Oh there's Adam. You should lurk less and post more dude
So I wanted to include some notes regarding some stuff we couldn't mention in the show, unless we wanted to talk four another hour or so. Below are some good links to the global issues Adam and I discussed in the class. The ones relating to pfiesteria and snakeheads are especially close to me as I grew up in the D.C. area.
Snakeheads
Snakeheads are an exotic species of freshwater fish native to China. They are popular and unfortunate fish for
freshwater aquariums, and, like many unfortunate marine species, are adopted by aquarists who do not realize how big these fish will grow. Snakeheads are predatory, and very much so. They can also survive out of water for
days and “walk” across the ground using their fins.
Recently, a well-meaning aquarist had a couple of these in a freshwater aquarium and decided to dump them into a local river. See where this is going? The fish thrived in the local water systems around Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. and are now threatening all native species. As mentioned, they are extremely predatory and quite large. The following links are some great references for these.
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries...snakehead.html http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries...infosheet.html 
Pfiesteria
Pfiesteria is a dinoflagellate typically found in rivers and estuaries such as the Chesapeake Bay. Because of massive overnutrification of the local water ways, these dino’s got way out of control and led to massive fish die-offs. One of the more disturbing of these killed an estimated 10,000 fish in the bay at once.
Not only is pfiesteria lethal to fish, but recent evidence links it to brain damage in humans. These little creatures literally feed on human brain tissue, causing memory loss, dementia, and eventually death.
The cause of the outbreaks was wastewater from pig farms upstream. The amount of pig poop in the water could be seen from space as black water ways emptying into the James River, and Chesapeake Bay. Imagine, for a second, if you were to empty your cat box into your aquarium. Yea…bad idea.
http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-edito...l_2001_10.html http://www.dnr.state.md.us/bay/cblif...eria/pubs.html http://dwb.unl.edu/Teacher/NSF/C11/C...ria/index.html
This site has some great microscopic images as well as biological data.
Open Ocean Aquaculture
This is a great idea first developed by the native Hawaiians. The concept is really simple: get a big enough aquarium and simply raise fish like tuna for the commercial food market; thus reducing the need for net catching. The problem is the size of the aquarium. For example, does anyone know how many gallons would be required to raise 3,000 haddock? About 158,503 gallons, or a tank volume of 600 square meters. I wonder how big the
skimmer would have to be...
Rob, you can afford a tank this size right?
http://ooa.unh.edu/
This is one of the best sites with full explanations, articles, videos, and details regarding their studies since 1997.
http://www.lib.noaa.gov/docaqua/hooarrprept.htm
University of Hawaii’s OOA article.
Images of marine ick (Cryptocaryon irritans) http://www.reefs.org/library/aquariu...97/0497_6.html
The image of the pink protozoa is almost exactly what we saw in the microscope.
