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PORTLAND, Maine — A ferocious-looking denizen of the deep that can gobble up whole urchins and crabs in a few swift chomps is in need of protection, according to a petition filed with the federal government. The Conservation Law Foundation asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday to list the Atlantic wolffish — a species with large protruding teeth and a face that's downright ugly — as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Obama's comment about a fish wrapped in change is still gonna stink is far more offensive than a Muslim talking about lipstick on a pig. He was talking about Sarah " "Barracuda" as "still gonna stink". Where is the outrage over calling her a stinking fish???

In all the furor over the Obama "pig" quote, commentators forgot to examine his entire attack: "You can put lipstick on a pig. "It's still a pig." "You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink." When read in the entire context you can see what he seems to mean with his dual animate male/female references and why he probably evoked two metaphors: most would think that Obama is talking about both on the ticket and his anger how each has expropriated his change motif. So in that sense he appears both...

Two lowbrow attacks, not one. 1. lipstick=meme directly related to Governor Palin. meme (pronounced /mi�m/)[1] consists of any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation.) 2. stinking fish=barracuda, as in the nickname given Governor Sarah Palin in her college basketball days. I was there, yesterday in Lebanon Virginia. He was taking multiple shots at Governor Sarah Palin and this one and the following attack went low brow. I went their to confront Obama but knew in my heart, as I stood there, I should let him self destruct. There were several other...

I just wanted to congratulate the junior Senator from Illinois for what might just be the most idiotic (planned) gaffe of this election. Yet another day, yet another "rally" spent attacking the GOP Vice-Presidential candidate. What a way to prove your fitness to serve as Commander-in-Chief by delivering personal attacks instead of telling the nation what it is you truly believe. I salute you, Barry, on perhaps the most inept general election presidential campaign since McGovern-Eaglet...er, that other guy.

Fish flies out of lake, breaks Arkansas teen's jaw Sun Sep 7, 8:26 PM ET LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - It's a fishing tale that packs a wallop so strong it broke the jaw of a southeastern Arkansas teen and covered him in fish blood and guts. Seth Russell, 15, of Crossett, was cruising Lake Chicot on a large inner tube towed by a boat when a Silver Asian carp leaped from the water and smacked him in the face. Seth was knocked unconscious. "He doesn't remember anything at all," the boy's mother, Linda Russell, said last week. "He was laughing,...

MUNICH, GERMANY (AP) - Fish oil supplements may work slightly better than a popular cholesterol-reducing drug to help patients with chronic heart failure, according to new research released Sunday. Chronic heart failure is a condition that occurs when the heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently around the body.

Alaskans were given an option when voting for an initiative in their primary election: mining or fish. They chose mining. With more than 84 percent of votes tallied early Wednesday, the measure was declared dead with more than 57 percent of voters rejecting it. The ballot measure would have imposed two water quality standards on any new large-scale mines in Alaska. Had it passed, it would have restricted large, new mines from releasing toxic pollutants into water that would adversely affect the health of humans or salmon. Opponents of the initiative say if it had passed, it would have killed...

Switzerland is well on its way to becoming the most dignified country in the world, after its federal parliament decreed that goldfish must be protected against physical and psychological abuse. From September 1, Swiss aquariums must have an opaque side to allow the fish live in a natural cycle of day and night. The new law sets rigorous standards for the treatment of all "social animals". It will be an offence, for instance, to keep only one guinea pig or budgerigar. Or one rhinoceros, apparently, because the law also covers pet rhinoceroses. The Swiss are amongst the best educated people...

Up to a quarter of fish in stores and restaurants in New York City was mislabelled as a more expensive variety, according to samples collected by two US teenagers and tested with genetic "barcoding" methods. fish market In the worst cases, two samples of filleted fish sold as red snapper, caught mostly off the southeast United States and in the Caribbean, were instead the endangered Acadian redfish from the North Atlantic, according to the tests, revealed on Friday. "We never expected these results. People should get what they pay for," said Kate Stoeckle, 18, of the project with Louisa Strauss,...

McCain 2008 Announces Sportsmen For McCain Leadership Governors Pawlenty, Keating to Serve as National Co-Chairs ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign has announced the National Steering Committee of the Sportsmen for McCain coalition. These leaders in the angling, hunting and shooting communities are working across the country to emphasize John McCain's dedication to protecting Americans' right to gun ownership and his commitment to preserving and promoting our hunting, angling and shooting traditions. John McCain said, "I am proud to have the support of these national and state leaders within the sportsmen's community and know that their support...

