The dramatic story of the discovery of a 400 million-year-old living fossil. Just before Christmas in 1938, the young woman curator of a small South African museum spotted a strange-looking fish in a trawler's catch. It was five feet long, with steel-blue scales, luminescent eyes and remarkable limb-like fins, unlike those of any other fish she had ever seen. Determined to preserve her unusual find, she searched for days for a way to save it, but ended up with only the skin and a few bones.

A charismatic amateur ichthyologist, J. L. B. Smith saw a thumbnail of the fish and was thunderstruck. He recognised it as a coelacanth (pronounce, 'see-la-kanth'), a creature known from fossils dating back 400 million years and thought to have died out with the dinosaurs. With its extraordinary limbs, the coelacanth was believed to be the first fish to crawl from the sea and evolve into reptiles, mammals and eventually humankind. The discovery was immediately dubbed the 'greatest scientific find of the century'.

Smith devoted his life to the search for a complete specimen, a fourteen-year odyssey which culminated in a dramatic act of international piracy. As the fame of the coelacanth spread, so did rumours and obsessions. Nations fought over it, multimillion-dollar expeditions were launched and submarines hand-built to find it. In 1998 the rumours and the truth came together in a gripping climax, which brought the coelacanth back into the international limelight.

A Fish Caught in Time is the entrancing story of the most rare and precious fish in the world – our own great-uncle forty million times removed.

Damselfishes (Pomacentridae) are highly conspicuous, diurnal inhabitants of mainly reef areas, capturing the attention of many scientists. Their high diversity and the many interesting characteristics dealing with their way of life (sound production, breeding biology, sex change, farming and gregarious behavior, settlement, diet, habitat) easily explain how this group is continually kept in the limelight and is the subject of numerous studies. This book gathers the data dealing with damselfish morphology, physiology, behavior, ecology and phylogeny.It contains 14 chapters written by renowned scientists.

This textbook provides a highly accessible and concise overview on the innate and adaptive immune systems in fish as well as on fundamentals and latest developments in fish vaccinology. It introduces the anatomy and molecular functions of immune organs and furthermore examines in detail the interactions between the host immune systems and different types of pathogens. The textbook is essential reading for students in Veterinary/Fish Medicine, Aquaculture and Immunology. Furthermore, the volume serves as a quick reference for Fish Pathologists and Aquaculturists. Chapter 2 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Most of what we do on land ends up impacting the ocean, but never is that clearer than when we look at salmon. Centuries of our greatest assaults on nature, from overfishing to dams, from hatcheries to fish farms, from industrial pollution to the ravages of climate change, can be seen in their harrowing yet awe-inspiring life cycle.

From the Pacific to the Atlantic, through Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Iceland, Japan and Siberia, Mark Kurlansky traces the history of the world through his fish-eye lens, laying bare our misdirected attempts to manipulate salmon for our own benefit. Attempts that have had a devastating impact on both fish and earth.

Now, the only way to save salmon is to save the planet, and the only way to save the planet may be to save the salmon.

This is the first comprehensive book on the biology and ecology of pufferfish, also known as blowfish, swellfish, and globefish. Covering 197 species of pufferfish recorded so far from the marine, brackish, and freshwater ecosystems of the world, this important volume expounds on the toxins and associated poisonings of pufferfish. Importantly, the volume also explores the many uses of pufferfish, such as in aquariums, for their nutritional and culinary value, and for their emerging uses in the treatment of pain. Topics covered include: biology and ecology of pufferfish profiles of the world's marine, brackish, and freshwater pufferfish species characteristics of TTX (tetrodotoxin) and STX (saxitoxin) of pufferfish pufferfish poisoning and symptoms: treatment and management aquarium uses of pufferfish nutritional and pharmaceutical values of pufferfish diseases and parasites of pufferfish and their management

This illustrated guide describes the many ways that coarse fish species depend upon the diversity of habitats in river systems and considers how this dependence changes throughout the stages of their lives - from spawning and eggs, through to the juvenile and adult stages- and with changing seasons and river conditions. This knowledge is important if we are to understand the many population bottlenecks and the variety of coarse fish species that have resulted from historic changes to our rivers. It is also important if we are to manage rivers positively to protect and improve the vitality of coarse fisheries - a process that will also benefit the wider wildlife community with which coarse fish are interdependent.

Nanotechnology offers a revolutionary and definitive approach for the efficient delivery of drug molecules to non-healthy tissues and cells. This first volume of a series of two volumes analyzes the basics in the development of drug-loaded nanoplatforms, the so-called nanomedicines. Special attention is given to physicochemical engineering, pharmacokinetics, biocompatibility and biodegradability, representative nanoplatforms (based on lipids, polymers, cyclodextrins, metals, carbon, silica, iron oxides, etc.), and advanced nano-engineering strategies for passive, ligand-mediated, and/or stimuli-sensitive drug delivery and release.

