Friday Smorgasbord: Fish radar, falling fish, fish on drugs and more

Yesterday may have been Valentine’s Day but today we have lots of fish love for today’s edition of the Friday Smorgasbord. We have fish radar, falling fish, fish on drugs and more today! Let’s start off with some interested news about the navigation skills of the sockeye salmon, which navigates more than 2,485 miles (4,000 kilometers) to spawn in the same stream in which it hatched. On top of that, scientists have figured out how these fish find its way back home by using the Earth’s magnetic field to steer itself home.

[via NatGeo]

For baseball fans, having Spring Training start this week is great news. Most of the stories are about the teams and players and how they’ll shape up over the upcoming season but we got a kick out of this story. Seems one bird decided to interrupt Washington National’s practice in Viera, Florida, by dropping a fish on the field. On Thursday, a large bird, assumed to be an osprey, flew low over the field with something in its talons. As it crossed shallow center, it dropped what it was carrying right onto the field. Make sure to catch this fun interview with the Nat’s Denard Span about the incident.

[via Washington Post]

See also How to Acclimate New Fish

Now for more wackiness. Seems that traces of a common psychiatric medication that winds up in rivers and streams may affect fish behavior and feeding patterns. A study out of Sweden studied the effects of of Oxazepam, an anti-anxiety medication that can show up in waterways after being flushed, excreted or discarded, on wild European perch to water with different concentrations. Researchers reported that fish exposed to Oxazepam became less social, more active and ate faster, behaviors they said could have long-term consequences for aquatic ecosystems.

[via New York Times]

Check out this video of a diver that gets taken on a wild ride at Nakalele point on Maui. Author John Hoover, gets pulled into a strong current that just shows how powerful the wave activity in the ocean can be.

There is a new nature documentary called “The Last Reef 3D,” that wants to do more than impress with its underwater photography and 3-D effects. It’s a cautionary tale about the fragility of the reefs, but the film could use a little more urgency in making its case. The cinematographer for the feature is D.J. Roller, who worked with directors Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas on the 2008 IMAX film “Wild Oceans,” and with James Cameron on “Ghosts of the Abyss.” He shot “The Last Reef” over a period of three years at locations that include the reefs of Palau, Vancouver Island, Mexico, the Bahamas, and French Polynesia. What is interesting is it was all captured by a custom 4K macro photography rig created specifically for this shoot.

[via Boston.com]