Food prices to post biggest rise since 1990: USDA By Christopher Doering Wed Aug 20, 5:43 PM ET U.S. consumers should brace for the biggest increase in food prices in nearly 20 years in 2008 and even more pain next year due to surging meat and produce prices, the Agriculture Department said on Wednesday. Food prices are forecast to rise by 5 percent to 6 percent this year, making it the largest annual increase since 1990. Just last month, USDA forecast food prices would climb between 4.5 and 5.5 percent in 2008. "It's a little bit of a surprise how...

26 dead, 297 injured and two left traumatised. Matt Clarke takes a look at 19 painful incidents involving fish from the depths of the news archives... We've scoured the Practical Fishkeeping news archives to dredge up some of the weird and terrifying incidents involving fish that we've covered in the past few years... Attack of the 'willy fish'The legendary candiru, or 'willy fish' as it sometimes less politely called, is known about well outside its native range in the freshwater rivers of the Amazon basin. These small catfish are parasites and normally live in the gills of very large catfishes,...

  Wife lands a whopper   What a whopper ... Gill Hudspeth and her catch   By STAFF REPORTER Published: Today     A NOVICE angler is celebrating a huge haul - on her first fishing effort. Gill Hudspeth, 58, hooked a 72lb catfish the first time she fished with a rod and reel on holiday with her husband and two friends in France. Her huge haul blew her husband Maurice’s best ever catch of 42lbs straight out of the water. Mrs Hudspeth, from Wilford, Nottinghamshire, today said she had never taken up fishing, despite the fact her husband...

OCOEE, Fla. -- A fish-like creature with "legs" caught in a Central Florida lake over the weekend sparked a flood of e-mails after photos of it were aired on Local 6. Shawna Mitchell said she was fishing on Starke Lake in Ocoee when she pulled something strange out of the water. Mitchell's photos showed what appeared to be a fish with two front legs and no scales. She said she was "freaked out a little bit" after pulling the creature to a pier. After Local 6 News aired the photos, viewers sent e-mails to Local6.com Sunday night suggesting it was...

You know what a pedicure looks like - but you probably haven't seen one like this. It involves tiny fish, eating the dead skin off your feet. As Derek McGinty reports, a salon in Virginia has brought the practice back from China, and it's very popular.

It’s not bad enough we have to deal with cats, but now we have deal with their fish too? Check out this story from Florida about walking catfish emerging from the gutters into the streets. I can already see what’s going to happen next. There will be fish adoption days at Petsmart, catfish toys taking away valuable shelf space from dog toys at Wal-Mart, and beautiful parks designated for catfish only. The end result will be that Catfish owners will think the moist slab of fish cuddling up with them on the couch is better than a dog. This is...

The tuna industry says climate change is bringing benefits. The chief executive of the Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Association, Brian Jeffriess, says Port Lincoln crews in South Australia are reporting an excellent quality and size catch. He says it can be partly attributed to the effects of climate change on the waters of the Great Australian Bight. "There's no doubt climate change will bring benefits to the Great Australian Bight ecology in the sense that there's more upwellings therefore more small pelagics as we call them - sardines, mackerel, red bait, other fish - and that will bring tuna so...

Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids. The combination could be potentially dangerous for some patients with heart disease, arthritis, asthma and other allergic and auto-immune diseases that are particularly vulnerable to an “exaggerated inflammatory response.” Newswise — Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, according to new research from Wake Forest University School...

With Columbia Gorge turbines pumping out extra electricity, the agency had to quickly adjust its hydro generation Columbia Basin river managers had a close call this week when they were forced to cut back on hydropower after a surge in wind energy blasted through the system. The surge forced them to spill more water over dams, risking the health of migrating fish. For the first time, it also exposed serious kinks in a plan that was supposed to deal smoothly with just such emergencies. As it turned out, the spills weren't heavy enough to harm fish. But the federal Bonneville...

The government wants to know who's fishing for fun in federal ocean waters. Recreational anglers and spearfishers would be required to be registered... NOAA's Fisheries Service said it wants to get more accurate data on recreational fish catches. Commercial fishers already need licenses or permits and thus would not have to register again... The registry ...fishing anywhere for what are called anadromous species, such as striped bass, salmon and shad, that spawn in rivers and streams and spend their adult lives in estuaries and the ocean. Registrations will include an angler's name, address, telephone number and the regions where fishing...

