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Amazing Sea Hares from Anilao Pier

by | May 28, 2014 | Fish, Invertebrates, Science

Anilao Pier, home to the notorious bobbit worm, is my favorite site in the Philippines for night diving. I first dove here in 2012, during my graduate studies at San Francisco State University and the California Academy of Sciences. The diversity of marine invertebrates here is astounding, especially with respect to sea slugs, snails, and anemones. I’m particularly interested in sea hares, a group of sea slugs in the order Anapsidea. They’re called sea hares thanks to the horn-like structures on their head, known as rhinophores, which allow them to sense their environment—and which happen to resemble rabbit ears. Like the nudibranchs they’re related to (same phylum, different order), sea slugs have evolved potent chemical defenses to deter predation, since they’re soft-bodied and possess either a reduced shell or no shell at all. On one of my night dives during the expedition, I came across two beautiful, large, lime-green sea hares crawling through the sand and sea grass about 3 meters down. Overwhelmed with excitement upon spotting them, I actually squealed through my scuba regulator! I picked one up and let it go, watching it swim gracefully with its wing-like dorsal appendages (called parapodia), and later collected both for the Academy’s sea slug collection. This was my first encounter with a species I later learned was Syphonota geographica, the only species within the genus Syphonota. Despite it being circumtropical (distributed throughout the tropics) and an invasive species in the Mediterranean, the Academy’s Senior Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, Terry Gosliner, had only encountered this species once before in the Philippines. I’m thinking about investigating its taxonomy and chemical composition for my PhD, since it may actually represent more than one species and contain variable chemical composition, depending on where it’s found and what it eats. Syphonota geographica in the Indo-Pacific have been reported as feeding on brown algae, while those from the Mediterranean are considered specialists, feeding instead on the invasive seagrass Halophila stipulacea. Representatives from Greece have been studied chemically, but specimens from the Philippines haven’t been researched—offering a great chance to add another chapter to our understanding of the area’s biodiversity. —Carissa Shipman, PhD student at University of the Philippines Diliman

First Ever Fully Cultured Tridacna maxima Hits the Market

by | Apr 22, 2014 | Aquaculture, Eye Candy, Invertebrates, Sustainability

Thanks to the extremely focused efforts of one individual, the world of Tridacnid clams has been completely changed. We’ve been following the work of one Australian “super aquarist” who goes by the name Acro Al. He has been breeding clams at his home for quite some time now, sharing much of his journey with fellow hobbyists on social media. And because we’re total clam junkies, we’re totally excited about the fact that his babies are getting old enough to hit the market. What makes the news even more exciting is that this is the first time that fully cultured maxima clams have ever been offered in the aquarium trade! To let the market fully dictate the price, this first individual, which is a total looker by the way, was posted in an online auction with a minimum reserve set at $250. The price quickly rose to well over $400 for this 40mm individual, which interestingly is about to turn one year old. The clam is not availalbe to purchase by US hobbyists, as the permitting and paperwork hoopla is far too difficult to overcome at this point, but it’s still groundbreaking news for the hobby. First fully aquacultured Maxima clam IN THE WORLD! Species: Tridacna Maxima (Röding, 1798) Batch No.

Dozens of Huge Tridacnid Clams Seized from Vietnamese Fishermen

by | Apr 17, 2014 | Conservation, Invertebrates, Science

Here is a very troubling story out of Malaysia. According to The Star Online, a group of nine Vietnamese fishermen were arrested for illegally harvesting dozens of giant clams whose combined weight totalled nearly 20 metric tons (almost 44,000 pounds). The arrest is reportedly the first of its kind, but officials strongly believe that this isn’t the first incident for these fisherman, who were arrsted on Monday. The clams have a value of RM500,000, which roughly translates to somethine like $150,000 US, as their shells are valuable in the curio trade as well as in the cosmetics industry. The giant clams, which are probably of the species but could include several others, are obviously endangered and protected marine species that require specialized permitting to collect. It is even illegal to sell the clam shells without special permits. In addition to the fishermen, the boat company is also under investigation, as it is believed that they entered into a joint venture with the fishermen to harvest the clams