Views of the Day
From Microcosm Aquarium Explorer
Enigmatic moai statues on Easter Island/Rapa Nui. Corbis
[edit] The Wild Side
[edit] No Vacancy, No Evolution
Why aren’t there more insects in the sea? Insects, after all, make up the bulk of all known animal species — most animals are insects — yet hardly any insects live in the sea.
It’s not because of the water. Many insects live in freshwater for at least part of their lives. Read more...
[edit] The Aquarium Ecologist
Stopping Extinctions?
In case your calendar isn’t marked, the biodiversity preservation movement officially turns 35 this year. President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law on December 28, 1973. That same year, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, commonly known as CITES, was adopted on March 3.
Although the issues addressed by these two landmark achievements continue to create controversy, it seems well established that preventing extinctions remains an important societal goal, if polls are to be believed. It therefore behooves us to ask: What progress we have made in this regard in the past three and a half decades? Read more...
[edit] Other Views
"Think of a giant bluefin as an 800-pound torpedo of sushi — some of the finest, fattiest, most expensive there is. Since the 1970s, when the sushi craze took off, purse-seine haulers and longline fishing boats and fish hunters in spotter planes have chased the giant bluefin across the world’s oceans. They have been ruthlessly efficient: The worldwide bluefin population has plunged more than 90 percent in the last 30 years." —The New York Times, Editorial, 11/17/2007 http://nytimes.com/
[edit] Help!Desk
[edit] The Mystery of the Green Hair
So where do we start on the complex subject of one of hair algae? I am immediately reminded of something my old Taekwondo teacher used to say (I suspect he lifted it from a movie line): “The best way to avoid a punch is not to be there.”
Well, the best way to deal with hair algae is never to get it in the first place. This sounds simplistic but it is indeed my best advice on the topic of this much-dreaded aquarium plague. I will therefore dedicate the remainder of Part I to techniques for the avoidance of hair algae. Then, in Part Two, we will tackle what to do if you are among the unfortunate aquarists who already have a hair problem and need to be rid of it. Read more...
