Fish are not safe from great cormorants in turbid water

Why "improved" water sources are not always safe.

Existing and proposed metrics for household drinking-water services are intended to measure the availability, safety and accessibility of water sources. However, these attributes can be highly variable over time and space and this variation complicates the task of creating and implementing simple and scalable metrics. In this paper, we highlight those factors - especially those that relate to s...

From the CUPIC study: great times are not coming(?).

Prey detection by great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis) in clear and in turbid water.

The scattering and absorption of light by water molecules and by suspended and dissolved matter (turbidity) degrade image transmission and, thus, underwater perception. We tested the effects on visual detection of prey size and distance (affecting apparent prey size) and of low-level water turbidity in hand-reared great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis) diving for natural prey (fish) in...

Cormorants keep their power: visual resolution in a pursuit-diving bird under amphibious and turbid conditions

Cormorants (Aves; Phalacrocoracidae) are active fliers, yet they forage by pursuit diving and capture of fish with the bill. In air, the cormorant's cornea provides most of the total refractive power of the eye [1]. Underwater, however, corneal power is lost, as the cornea is now bathed in liquids of similar refractive index. The retention of a sharp image, while performing precise visual tasks...

Are Fish Consumption Advisories for the Great Lakes Adequately Protective from Chemical Mixture?

Background: North American Great Lakes are home to more than 140 types of fish and are famous for recreational and commercial fishing. However, presence of toxic substances has resulted in issuance of fish consumption advisories typically based on the most restrictive contaminant. Objectives: We investigate if these advisories, which typically neglect existence of a mixture of chemicals and the...