Scientist says he found Japan fish thought extinct

[Allhallowsday]

Scientist says he found Japan fish thought extinct
TOKYO – A Japanese salmon species thought to be extinct for 70 years is alive and well in a lake near Mount Fuji, a science professor said Wednesday.

The black kokanee, or "kunimasu" in Japanese, was thought to have died out in 1940, when a hydroelectric project made its native lake in northern Akita Prefecture more acidic.

Before then, 100,000 eggs were reportedly transported to Lake Saiko but the species was still thought to have died off.

But Tetsuji Nakabo, a professor at Kyoto University, said his team of researchers found the species in Lake Saiko, about 310 miles (500 kilometers) south of the native lake.

"I was really surprised. This is a very interesting fish — it's a treasure. We have to protect it and not let it disappear again," he said... 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_extinct_fish_found

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

There was also a Ceolocanth found off the coast of Japan a few years back when they made a documentary special about giant squids. 

The Ceolocanth was also caught in a net somewhere in Africa at the turn of the century.  The thing is, this was a fish that was thought to have been extinct for millions of years.   Pretty amazing, I'd say.

[Rev. Powell]

This story has me hooked.

[Doggett]

This story has reeled me in.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

This story has reeled me in.

I dunno though, there's something fishy about it too....

[Raffine]

I understand they are delicious with tarter sauce and cole slaw.

I remember back in the 70s when they first discovered the megamouth shark. It was really suprising (and cool) that such a large and freaky lookin' critter had gone undiscovered by man for so long.

This story reminds me of something I recently found out: anyone who ever had an aquarium is probably familiar with the red tailed shark. Even though there are probably millions of these feisty little fish in aquariums they are now considered extinct in the wild.


EXTINCT!

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

I certainly do remember Red-Tailed Sharks, we had a few of them back in the day.

What they should do, if they could, is get some sort of conservation effort going to re-introduce them to the wild, if such could be done.

Another fish I remember seeing many of as a kid were Johnny Darters.  They had such a cool-looking blue color with a red stripe across their sides. Remember them? 

We actually caught a few of them in the river we lives across from. It was very still water, and they would come to the banks of the river at night and rest. Then we'd net them.  I kept a few of them as pets in our fish tank but they eventually went belly up due to the atmospheric changes.