Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 11 June 2018
Sleuthing leads to new findings about peculiar ocean fish

By PHUONG LE finally have anatomical
Associated Press descriptions and DNA to
SEATTLE (AP) — The fish back those descriptions.
buyer noticed something The researchers say
different about the large, knowing the population of
colorful disc-shaped opah opah — which has a silvery
waiting to be sold at the gray body, red fins and
auction house in Honolulu. mouths, and white spots —
Among the differences: is important to make sure
one fish had a bigger eye they don't get overfished.
than the other. While opah isn't harvested
His curiosity set in motion by commercial fisheries,
DNA testing and more the fish is often caught
sleuthing that led to the incidentally in commercial
identification of three fishing for high-value tuna
new species of opah — a or swordfish off the coasts
peculiar deep-diving fish of Hawaii and California.
recently found to be the Sport anglers also frequently
first fully warm-blooded fish. catch the colorful fish,
"The more we looked, which on average weighs
the more differences we about 100 pounds and
could pull out," said Karen can be bigger than an
Underkoffler, lead author of automobile tire.
a recently published paper Opah is becoming popular
in the peer-reviewed journal at restaurants in Hawaii and
Zootaxa that describes the In this September 2016, photo provided by NOAA Fisheries, an opah fish is displayed for sale at the elsewhere. The value of
anatomical characteristics Honolulu Fish Auction run by the United Fishing Agency in Honolulu, Hawaii. U.S. commercial landings
of the different species Associated Press of opah has increased
of opah, including one from just a few thousand
marked by its big eyes and a single global species. some time that opahs in involved in the paper, said dollars before 2000 to
a purple tongue. Three are newly identified, different parts of the world in an email. nearly $3.2 million in 2016.
In all, the team of one was already named look different," Misty Paig- People were calling them The Hawaii-based longline
scientists with NOAA and researchers better Tran, assistant professor all the same thing, and the fishing industry reported the
Fisheries identified five identified another that had of marine biology and paper clearly shows their catching of nearly 30,000
distinct species of opah, been previously described. biomechanics at Cal State differences, she wrote, opahs by vessels targeting
revealing that there isn't "We have known for quite Fullerton who was not adding that it's great to tuna and swordfish in 2015.

Superbug infections rising among injection drug users

is increasingly spreading in the midst of its deadliest they enter the bloodstream,
among people who inject drug epidemic ever. While destroying heart valves or
drugs, according to a new overdose deaths have causing other damage.
government report. been the main concern, Health officials have tied
Users of heroin and other some studies have noted MRSA to as many as 11,000
injection drugs were 16 HIV and hepatitis C U.S. deaths a year.
times more likely than infections are spreading Public health efforts have
other people to develop among drug users. The focused on MRSA's spread
severe illnesses from MRSA, authors say the new report in hospitals and nursing
said the report published is one of the first — and homes, and infection-
Thursday. the largest — to highlight control campaigns have
"Drug use has crept up how superbug bacterial been credited for recent
and now accounts for infections are spreading, drops in MRSA infections at
This Feb. 2, 2017 file photo, shows used needles littering the a substantial proportion too. MRSA, or methicillin- health care facilities.
ground along train tracks in Philadelphia's largest open air drug
market in the Kensington section of the city. of these very serious resistant Staphylococcus But as that success story has
Associated Press infections," said Dr. William aureus bacteria, often live unfolded, MRSA infections
Schaffner of Vanderbilt on the skin without causing tied to illicit drug use have
By MIKE STOBBE NEW YORK (AP) — One University, one of the symptoms. But they can risen.
Associated Press type of superbug bacteria study's authors. The U.S. is become more dangerous if The opioid epidemic began
with abuse of prescription
pain pills, but in recent
years has shifted to heroin
and other injectable drugs.
MRSA "is on the skin, and as
the needle goes into the
skin it brings the bacteria
with it," explained Dr.
Isaac See of the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention, another of the
study's authors.q