An understanding of gonorynchiform morphology and systematic inter- and intra-relationships has proven vital to a better understanding of the evolution of lower teleosts in general, and more specifically of groups such as the clupeiforms (e.g., herrings and anchovies), and ostariophysans (e.g., carps, minnows and catfishes). This book examines the current knowledge of gonorynchiform biology, including comparative osteology, myology, epibranchial morphology and development. Phylogenetic interrelationships among gonorynchiform fishes are reexamined.

An up-to-date compilation of the development of non-teleost fishes has so far been unavailable. These fishes include the jawless fishes (hagfish and lampreys), the cartilaginous fishes (sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras), the forerunners of the teleostei: the cladistia (bichirs and reedfish), the chondrostei (sturgeon and paddlefish, the neopterygii (gar pike and bowfin), and, finally, the closest relations to the tetrapods: the lungfishes (the coelacanh living fossil ], Protopterus of Africa, Lepidosiren of South America and Neoceratodus of Australia). Therefore, the present volume has been devoted to closing the gap by an up-to-date scientific review of the early life-history of these non-teleost fishes (agnathi excepted)."

Understanding the biology of the innumerable number of aquatic species on our planet is the focus of sustained research efforts. Environmental degradation, management or rehabilitation of wild stocks, and the forecasted climatic changes are fueling interest in the study of the ecology, feeding behavior, and nutrition of aquatic animals in their natural habitat. In parallel, the rapid expansion of aquaculture in many parts of the world has supported vigorous research programs on nutrition, and feeding of cultivated aquatic organisms. More than 250 aquatic species are cultivated on a commercial scale using a wide variety of production systems. This great diversity results in great opportunities and tremendous challenges. Topics covered in this book are as diverse as, feeding ecology of fish in their natural habitat, feeding behavior, digestive anatomy, biochemistry and physiology of different fish species at different life stages, the impact of diet on gastro-intestinal development and health, nutrition and disease resistance, and modeling conversion of food or feed inputs into biomass.

Gills of healthy fishes are their lifeline to meet the challenges arising from their changing environment: oxygen gradient, alkalinity, temperature fluctuations and the added pollutants. The diverse and ever changing aquatic environment has a major impact on the organization of various organ-systems of fishes. This book contains seventeen chapters covering bony fishes which are focal to the current study. The chapters primarily cover fish respiration but also include osmoregulation, these being the two main functions of gills. Concurrently, cardiorespiratory synchronization has been well addressed. It is hoped that this book with its broad coverage and well-supported with illustrations will not only infuse interest in readers but merit a permanent place on the shelves of ichthyological literature.

This seven-volume series is the most extensive treatise on early life histories of the freshwater fishes of North America. It represents the state-of-the-art in fishery biology and provides a systematic approach to the study of early life histories of all the fishes in this region. Each volume contains distinguishing characteristics and a pictorial guide to the families of fishes in the OR Drainage, followed by chapters on the families. This series fills a gap in the literature, providing information on the spawning habitat requirements, reproductive behavior, and ecological relationships during the first few months of life for most species. This fifth volume examines the families aphredoderidae through sciaenidae.

Pacific salmon inhabit a vast ecosystem that encompasses the rivers within and the ocean between coastal countries. From steep, cold snowmelt streams to major tributaries, from estuaries to the deep ocean, the range of Pacific salmon includes the Tachia River in Taiwan, the permafrost zone of Chukotka that flows to the Chukchi Sea, the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean between Japan and California, the streams and rivers of the Yukon Territory and British Columbia, and the myriad waterways in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California, as far south as Rio Santo Domingo in Baja California. The North Pacific Rim nations--the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, China, and the Koreas--enjoy vastly different economic, ecological, and cultural relationships with salmon and, until now, the types of data available to assess the abundance and biodiversity of these fish were almost as varied as the scientists who collect them. Atlas of Pacific Salmon is the first book to apply a common, newly calibrated yardstick to measure, across this broad ecosystem, the state of Pacific salmon, which have suffered precipitous declines in abundance and diversity in recent decades. The only map-based assessment of distribution and risk of extinction for seven species of Pacific salmon at one consistent scale, under one authorship, the Atlas is the result of five years' work by Xanthippe Augerot and other foremost experts in the field. Using state-of-the-art GIS mapping tools, this book offers a multidimensional view of Pacific salmon populations from a watershed perspective, through the natural boundaries in which the fish migrate, spawn, and mature. More than three dozen stunning full-page maps overlay the human, climatic, geological, and environmental impacts on salmon populations.

