Free Republic

CHICAGO – People who eat baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis may be improving their brain health and reducing their risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). "This is the first study to establish a direct relationship between fish consumption, brain structure and Alzheimer's risk," said Cyrus Raji, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "The results showed that people who consumed baked or broiled fish at...

This golden retriever really is a salty sea dog. Five-year-old Becky amazed her owner when she went bounding into the sea and returned with a catch that would make most anglers jealous - a sizeable cod. Tony Smith, 71, had been walking Becky at Minsmere Sluice, near Aldeburgh, Suffolk, when she swam out to sea. ...

The Obama administration is taking steps to extend new federal protections to a list of imperiled animals and plants that reads like a manifest for Noah's Ark - from the melodic golden-winged warbler and slow-moving gopher tortoise, to the slimy American eel and tiny Texas kangaroo rat. ... With a Friday deadline to act on more than 700 pending cases, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service already has issued decisions advancing more than 500 species toward potential new protections under the Endangered Species Act... Patrick Parenteau, an environmental lawprofessor at the University of Vermont. "They are moving through this large...

The Norfolk headquarters of People for the Ethical treatment of Animals was vandalized this weekend when someone dumped dead fish and crabs outside the building. PETA employees found the foul mess Sunday. Someone had also smeared fish.

It is a stark reminder that the Asian carp infestation that has overwhelmed stretches of river in the Mississippi River basin and is now threatening the waters of the Great Lakes isn't going to go away anytime soon: The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has hired a Louisiana chef for a made-for-media event this week to demonstrate just how good these fish can be to eat. It's part of the Target Hunger Now campaign, a state-sponsored humanitarian effort to turn the jumbo jumping carp into "healthy, ready-to-serve meals" for the needy. The program also provides venison to the poor. It...

A highly aggressive species of fish has been found in Lake Tahoe, and environmental scientists are afraid the nonnative invader will gobble up native fish and ruin decades of work to improve water clarity, researchers said Tuesday. ... "It really shocked us. You can think of it this way: There is a new bully in the neighborhood," said Sudeep Chandra, a university limnologist who was working with the California Department of Fish and Game on a study of invasive species when the discovery was made six weeks ago. .. The Department of Fish and Game has been working with Chandra...

An angler who caught a huge fish in the White River and kept it but didn’t accurately identify his catch may be paying as much as $1,500 for his mistake as well as losing his licenses for three years, according to a press release from the state. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, Ryan McCullough of Bethel was fishing downstream of the federal fish hatchery in Stockbridge on July 25 when he hooked and landed a 9.5-pound anadromous Atlantic salmon that measured 31½ inches long. He misidentified it as a brown trout and kept it. A photo of the...

First kittens, then puppies and hamsters and now goldfish? San Francisco's Animal Control and Welfare Commission is recommending that the City ban the sale of goldfish, tropical fish and guppies in its borders, according to Matier and Ross. The recommendation to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is part of the commission's ongoing efforts to discourage "impulse buys" of animals. The commission's ban would cover pet stores and breeders in the City. It comes after more than a year of study and findings that aquarium fish are often mass bred under inhumane conditions or stripped from the wild.

More mysterious animal deaths have surfaced, this time in a volcanic lake in the Philippines. Reports say that 800 tons, or 1.6 million pounds, of fish have turned up dead in a lake near the Taal volcano, which is located south of the capital city of Manila. Officials say the deaths may have been a result of sudden temperature change in the water.

Scientists aiming their gene sequencers at commercial seafood are discovering rampant labeling fraud in supermarket coolers and restaurant tables: cheap fish is often substituted for expensive fillets, and overfished species are passed off as fish whose numbers are plentiful. Yellowtail stands in for mahi-mahi. Nile perch is labeled as shark, and tilapia may be the Meryl Streep of seafood, capable of playing almost any role. Recent studies by researchers in North America and Europe harnessing the new techniques have consistently found that 20 to 25 percent of the seafood products they check are fraudulently identified, fish geneticists say. Labeling regulation...

TOLEDO — Wildlife researchers in northern Ohio want to know what’s killing thousands of walleye in Lake Erie. Many of the dead fish have been washing up on beaches between Toledo and Port Clinton in recent weeks. Ohio Department of Natural Resources biologist Roger Knight says it looks like the worst might be over. The walleye is Lake Erie’s most popular sport fish and draws anglers from across the Midwest and beyond.

