The 2010 British Society of Underwater Photographers annual prize has been awarded to Arthur Kingdon for his photo of a rare black face benny fish. The competition is judged by The Wildlife Trusts in England and Ireland. “Photographers are urged to capture the essence of ‘living seas’ – the colourful, diverse and often surprising wildlife and habitats found around UK coasts.” —Source, The Guardian

Click here to see a slideshow of other amazing underwater photos. There’s some really cool stuff!

A Tub Gurnard - Photo by wwarby

Scientists are doing research on the language of fish! Shahriman Ghazali, a researcher in New Zealand, started listening to the sounds made by fish two years ago. He isolated different species and listened to them with a microphone. It turns out some of them, like the Gurnard, a winged fish in the north of New Zealand, make grunting noises that change throughout the day. Other nocturnal fish (the Bigeye) made popping sounds that Ghazali compared to morse code and were used for a variety

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I always knew that coral was alive, but I never imagined it as a baby, or as a group of babies, swimming around in the ocean, away from their reefs. But that’s what happens. Baby coral, in their larval form (which, according to Science Daily looks like “an egg with hairs”) search their surroundings to find a nice coral reef to settle in and grow up. The question is, how do they find their new home?

In a recent study published in PLoS ONE, Dutch scientists have discovered that coral larvae do this by using sound. It

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It had long been wondered whether the animals in the ocean; whales, fish, even jellyfish, could have an effect on the movement of waters. In July of 2009, Kakani Katija and John Dabiri from the California Institute of Technology did an experiment that showed just how jellyfish moved water around. The shape of the waters’ movement was not what they expected, and plays a role in of ocean mixing.

See a video and learn more about it here

Zebrafish have the ability to grow back missing parts of their hearts, or at least that’s what a new study in the March 25 issue of Nature implies. “…researchers working at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona (CMRB) identified a fish heart cell population that is the source of this astonishing healing feat, a finding that could provide insight into how mammalian hearts might be coaxed

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Until now, people have considered fish to be on the lowest end of our food chain, and because of that they are fished with surprising cruelty. Perhaps because of their aquatic environment and lack of warm blood and fur, the human theory has generally been that fish are not as clever as mammals, they have no memories and they don’t feel pain. Victoria Braithwaite, professor of fisheries and biology at Pennsylvania State University has written

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Lake Tanganyika has its own type of clownfish, and though they are smiling, they don’t look much like Nemo. Still, we couldn’t help but share that the January issue of National Geographic Magazine features a lovely article about the often orange and white marine clownfish, discussing, among other things, their strange cohabitation with anemones. It’s definitely worth a read, and as we’ve come to expect from National Geographic, there are some beautiful photos.

Click here to go to the article.

Not too much to say here, except “I want to buy these for Gam!”

Mors, a U.K. based footwear company plans to release a line of sneakers made from Fish Leather. I suppose if the fish are being fished anyway, like for food (one of the fish they use is Arctic Salmon from the north of Iceland), then it’s good to use as much of the animals as possible. They say the shoes are really hard to make, and they’ll probably cost a fortune (shoes sold on the Mors e-store range from 180 to 260 British pounds). They will be available for purchase in Autumn 2010.

If you went wading in them, would

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A popular target for recreational and commercial fishing, the red grouper may have more to give to the world than just delicious meals. Scientists from the University of Florida have observed this fish cleaning sand from rocky areas, literally digging holes in the ocean floor so that other diverse sea creatures who are attracted to the rocks, such as coral and sponges, can live there. For this reason, they’re calling the red grouper “underwater architects.”

If the red grouper population starts to decrease, other marine life who depend on its cleaning practices could be negatively affected as well.

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