ENVIRONMENT
Protect Our Seas
News and views from the world of marine heritage and conservation
Greenland shark ‘ had meningitis ’
The body of a rare Greenland shark stranded in Cornwall has been found and brought back to shore for studies . The shark was spotted by a walker on a beach at Newlyn Harbour near Penzance in March , but washed out to sea before Cornwall Wildlife Trust ’ s Marine Strandings Network could get to the beach . It sparked an urgent appeal to search for the shark , which was eventually found and brought ashore by the crew of a pleasure craft . Greenland sharks are thought to be the world ’ s longest-lived vertebrates , though scientists who examined the Cornish shark say it died as a result of meningitis .
Fangs for the memory
Researchers have discovered an unexpected side of the Indo-Pacific fang blenny . The venom it produces is unique , in that it doesn ’ t cause pain . According to a new paper published in Current Biology , the fang blenny ’ s venom is an opioid such as morphine or heroin , essentially a painkiller . However , its disarming effect is to cause a sharp drop in blood pressure , which would impact a predator ’ s ability to swim . “ Venom has evolved many times in fish and on each occasion is seems to be associated with pain-causing toxins , except for these blennies ,” said co-author Nicholas Casewell of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine . “ Instead , they have evolved a different strategy that leads to the same solution .”
Great Barrier grief
Australia ’ s Great Barrier Reef has been subjected to another mass bleaching of corals . It ’ s the fourth time in six years
that warming seas have caused corals in the vast marine park to expel their symbiotic algae and turn pale . Only two similar mass bleaching events had ever been recorded in the seasons prior to
2016 . There are concerns that this latest event has occurred in the same year as a La Niña weather phenomenon . Typically , in Australia , a La Niña brings cooler temperatures , but the GBR
46