Today, a redneck friend was trying to explain the difference between a Sunni Muslim and a Shi'ite Muslim. He says that, when Osama was dumped into the sea, he was a Sunni Muslim. But after being eaten by the fish and crabs, he was digested and converted into a Shi'ite Muslim. Somehow, my friend does not strike me as an expert on Islam, and I have to seek a second opinion. What is the difference between a Sunni and a Shi'ite Muslim?

We've got a book review for Baseball Fans-George Will's "Men At Work". Yes the man's a Conservative Pundit but he knows a thing or two about baseball. Or a thousand, or a million, things or two. Couple of TV reviews-For the 2011 season, a "Dancing With the Stars" update as well as what will turn out to be the best season ever for "Celebrity Apprentice". Also, a former Desperate Housewife turns Medical Examiner in "Body of Proof". Some political tidbits, including a horror story of the gubmint coming to "help" and our terror at same. Some Delaware politics and an update on...

A 55 feet long fish has been found in the seashore of Guangdong, China. According to a local newspaper, the big fish weighs at least 10,000 pounds. Hwang, a 66-years-old fisherman living in the near area, said he has never seen anything like this in his whole life and that the fish was tied with ropes when it was first found. Many people have flocked to see this strange specimen since its discovery, although its rotting corpse already emits a foul smell. The people living in the area think the fish was caught by some fisherman but was abandoned due...

Wanna go fishing?..bring your boat and a net. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Bf0WhvsNk&feature=player_embedded

Biologists have just discovered two new species of freshwater stingray in the Amazon rainforest, informally christening them "pancake stingrays" for their distinct IHOPian appearance (see below). Naturally, one of their first orders of business was to x-ray one of the specimens, the unearthly result you see above. The two new species, Heliotrygon gomesi and Heliotrygon rosai, are quite large, though other stingray species in this family (comprised of freshwater stingrays from the New World tropics) can reach an unnerving five feet in diameter. The x-rayed specimen is a preadult male in the Heliotrygon gomesi species, found in the rainforest near...

ISLAMORADA— A spotted eagle ray that made spectacular leaps from the turquoise waters of Islamorada on Friday gave an Illinois family an unforgettable fish tale to take home from their Florida vacation. The Hausch family was enjoying an eco-tour boat ride on Friday afternoon when the 200-pound spotted eagle ray with a 5.5-foot wing span that they were photographing leaped into their boat and struck Jenny Hausch in the chest, officials said. "She was not harmed and managed to get out from under it," said Officer Robert Dube of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Division. Hausch was with...

VICKSBURG, Miss. -- A Vicksburg man pulled a 327-pound alligator gar from Chotard Lake in Issaquena County, Mississippi wildlife officials said. Kenny Williams caught the fish on Valentine's Day. Biologists with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks weighed the fish at 327 pounds. It was 8 feet 5 ¼ inches long and 47.95 inches around the body. Williams said he used nets to catch the fish and then grabbed it by the gills and pulled it into the boat. "At first I didn't think he was that big. But as I was getting him into the boat, it...

See Site for see the pictures. It is Huge!

Debate strategy for mayoral rivals: Go after Rahm EmanuelBy Fran Spielman and Abdon M. Pallasch Staff Reporters Jan 15, 2011 02:36AM The race to replace Mayor Daley entered a new phase on Friday. You might call it, “Gang up on Rahm.” **SNIP** They hammered him on his stint as a member of home mortgage giant Freddie Mac, which critics blame in part for the foreclosure crisis. Braun even accused Emanuel of throwing women “under the bus” by excluding abortion coverage from President Obama’s health care reform act. Given the opportunity to question her opponents directly, Braun jumped on Emanuel for...

Reason TV gives a report on the problems plaguing California’s Central Valley, once a breadbasket to the world, and now a government-created basket case of dust, unemployment, poverty, and now starvation. The short documentary focuses on two federal policies that heavily impact the farming region, the first water policy and environmentalism, and the second immigration: The crisis in the Central Valley comes directly from the application of the Endangered Species Act to the Delta smelt, one of a number of bait fish species indigenous to the area. The order by a federal judge relying on that law cut off irrigation...

