© Karen Gowlett-Holmes
New, Pink, and RareUsing its fins to walk, rather than swim, along the ocean floor in an undated picture, the pink handfish is one of nine newly named species described in a recent scientific review of the handfish family.
Only four specimens of the elusive four-inch (ten-centimeter) pink handfish have ever been found, and all of those were collected from areas around the city of Hobart, on the Australian island of Tasmania.
Though no one has spotted a living pink handfish since 1999, it's taken till now for scientists to formally identify it as a unique species.
All of the world's 14 known species of handfish are found only in shallow, coastal waters off southeastern Australia, say review authors Daniel Gledhill and Peter Last of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, or
CSIRO.
Even among the previously known species, the fish are poorly studied, the scientists add, and little is known about their biology or behavior.
Comment: It's interesting that just before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, a methane gas leak forced hundreds to evacuate from their homes in Louisiana: This report from our database shows that scientists were warning of the dangers presented by methane in the Gulf of Mexico at least 5 years ago: They can forget about trying to harness this gas this as it is highly volatile and is responsible for numerous mining accidents all over the world: And in just the last month: It's also thought to be responsible for mysterious explosions and leaves a distinct smell over a wide area as it comes to the surface and expand: If there is a significant "greenhouse gas", methane is it. Methane is strongly correlated with climate change events in the past: The fact if the matter is that "big events" are not limited to millions and millions of years ago. Catastrophic climate change from cometary bombardment on a global scale took place as recently as 13,000 years ago. Regional catastrophism took place as recently as 1500 years ago. These scientists are not asking the right questions.
What if the release of methane from below the oceans is part of the mechanism to propel climate change but is not the causal factor of this mechanism? Could there be an external catalyst that periodically opens up the planet's surface to release methane? What if the quantity of methane released depends on the degree to which cometary bombardment is taking place? We are overdue the Big One and the Deepwater Horizon explosion is another sign that the planet is opening up and all humanity can do is help it along towards a mass extinction event.