The major aim of this work is, to help clarify the interrelationships of catfishes, with major implications on the study of the general evolution of these fishes. A great part of this work, therefore, deals with a cladistic analysis of catfish higher-level phylogeny based on extensive morphological data, in which are included some terminal taxa not included in previous analyses, but principally a large number of characters traditionally excluded from those analyses, with particular attention being given to catfish morphology. This analysis gives particular importance to complex, integrated structures. It will be interest to students, ichthyologists and biologists working in evolution, taxonomy and phylogeny.

This is a landmark volume in South Carolina marine biology for specialists and sportsmen alike. A scientific milestone, this comprehensive illustrated guide to the characteristics, distribution, and ecology of freshwater fishes in South Carolina marks the first such endeavor since 1860 to document this aspect of the Palmetto State's diverse natural history. ""Freshwater Fishes of South Carolina"" is the result of longterm collaboration between a quartet of leading experts on the state's freshwater fishes - Fred C. Rohde, Rudolf G. Arndt, Jeffrey W. Foltz, and Joseph M. Quattro. From mudminnows and sunfishes to lampreys and sturgeons, the guide describes more than one hundred fifty species of freshwater and coastal estuarine fishes that spend all or major portions of their lives in the fresh waters of South Carolina. For each species the authors provide diagnostic characteristics including size, markings, similar species, and sexual dimorphism as well as information on biology, habitat, and distribution. Color photographs and detailed distribution maps accompany each description. The volume also includes a history of ichthyology in South Carolina, a chapter on methods for the collection and identification of fishes, and a chapter on conservation biology documenting species of concern for the state and reasons for their decline. This handsome reminder of the rich biodiversity in South Carolina's rivers, streams, and lakes serves not only as a vital scientific tool for marine researchers, students, resource managers, ecologists, and state policy makers but also as a valuable resource for sportsmen and natural history enthusiasts across the region.

A composition of 74 of the most important commercial species of the Atlantic, with weights and sizes.

Hagfishes and lampreys, both examples of jawless fishes, are elongated, eel-like animals lacking paired fins, and are the only living representatives of ancient creatures that gave rise to current species of fish and, eventually, humans. This volume provides an overview of the current status of knowledge on a variety of topics related to jawless fishes, including their taxonomy, zoogeography, phylogeny, molecular biology, evolution, life history, role in the ecosystem, and fisheries and management of hagfishes and lampreys worldwide. This is the first book dealing exclusively with the various aspects of jawless fish species throughout the world. It brings together a number of papers providing new data on jawless fishes, and offers readers a range of useful information within a single reference, reflecting the growing appreciation for hagfishes and lampreys worldwide.

For twenty years, readers of The New York Times have looked forward to the Science Times section every Tuesday as one of the few national forums for high-quality science writing for the layman and an authoritative source for scientists as well. Its features, written by award-winning journalists, deliver cutting-edge information and lucid analysis.The Science Times Book of Fish collects the best articles on fish and other creatures of the sea from Science Times, exploring the biology and environments of aquatic life from the oceans' deepest reaches to lakes and rivers throughout the world. Among the book's surprising discoveries are that the orange roughy lives to be 150 years old and reaches sexual maturity at 30, the cichlids of Africa's Lake Victoria mate for life, and a deep-sea multi-stomached jellyfish exists that can grow as large as a blue whale.With this extraordinary volume comes the satisfaction of having gained a priceless new understanding of the world in which we live. (71/4 X 91/2, 244 pages, illustrations)

This book provides a useful text for research students and scientists on the latest knowledge about the immune system of fish, cutting edge technologies and the step required to develop, test and commercialise fish vaccines. It brings together information that is currently difficult to obtain in one book, and highlights problem areas and research topics that still need to be addressed to improve future vaccines.

In 1969 Peter Matthiessen set out with the expedition led by Peter Gimbel, whose aim was to find and film underwater for the first time the most dangerous of all sea creatures - the great white shark. Acting as the expedition's chronicler and spare hand (both on the surface and below), Matthiessen accompanied the crew from the Carribean to the whaling grounds off the Durban coast, to various islands in the Indian Ocean, to Ceylon, and finally to success off the bleak south coast of Australia. Blue Meridian records the awesome experience of swimming in open water among hundreds of sharks, the beauties of strange seas and landscapes and the camaraderie, humour and tension of people who live in close proximity and risk their lives day by day.