The recent mysterious deaths of birds and fish are causing alarm among naturalists around the world. Birds are literally falling dead out of the sky, and fish are washing up dead on shores and rivers across North America and around the world. The reaction from the mainstream media seems strangely subdued, as if they're all just blowing this off as some unexplained quirk about the natural world that should be largely ignored. NaturalNews readers think differently. We are concerned when thousands of dead birds fall out of the sky for no apparent reason. The sky itself may not be falling,...

CHICAGO (STMW) – A bizarre scene is evolving on the Chicago lakefront, with Canada geese and mallard ducks gulping down dead or dying gizzard shad. A major die-off of what appears to be the 2010 class is happening in Chicago harbors. Thousands, perhaps far more than that, of dead gizzard shad in the 3- to 5-inch range are frozen in the ice of Chicago harbors or floating around in open patches of water. “Gizzard shad are pretty sensitive,’’ Lake Michigan Program biologist Dan Makauskas said. “On the toughness scale, the herrings are pretty soft.’’ Gizzard shad, members of the herring...

It's been said that Mankind will destroy itself. Unfortunately, during the past 100 years the human race has worked hard to make this prediction come true. Nuclear arsenals can destroy Mankind many times over. Alien biological weapons exist that can annihilate all humanity. Toxins are available that are so deadly a few drops in a city's water supply can kill millions. Yet another weapons technology has been under development for some decades.

As we approach the end of time amid a flurry of bloody feathers, fish carcasses, and plentiful crab cakes, Google has, as it always does, given us a means of approaching our imminent demise easily and with style. A new Google Map created yesterday – “Mass Animal Deaths” – shows areas of the world that have experienced a recent wave of animal deaths, complete with a link to an article explaining each instance, as well as the number of animals found dead in each case. From dead snapper in New Zealand to birds exploding over Arkansas, troubling animal deaths are...

State officials say they are investigating a "very large" fish kill in the Chesapeake Bay, but suspect cold temperatures killed them, rather than any water-quality problems. An estimated 2 million fish have been reported dead from the Bay Bridge south to Tangier Sound, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment, which investigates fish kills. The dead fish are primarily adult spot, with some juvenile croakers. Agency spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus said bay water quality appears acceptable, and biologists believe "cold-water stress" the likely cause of the fish kill. Spot are susceptible to colder water, she said, and normally leave the...

(CBS/AP) LABARRE, La. - State biologists are trying to determine what killed an estimated 500 birds that littered a quarter-mile stretch of highway in Pointe Coupee Parish. The birds included red-winged blackbirds and starlings. The birds were found Monday along Louisiana Highway 1, about 300 miles south of Beebe, Ark., where more than 3,000 blackbirds fell from the sky three days earlier.

This is getting weird. Four days after an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in Beebe, Ark., about 500 more dead birds were found lying lifeless on a quarter-mile-long stretch of highway in Pointe Coupee Parish in Louisiana. The birds, red-winged blackbirds and starlings, were discovered on Monday, Baton Rouge's The Advocate reported. Biologists will send some of the birds to labs in Georgia and Wisconsin to conduct necropsies and tests to determine the cause of death. After examining the birds found in Arkansas, state officials concluded that they had died as a result of blunt...

Thousands of dead fish have turned up in an Arkansas river just days after 3,000 birds mysteriously dropped dead from the sky, but authorities say the deaths are not related. An estimated 100,000 dead drum fish are floating along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River and washing up on the river's banks near the town of Ozark in the northwestern part of the state. The dead fish were discovered just after 3,000 red-wing blackbirds fell from the sky in the town of Beebe, more than 100 miles from the site of the dead fish. Officials, who tripled the early...

Barrack Obama came to office with an agenda to fundamentally change America.  An element of his agenda is a plan, known as catch shares, to restructure the nation's fishing industry.  The author of his plan is Dr. Jane Lubchenco, the environmentalist rock star and former vice chairperson of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).  When it comes to the oceans, the protection of fish, and the punishment of the evil fishermen, Dr. Lubchenco is as extreme as Obama's former green jobs czar, Van Jones. Obama, with no managerial experience himself, didn't simply make Dr. Lubchenco one of his numerous czars --...

