The black spots on this coral trout are melanomas. ? Michael Sweet/Newcastle University?
Strange lesions are showing up in coral trout in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
In a new paper in the journal PloS One researchers found that 15% of reef fish tested showed signs of melanomas. This is a high occurrence, given that many of the fish with this condition may have already been eaten by predators or perished due to the illness.
This is the first time skin cancer has been documented in a wild marine fish species, but in the laboratory another species exposed to high UV radiation showed similar lesions, and they lived greatly reduced life spans.
The authors note that the occurrence of the melanomas was likely due to increased UV radiation and the proximity of the fish to the hole in the ozone layer which occurs over portions of Australia and Antarctica. The people of Australia already suffer huge health risks from skin cancer, topping the world in the occurrence of this illness.
These results are concerning because coral trout are an important commercial fish species, and they may suffer population level impacts if these rates continue. One third of all (Read more...)
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