Eating Fish And Foods With Omega-3 Fatty Acids Linked To Lower Risk Of Age-related Eye Disease"Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe vision loss among elderly people," they write as background information in the article. New treatments for AMD are potentially risky and treat only certain forms of the disease. "Thus, primary prevention of AMD by modifying risk factors (e.g., cigarette smoking) remains an important public health strategy." Elaine W-T. Chong, M.B.B.S., of the University of Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues conducted a systematic review of studies published before May 2007 evaluating the fish consumption and overall omega-3...

Huge halibut hooked in Norway Last Updated: 8:50PM BST 28/05/2008   A halibut thought to be the largest ever line-caught fish has been hooked by an angler in Norway. BNPS  The 31st fish has smashed the line caught record by 24 lb The 31st creature - which measures 8ft1in long - was landed by proud fisherman Soren Bec following a titanic struggle. The monster catch is believed to have beaten the previous record for a line-caught fish by 24lbs. Although halibut of up to 2.5metres (8ft2in) have been spotted in Norweigian waters, it is unusual for the fish to...

PORTLAND — When sonar surveys spotted a vast pile of rubble in the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam a few months ago, officials suddenly worried that part of the dam structure was eroding into the river. "Everybody said, 'Oh my gosh, we need to get divers out there right away,' " recalled Dennis Schwartz, a fisheries biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the dam. What they found below the spillways in February was not a giant pile of rock at all, but a humongous pile of thousands upon thousands of sturgeon — some of them 14 feet...

LUBBOCK, Texas — A former Lubbock pastor convicted of pocketing more than $500,000 in federal funds meant for needy children over summer breaks was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison Monday. James Cornell Clark, former pastor of Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, was convicted in January on 41 counts of fraud, laundering and other charges. Five business entities created by Clark were also convicted of money laundering charges. Prosecutors say Clark created the businesses to receive funds for the Summer Food Program, created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide nutritious meals for children when school is closed....

Follow that fish -- threespine sticklebacks that were used in the experiments For animals that live in social groups, and that includes humans, blindly following a leader could place them in danger. To avoid this, animals have developed simple but effective behaviour to follow where at least a few of them dare to tread – rather than follow a single group member. This pattern of behaviour reduces the risk of imitating maverick behaviour of an individual as the group recognise that consensus is better than following someone that goes it alone. Love personal electronics? Link up with the like...

The One That Got Away World-record class Dixon Lake bass "Dottie" dies and ends era for three old friends By Kyle Carter ESPNOutdoors.com Jed Dickerson holds world-record class bass Dottie after she was found dead on Dixon Lake Friday. Jed Dickerson had just left Dixon Lake exhausted and was about to sit down for lunch when he got the call from Jim Dayberry, one of the Ranger supervisors with the park's lake division. "You might want to come back down here," Dayberry told Dickerson at around 11:45 a.m. PT on Friday. "We just found Dottie floating on the north side...

Six federally protected sea lions were apparently shot to death on the Columbia River as they lay in open traps put out to ensnare the animals, which eat endangered salmon. State and federal authorities are investigating. The discovery came one day after three elephant seals were found shot to death at a breeding ground in central California. Trapping will be suspended during the investigation, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife who was at the scene Sunday.

BAGHDAD, April 23, 2008 – Fish farms have begun to thrive in Iraq’s Babil province, as Task Force Marne soldiers take on a critical role in rebuilding this vital industry. Army Sgt. Joshua Seymour, with Company A, 411th Civil Affairs Battalion, points to fish surfacing for food as he conducts an assessment of a fish farm in Qarghuli village in Iraq’s Babil province, April 9, 2008. Photo by Army Staff Sgt. Tony M. Lindback, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Thanks to the vision of Army Col. Thomas James, commander of the...

"Eerie Thumps Haunt Some Cape Residents," a headline in The News-Press of Cape Coral, Fla., said. "Noise May Cost City Big Bucks." It was the end of January 2005, during the spawning season for a fish appropriately called the black drum. Nightly mating calls were at a crescendo. But no one living in the area seemed to realize the din was of aquatic origin. The retirees who had come to spend their winters relaxing on the gentle estuaries and canals of the Gulf Coast in Florida blamed the municipal utility system. They were pushing the City Council to pay an...

A fanged creature found in Utah after some ice melted on a pond has stumped biologists trying to determine what it is. Officials said the pond may have been poisoned or the water may have run out of oxygen due to the thick ice. While checking the pond, the creature was spotted. "When we first saw that fish, we thought what in the ….. is that thing?" Utah Divison of Wildlife Resources Ben Boyce said. The fish was found with carp and goldfish that had been stocked in the pond. Biologists said they are not sure what the creature is...

