New fish species in Dutch province

Translated from the Dutch ichthyologists of RAVON:

Frisian fish research group catches new fish species

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Fish Research Group of RAVON in Friesland (WVOF) discovered on Saturday, October 8 a new fish species for Friesland province in the Makkum area. In the southern Makkum Holm, various gobies were caught. The seven largest specimens were immediately obvious. They were the first ever catches of the western tubenose goby in Friesland.

The western tubenose goby (Proterorhinus semilunaris) is an exotic species. It is originally from the area around the Caspian and Black Sea. Through the Main-Danube Canal (built in 1992) it reached the basin of the Rhine. In 2002 the western tubenose goby was first spotted in the Netherlands. To date, this exotic species had not been seen in Friesland, partly due to the absence of rivers. But delay does not last forever and the working group had been for some time in anticipation of the first reports. In the past the western tubenose goby has already been found in the IJsselmeer lake near Flevoland.

The ​​Makkumerwaard is a nature reserve on the edge of the Ijsselmeer lake near Makkum. The area is owned by It Fryske Gea conservation organization. Near Makkum, the western tubenose goby will have to compete with another special catch of the research group: the sand goby.

The sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus) is a fish from the goby family (Gobiidae), living in European coastal waters, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. This fish undoubtedly came from the Wadden Sea through the Kornwerderzand locks to the Ijsselmeer.

Besides these two species on the same day perch, bitterling, roach, bream, three-spined stickleback, Prussian carp, spined loach, silver bream, eel, ruffe, rudd, gudgeon, pike, nine-spined stickleback, moderlieschen and tench were caught. A total of 18 species.

ScienceDaily (Apr. 4, 2012) — Three-spine sticklebacks aren’t as pretty as many aquarium fish, and anglers don’t fantasize about hooking one. But biologists treasure these small fish for what they are revealing about the genetic changes that drive evolution. Now, researchers have sequenced the stickleback genome for the first time, and they have discovered that as fish in different parts of the world adapted to live in fresh water, the same sites in the genome were changed time and again: here.

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