The list of fish species found within Biscayne National Park is always growing. Additions to the list traditionally result from underwater observations or by catching fish (e.g. hook and line, traps, and nets). Thanks to state-of-the art technology and College of Charleston master’s degree student Sarah Doty, the park list just grew by SIX more species through unconventional means. As part of her master’s thesis, Sarah examined the gut contents of more than 500 non-native lionfish caught within Biscayne and used “DNA barcoding” to confidently identify prey items (since partially digested fish are somewhat tricky to visually identify). Since lionfish don’t travel great distances during the time it takes to digest a meal, we’re pretty confident that the prey items found within the lionfish guts were most likely consumed within the park. The blackhead blenny, barfin goby, freckled cardinalfish, bartail goby, Venezuela goby, and surf blenny are the six most recently recognized fishes to call Biscayne home. These species are all pretty small and cryptic, so without the DNA barcoding, theres a good chance that these species would have continued to go undetected in the park. Now how cool is that?!?!?!?!?! (VLM)
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 13:20:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015