While diving in the harbor of a small island in Indonesia recently, husband and wife Buck and Fitrie Randolph, with dive guide Toby Fadirsyair, found a strange fish and took some pictures. The oddball creature looks like an anglerfish, but different. Its eyes, unlike those of nearly all fish, point forward and may allow the fish to gauge depth the way humans do. The flat fish has tan- and peach-colored stripes and rippling folds of skin that obscure its fins. About the size of a human fist, it is soft and pliable enough to slip into narrow crevices of coral...

Sydney - Climate change is dulling the hearing of fish and making it more difficult for them to find a home, Australian researchers say. More carbon in the atmosphere means less calcium in the water and consequently poorer hearing in fish, who use hearing as much as sight to locate a habitat. James Cook University researchers Monica Gagliano and Martial Depczynski says tropical fish on the Great Barrier Reef, off the east coast of Australia, are growing asymmetrical ears. Increasing acidity has cut the calcium carbonate that fish need to grow healthy bones including ear bones, the researchers said. The...

Several hundred years ago, the coral reefs of the Caribbean had up to six times more fish than they have today, according to a study published Wednesday. The estimate is made by US scientists poring over the fate of the Caribbean monk seal, a fish-loving mammal driven to extinction in 1952. Historical records from the 17th and 18th century show there were huge numbers of monk seals, distributed among 13 colonies across the Caribbean. They were so plentiful that some ships' maps of the West Indies even noted particularly dense locations of seals. Alas for Monachus tropicalis, colonisation of the...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ― Gorton's Inc. recalled about 1,000 cases of frozen fish in 10 states on Friday after confirming that a Pennsylvania customer found pills in the food. Gorton's said it ordered the recall as a precaution while a laboratory works to determine the nature of the pills. Those tests should be complete early next week. "Obviously product alteration is a very serious matter," said Jud Reis, vice president of marketing for the company, based in Gloucester, Mass. "We are conducting a full investigation into the source of the problem." Tracy Rowan of New Freedom called police after she...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Seventy-two small fish were briefly launched into space by researchers Thursday, hoping their swimming patterns would shed some light on motion sickness. German researchers sent the cichlids on a 10-minute rocket ride that blasted off from a launch pad in northern Sweden, said Professor Reinhard Hilbig, who was in charge of the project. "They were very happy, I think they want to have another flight," he said. The thumbnail-sized fish were filmed as they swam around weightlessly in small aquariums during the unmanned space flight. The German team will now study the video to see if some...

SAVAGE fish that eats everything it comes across, including people, has been hooked by a British fisherman — sparking fears of a deadly invasion. The giant snakehead, originating from South-East Asia, has a mouth crammed with teeth. It’s deadly in the water, but it can also “crawl” on land and survive out of water for up to four days. The discovery of the fish in Linconshire, northern England, has caused widespread panic amongst conservationists and anglers. An Environment Agency source told the Sun: “The reaction was, ‘Oh s***’. This is the ultimate invasive species - if it starts breeding here...

Pesticide dichlorvos found in frozen fish 02/20/2008 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN TAKAMATSU--The pesticide dichlorvos, which had contaminated gyoza dumplings imported from China, was detected in sliced frozen mackerel processed in an area of China that handles a large volume of farm produce. The fish was sold in Japan by Kouzai Bussan Co., based in Sanuki city, east of here, company officials said. They said 0.14 parts per million (ppm) of the organophosphorus pesticide was found in the product called Aburi Toro Shimesaba Suraisu, a package of 20 slices weighing about 200 grams. A Kagawa prefectural government official said, "The detected amount...

A letter that a young girl in Japan sent into the sky in a balloon some 15 years ago has been found on a fish hauled from 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) below the Pacific. A fisherman found the still legible piece of paper sitting on a sticky flatfish in his catch on Thursday, along with a torn-off string and the fragment of a red balloon. He opened the folded paper, discovering it was a handwritten letter from a six-year-old girl at an elementary school in Kawasaki, 150 kilometres (93 miles) away from where the fish was caught off Choshi port....

  Sturgeon goes on and on   Reel-y big ... Nick and George with their monster catch  Published: Today       TWO British anglers got a reel shock while boat fishing in Canada – when they caught a TEN FOOT long sturgeon. Nick Calleya, 36, and George Carstairs, 42, took an hour to land the 500lb fish – thought to be more than 100 years old. Nick, of Cubert, Cornwall, and George, of Aberdeen, caught it on Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada. Nick said: “It was so strong it was lifting George off his seat.”