A federal judge Tuesday threw out much-disputed delta smelt protections that have cut water shipments to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, finding that federal biologists failed to justify aspects of the restrictions. But the ruling in a long-running legal battle was not a clear-cut victory for water contractors, who lost some of their fundamental arguments against the pumping reductions. The decision by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger means that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will for the second time have to rewrite the endangered species document that regulates operation of the huge state and federal pumps that...

I watched the second installment of a certain documentary TV series Sunday evening. As a result, I am now craving a delicious halibut steak. I love fish. I love seafood. I'm sure a lot of you here do. Forget politics for the time being. It would be great to share your favorite halibut recipes, and I know a lot of you folks are great chefs.

Angler's record fish is reel deal  By JOHN COLES    Big fish ... Gunther, 70, beside huge halibut A PENSIONER reeled back the years and defied his age when he landed this world record halibut weighing more than 34 STONE — enough for nearly 1,000 fillets. Super-fit Gunther Hansel, 70, spent more than two hours wrestling with the massive 8ft 2in flatfish after hooking it in an Icelandic fjord with a 30lb line and plastic lure. Five other men on the fishing boat then helped haul it on board with a rope around its tail. The monster fish weighed...

AFTER an eight-day monster battle a British fisherman has caught one of the world's most fearsome freshwater fish. Monster catch on Congo fishing trip Pause 0:00 / 0:39Scrubber mute Share Fullscreen Monster catch on Congo fishing trip Expert fisherman Jeremy Wade has caught a 50 kilogram tigerfish during a fishing expedition in Africa. 22 October 2010Sky News WATCH MORE VIDEO Angler Jeremy Wade wrestled the 5ft-long goliath tigerfish during a fishing expedition along the Congo River in Africa. The tigerfish - believed to be a deadlier version of the piranha - has 32 teeth that are a similar size to...

BATH, England - A British man has joined the small group of people who can claim to have caught a tigerfish, one of the world's most dangerous species, while fishing in Africa. Jeremy Wade of Bath, England, said he reeled in the tigerfish, a larger cousin to the piranha, while fishing in the River Congo and set it free after taking a picture, The Sun reported Thursday. "The teeth on it are incredibly sharp and are about the same length as a great white shark," Wade said. "It also has an extremely powerful bite and has been known to consume...

British angler Jeremy Wade looks understandably anxious as he grapples with this ferocious-looking 'giant piranha'. The 52-year-old caught the aptly-named goliath tigerfish during a fishing expedition up the Congo River in Africa. The brave fisherman was forced to hold the fish at arms-length for fear of being bitten by its razor-sharp teeth while posing with it for the camera.

KEY WEST - A woman remains hospitalized after being bitten in the chest by a barracuda while kayaking in the Florida Keys. The Coast Guard says the 45-year-old woman and a male companion were kayaking Sunday evening near Big Pine Key when the fish jumped into the vessel and bit her....

Hospitals in Russia's far-eastern city of Vladivostok have seen an influx of patients with a rare form of fish poisoning. Several people have died. The culprit is the fugu fish – a traditional and popular Japanese delicacy. The catch is you have to cook it very carefully because just one fish contains a poison capable of killing over 30 people. In Japan, only very experienced, specially trained cooks are allowed to dress fugu. Fugu fish are not usually found off Vladivostok, but the warm summer saw their numbers grow. Hungry anglers took it upon themselves to make what they thought...

Liberal pundits and the politicians whose agendas they favor continue to misunderstand the Tea Party movement and, what is worse, fail to realize how much the disdainful tone of their criticism fuels it. This may be changing now as the ominous signs proliferate — the primary victories of Christine O’Donnell, Joe Miller, Rand Paul and Sharron Angle, the likely election victory of Mark Rubio and, in recent days, the startling news that Carl Paladino and Joe DioGuardi may be closing in on supposedly shoo-ins Andrew Cuomo and Kirsten Gillibrand (I say “may be” because there are conflicting polls). And of...

Scientists discovered in 2005 that birth control chemicals were deforming fish in the nation’s waterways — a phenomenon known by science today as “fish feminization.� The problems first made national news when strange intersex fish were found in pristine-looking Boulder Creek, in Colorado. The fish were the first thing that had ever frightened then 59-year-old University of Colorado biologist John Woodling during his scientific career. Two years after finding the fish, hideously deformed mostly by steroid hormones that had seeped into the water from birth control pills and patches, lead study scientist David Norris, a University of Colorado physiology professor,...

