The present study was conducted to examine the impact of cage aquaculture on benthic communities in coastal areas (depth 25 to 50 m) from fish farming operations located along the southeastern Black Sea (Ordu-Perşembe, Trabzon-Yomra and Rize central). Sampling was conducted seasonally from April 2007 to 2009. Sediment samples were taken using Ekman Grab (box core- 0.04 m2). Temperature, salinit...

Diversion of river water has diminished freshwater flow into many estuaries worldwide, yet the effects of these diversions on marine fisheries, many of which depend on estuaries, are largely unexplored. We document the impact of diverting Colorado River flow from the Gulf of California on the life history of a now-endangered marine fish (Totoaba macdonaldi, Sciaenidae). Growth increments in pre...

The marine environment represents a relatively untapped source of functional ingredients that can be applied to various aspects of food processing, storage, and fortification. Moreover, numerous marine-based compounds have been identified as having diverse biological activities, with some reported to interfere with the pathogenesis of diseases. Bioactive peptides isolated from fish protein hydr...

Diabetes is a chronic degenerative metabolic disease with high morbidity and mortality rates caused by its complications. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in looking for new bioactive compounds to treat this disease, including metabolites of marine origin. Several aquatic organisms have been screened to evaluate their possible anti-diabetes activities, such as bacteria, microa...

Overfishing has dramatically depleted sharks and other large predatory fishes worldwide except for a few remote and/or well-protected areas. The islands of Darwin and Wolf in the far north of the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) are known for their large shark abundance, making them a global scuba diving and conservation hotspot. Here we report quantitative estimates of fish abundance at Darwin a...

Absorption of anthropogenic carbon dioxide by the world’s oceans is causing mankind’s ‘other CO2 problem’, ocean acidification1. Although this process will challenge marine organisms that synthesize calcareous exoskeletons or shells2–6, it is unclear how it will affect internally calcifying organisms, such as marine fish7. Adult fish tolerate short-term exposures toCO2 levels that exceed those ...

Although overfishing has been recognized as responsible for the decline of major fish stocks, it has been less easy to demonstrate its indirect and detrimental effects on marine mammals, particularly dolphins. Competition with fisheries for the same food resources has been hypothesized to have led to the decline of several species of dolphins, including the endangered Mediterranean short-beaked...

Among the numerous PCB congeners, most of the dioxin-like PCBs (DL-PCBs) need to be characterized by hyphenated techniques. It has been shown in several instances that these congeners are well related to the total PCB content in fish. We examined datasets collected mainly in France, on freshwater and marine fish and sediments. A statistical model linking DL- and indicator PCBs was developed for...

The benefits of bioluminescence for nonsymbiotic marine bacteria have not been elucidated fully. One of the most commonly cited explanations, proposed more than 30 y ago, is that bioluminescence augments the propagation and dispersal of bacteria by attracting fish to consume the luminous material. This hypothesis, based mostly on the prevalence of luminous bacteria in fish guts, has not been te...

The presence of total mercury (Hg) in fish tissue and the potential associated health risks has become a global concern in marine ecosystems. Few studies have examined basin-scale variation in Hg accumulation in marine ecosystems, and determining if Hg concentrations in fish tissue vary across marine ecosystems is a key monitoring question. The present study evaluated Hg concentrations in red s...