Image of the Day: Fluorescent Frogfish May Fail to Flourish
A giant frogfish, a relative of the anglerfish of Finding Nemo fame, is caught on film for Conservation International’s book, Reef Fishes of the East Indies. This unique fish is towing its egg raft through its reef home. The giant frogfish spends a lot of time around sponges and changes color to blend in with its sponge habitat, making the fish difficult to spot.
Reef fish, like the giant frogfish, are deeply threatened by climate change. They all depend on living coral as their habitat. Climate change is warming oceans and corals are having trouble surviving in the hot tub. In addition to rising temperatures, the rising concentrations of the climate-inducing greenhouse gas carbon dioxide are making oceans more acidic, further jeopardizing the coral reef ecosystem. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that acidity levels in oceans are rising much more quickly than expected. The administrator of NOAA, Jane Lubchenco, said, "We've got sort of the perfect storm of stressors from multiple places really hammering reefs around the world . . . It's a very serious situation."
Credit: Roger Steene/CI