Any culture’s religious ceremonies can seem strange to outsiders: For example, take the indigenous Zoque people of southern Mexico. To ask their gods for bountiful rains during the growing season they head to a sulfur cave where molly fish swim in the subterranean lake. They then toss in leaf bundles that contain a paste made from the mashed-up root of the Barbasco plant, which has a powerful anesthetic effect. When the stunned fish–which the Zoque people consider a gift from underworld gods–go belly-up, people scoop them from the water and bring them home for supper. This fishy protein helps them...

It might look like an enormously generous fairground prize. But no goldfish bowl in the world could contain this catch. The orange koi carp weighs 30lb - the same as an average three-year-old girl - and is thought to be one of the largest of its kind ever captured.

MIDDLE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) ― Tens of thousands of dead fish have washed ashore along the Delaware Bay in southern New Jersey. State environmental and wildlife officials say it's not yet clear what killed the fish, which appear to exclusively small menhaden, also known as peanut bunker.

((MyFoxDetroit.com Staff)) - Do you know what this is? Joel from Bloomfield Township says this animal started showing up in his backyard yesterday. He took a few photos and sent them to us to help identify the animal. Please scroll through them. We've sent them off to Veterinarian but until we hear back, what's your call? Add your ideas in the comment box below. We'll post the answers from the experts once we get them. See if you're right. UPDATE: Some quick research has our staff thinking it's a mangy fox or a coyote. Still, what do you think? (Slide...

New Jersey faces a potential shutdown of its $790 million oyster, clam and mussel harvest if federally-mandated health inspections and coastal patrols are not improved this summer, according to state and federal authorities. How the state responds over the next few months to federal requirements geared toward preventing outbreaks of illness from contaminated shellfish is crucial to the mollusk industry, said officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA contends the state Department of Health and Senior Services failed to conduct adequate inspections in 2008 and 2009 at plants that process the mollusks hauled in by small, commercial...

The fish that remain in what's left of Tempe Town Lake face certain death, so they'll be scooped out and tossed into the snapping jaws of alligators. The city showed off its lake-cleanup plan Friday by trotting out a 6-foot gator that is one of many creatures to benefit from the lake going bust. Several animal-rescue groups will use the fish to feed alligators, turtles, birds of prey and other recovered animals that feast on flesh. The city wants the fish removed before they die, or soon enough after they expire that they can safely be used as food. Other...

In part one of NPR's new series about human origins, “The Human Edge,” I look at how much of what makes humans human has actually been borrowed from much simpler creatures. For example, single celled organisms called eukaryotes figured out sex a billion years before humans did. But evolution has its drawbacks – like hemorrhoids. Evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago has written extensively about the debt humans owe other creatures. He has a popular book on the topic: Your Inner Fish. One of his claims to fame is that he discovered Tiktaalik, a fish that sports...

CHICAGO (AFP) – Huge Asian carp, which act like "aquatic vacuum cleaners" and leap into the air when spooked by motorboats, may have invaded the US Great Lakes despite a massive effort to block them, officials said Tuesday. Researchers analyzing water samples have discovered fragments of Asian carp DNA in Lake Michigan, although there is still no evidence that that fast-breeding fish have breached electric barriers set up along Chicago-area waterways. "Clearly this is not good news," said Major General John Peabody, commanding general of the US Army Corps of Engineers' Great Lakes and Ohio River division. The Corps is...

Executive Summary: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) was directed in WRDA 2007, Section 3061(b)(1)(D) to conduct a study of a range of options or technologies for reducing impacts of hazards that may reduce the efficacy of the Electrical Dispersal Barriers located on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (CSSC), hereafter referred to as the Efficacy Study. The Electrical Dispersal Barriers were designed to reduce the risk of inter-basin transfer of fish from the Mississippi River and Great Lakes drainage basins via the CSSC. It consists of three electrical barriers, Barrier I, IIA and IIB that comprise the Electrical...

CHICAGO – An Asian carp was found for the first time beyond electric barriers meant to keep the voracious invasive species out of the Great Lakes, state and federal officials said Wednesday, prompting renewed calls for swift action to block their advance. Commercial fishermen landed the 3-foot-long, 20-pound bighead carp in Lake Calumet on Chicago's South Side, about six miles from Lake Michigan, according to the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee.