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Finding Nemo Clownfish's Epic Journey Is Real
Finding Nemo comes true research is fine young clown fish travel up to 400
kilometers when they are just a week old
disney'*** film Finding Nemo was closer to the truth that filmmakers
thought
it has been revealed
researchers found that clown fish such as Nana
really do my great huge distances some up to 400 kilometers
however unlike the film they found in reality the fish only make the
incredible journeys in their larval stage dot
a study led by doctor Steve Simpson senior lecturer in marine biology and
global change
in bio sciences at the University Exeter
found that six percent at the fish sampled had migrated over 400 kilometers
from one population to the other
this is an epic journey for these tiny week old fish
he said
when they arrive at the reef they are less than a centimetre long
and only a few days old so to travel hundreds of kilometers they must be
riding
ocean currents to assist their migration said doctor simpson
doctor Simpson led a team of undergraduate and postgraduate students
from the university and
Edinburgh to collect the clown fish samples from throughout southern among
don't the southern coast over mine is relatively isolated from the rest of the
Arabian Peninsula so you find a lot of species there that he wouldn't find
anywhere else in the world
said doctor simpson
there are only two coral reef systems along this coast
and they are separated by four hundred kilometers have surf beaches
in order to persist as a single species we know
my money clown fish fish must occasionally migrate between these two
populations
the team used DNA fingerprinting to identify local
long distant migrant and hybrid individuals from populations throughout
the entire
money clownfish I'm for pre in a min n sis
species range
around 400 fish were harmlessly court during ninety two dives
and a small thin clip taken for DNA analysis before releasing fish back to
that companies
just like accents that allow us to tell an englishman from an american
fish populations develop their own genetic signatures
said cause the Hugo Harrison from the AARC Co CRS
by looking at the signature each fish we can tell whether it originated there or
not
it's like finding an Englishman in New York
they stand out
the DNA evidence identified that the majority of migrant fish had traveled
from north to south and so
to test whether this was due to prevailing currents
the team developed and oceanographic model for the region
we found that the Patna migration corresponded to the dominant ocean
currents in the region that a driven by the winter monsoon
said call the Michelle clayey rebound from Sultan Qaboos University
as well as migrants second-generation hybrids were also identified in both
populations
showing that after dispersal migrants had joined and reproduced with local
populations
this study is the furthest anyone has tracked the dispersal
love coral reef fish and it demonstrates that distant populations in the marine
environment can be well connected
said simpson
I our ability to predict how far fish larvae disperse helps us to manage coral
reef ecosystems
understanding connectivity means we can protect populations that are most
sensitive
harvest from populations that have the regular and consistent turnover
and designed to hear and networks have marine protected areas