxes, you can find many items, still in good condition in yard sales and thrift stores. Lesser demand for plastic translates to lesser production of plastic items.
• Support and uphold the plastic ban in your state. Use only cloth bags when necessary.
• Recycle. Take a look at this guide to plastic recycling to know what you need to do.

Plastics are a danger to the world. Today, we have innumerable alternatives to this white poison, which can help make the world a safe place. As creatures capable of intelligent thoughts and actions, it’s up to us to save the planet from harm. If we don’t, it could only mean the end.

For it’s just as celebrated writer Evo Morales said, “Sooner or later we will have to recognize that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans.”

 

-NISHA PRAKASH

 

Featured Image: End Plastic Pollution