Scientists looking for a rare Chinese river have concluded after a six week search that it is likely to be extinct. The last time the dolphins were counted was in 2006 when only 17 individuals were found. This time when scientists looked for the dolphins they found none at all. If the dolphin is now extinct it will be the first large vertebrate to become extinct for 50 years. Scientists had hoped to find some Yangtze river dolphin’s to transfer them to a protected breeding program but it appears they are too late.

Environmentalists are concerned about a vulnerable colony of porbeagle sharks after a fisherman caught 60 in a day. The sharks, although rare are currently not a protected species. A catch of this size could be enough to wipe out a whole colony due to the fact it would be likely to contain most of the colonies breeding females. The decline of this species is likely to continue until they are listed as a protected species. If this doesn’t happen soon it may be too late.

There have now been two alleged sightings of a Great White Shark off the coast of Cornwall. Whilst coastguards have dismissed the claims as scaremongering scientists have admitted that it is possible the Great White Shark could move into British waters especially as they start to get warmer. There has never been a confirmed sighting of a Great White off the Cornish coast and it is possible that the shark seen was actually a smaller shark such as a mako or a porbeagle.

Fishermen in Zanzibar have caught a creature called a Coelacanth. The fish has many fins and a three lobed tail and was thought to be extinct until one was caught in 1938. Since then two other Coelacanth have been caught by fishermen but its still not known how many of the fish still exist.

A Coelacanth.

It always seems to be the cute cuddly creatures that get most of the press when it comes to conservation. Other animals are overlooked because they are not so attractive. When it comes to sharks they have a really bad press, everyone remembers Jaws and most people will probably admit to finding them rather frightening. Maybe that’s why there doesn’t seem to be much effort to try and save these creatures from extinction. A recent report by a conservation group suggests that sharks could well become extinct within a generation if the practice of eating shark fin soup is not stopped. The soup is popular as a luxury item in China and is often eaten at wedding, mainly because its expensive, you need a lot of sharks to make the soup and they are few and far between. The Chinese currently account for around 90% of the world’s consumption of shark fins. The current demand for shark fin soup continues to rise and as the demand cannot be sustained by the population of wild sharks, the future looks bleak for the shark.

An interesting article here which discusses whether fish have feelings or not. It talks about the assumption that fish have very short memories which has recently been challenged by scientists ,who found fish actually have a memory span of a few months. Now, I feel really bad for keeping my poor goldfish is a bowl when I younger, it must have been really bored, no wonder fish never look very happy.

In order to solve the problem of having too many jellyfish, residents of Fukui in Japan did the obvious thing. They made cookies out of them of course.

I constantly come across articles about creatures I never knew existed. These cow nosed rays live at Scarborough Sea Life centre. Apparently they create so much waste that their tank needs to mucked out on a daily basis. A bit messier than your average fish.