Skin Color Evolution In Fish And Humans Determined By Same Genetic MachineryOcean sticklebacks are dark colored fish that often migrate into new environments. Multiple stickleback populations have evolved lighter gill and skin colors following colonization of new lakes and streams at the end of the last ice age. Ocean (upper) compared to freshwater creek (lower) sticklebacks, both collected near Vancouver, British Columbia. Scientists have identified a genetic change controlling rapid evolution of skin color in fish, and shown that the same mechanism also contributes to recent evolution of skin color in humans. (Credit: Frank Chan, Craig Miller, and David Kingsley;...

When She's Turned On, Some Of Her Genes Turn Off, Fish Study Shows ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2007) — When a female is attracted to a male, entire suites of genes in her brain turn on and off, show biologists from The University of Texas at Austin studying swordtail fish. Molly Cummings and Hans Hofmann found that some genes were turned on when females found a male attractive, but a larger number of genes were turned off. "When females were most excited--when attractive males were around--we observed the greatest down regulation [turning off] of genes," said Cummings, assistant professor of integrative...

SACRAMENTO Dozens of volunteers are rescuing fish from a protected island in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta after a federal agency drained some of its water for a levee repair. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation are coordinating Saturday's volunteer effort after thousands of fish died last week during the agency's pumping operation on Prospect Island. Bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken says between 45 and 50 fishermen have caught and released more than 1,300 stripped bass into Sacramento's Deep Water Ship Channel. Federal officials blocked local fisherman from helping save fish last week. Volunteers also plan to work Sunday.

PORT KAVKAZ, Russia - More than 30,000 birds and countless fish have been killed in an "ecological catastrophe" wrought by thousands of tons of oil from a tanker that broke apart in a heavy storm near the Black Sea, the governor of the region said Monday. Birds weighed down by thick coatings of the fuel oil hopped weakly along the shore or sat helplessly in the sand. Workers with pitchforks and shovels started the backbreaking labor of gathering up vast clumps of oil mixed with sand and seaweed. The tanker was one of up to 10 ships that sank or...

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 31 — Federal fisheries officials in Seattle on Wednesday endorsed, with minor modifications, a plan for the government’s continued operation of the hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. They said it did not jeopardize the survival of 13 stocks of salmon and steelhead that the government must protect under the Endangered Species Act. The endorsement, a draft analysis from the National Marine Fisheries Service, agreed with dozens of proposed protective actions that would provide enhanced measures to get juvenile fish past the dams as they swim seaward, improve habitat in the river and discourage predators...

TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq, Oct. 29, 2007 – Bill Zett, an auditor with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, believes it’s nice to catch a fish when fishing, but not always necessary. Bill Zett, a full-time U.S. Army Corps of Engineers auditor and part-time fisherman, fishes Lake Wisconsin at Tallil Air Base, Iraq. Photo by John Connor  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Zett goes fishing most Friday mornings at Lake Wisconsin, a manmade lake not far from the headquarters of the Corps’ Gulf Region South district on this sprawling onetime Iraqi air base. He said it is peaceful...

Why Fish Fanciers Have The Last Laugh Saturday October 27, 2007 Pets can provide a good indication of their owners' personalities, a new study has shown. People who have dogs tend to be cheerful, cat lovers are dependable and emotionally sensitive, and reptile owners independent. But no-one is happier than a keeper of tropical fish, according to the research. Fish owners stand out as the most contented of individuals, says psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman from Hertfordshire University, who led the study. Almost 60% are convinced their fishy friends have a personality and sense of humour. The research reveals that pets'...

Supermarkets 'mislead with omega 3 claims' By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 2:13am BST 25/10/2007 Supermarkets and food companies are misleading customers by making baffling health claims about omega 3, an organisation has claimed. Omega 3 is found naturally in oily fish, such as salmon or mackerel The fatty acid has become increasingly popular in recent years after some studies suggested that it can help reduce the risk of heart disease. However, parts of the food industry have been accused by the consumer group Which?of "riding the money-making omega 3 wave". A survey of 2,405 of their members...

Source: American College of Gastroenterology Date: October 15, 2007 Consumption Of Raw Fish Raises Potential Health Concerns For Consumers Science Daily — Two case studies from Japan presented at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology point to a potential health problem in the United States, as more Americans consume raw fish in the form of sushi and sashimi. Anisakiasis (round worm) is a human parasitic infection caused by the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood containing Anisakis larvae. Consumers should be aware that while larvae for the parasitic worm Anisakis cannot survive in a human host,...