Brackish water is water having more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater with fresh water together, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root "brak". Certain human activities can produce brackish water, in particular civil engineering projects such as dikes and the flooding of coastal marshland to produce brackish water pools for freshwater prawn farming. Brackish water is also the primary waste product of the salinity gradient power process. Because brackish water is hostile to the growth of most terrestrial plant species, without appropriate management it is damaging to the environment.
The muskellunge(Esox masquinongy), also known as muskelunge, muscallonge, milliganong, or maskinonge, is a species of large, relatively uncommon freshwater fish native to North America. The muskellunge is the largest member of the pike family, Esocidae. The common name comes from the Ojibwa word maashkinoozhe, meaning "ugly pike", by way of French masque allongé, "elongated face." The French common name is masquinongé or maskinongé.
The walleye, also called the yellow pike, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European zander, also known as the pikeperch. The walleye is sometimes called the yellow walleye to distinguish it from the blue walleye, which is a subspecies that was once found in the southern Ontario and Quebec regions, but is now presumed extinct. However, recent genetic analysis of a preserved (frozen) 'blue walleye' sample suggests that the blue and yellow walleye were simply phenotypes within the same species and do not merit separate taxonomic classification.
Swordfish, also known as broadbills in some countries, are large, highly migratory, predatory fish characterized by a long, flat bill. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category, though elusive. Swordfish are elongated, round-bodied, and lose all teeth and scales by adulthood. These fish are found widely in tropical and temperate parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and can typically be found from near the surface to a depth of 550 m (1,800 ft). They commonly reach 3 m (9.8 ft) in length, and the maximum reported is 4.55 m (14.9 ft) in length and 650 kg (1,430 lb) in weight.
The teleosts or Teleostei are by far the largest infraclass in the class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes, and make up 96% of all extant species of fish. Teleosts are arranged into about 40 orders and 448 families. Over 26,000 species have been described. Teleosts range from giant oarfish measuring 7.6 m (25 ft) or more, and ocean sunfish weighing over 2 t, to the minute male anglerfish Photocorynus spiniceps, just 6.2 mm (0.24 in) long. Including not only torpedo-shaped fish built for speed, teleosts can be flattened vertically or horizontally, be elongated cylinders or take specialised shapes as in anglerfish and seahorses. Teleosts dominate the seas from pole to pole and inhabit the ocean depths, estuaries, rivers, lakes and even swamps.
Trematoda is a class within the phylum Platyhelminthes. It includes two groups of parasitic flatworms, known as flukes.
Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish from a body of water at a rate that the species cannot replenish in time, resulting in those species either becoming depleted or very underpopulated in that given area. Overfishing has spread all over the globe and has been present for centuries.
Barbodes semifasciolatus, the Chinese barb, is a species of cyprinid fish native to the Red River basin in southeast Asia where they occur in fresh waters at depths of 5 metres (16 ft) or less. The captive variant popularly known as the gold barb or Schuberti barb is an extremely popular aquarium fish.
The king mackerel or kingfish is a migratory species of mackerel of the western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. It is an important species to both the commercial and recreational fishing industries.
The grayling is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family Salmonidae. It is the only species of the genus Thymallus native to Europe, where it is widespread from the United Kingdom and France to the Ural Mountains in Russia, but does not occur in the southern parts of the continent. It was introduced to Morocco in 1948, but it does not appear to have become established there.
The skipjack tuna is a medium-sized perciform fish in the tuna family, Scombridae. It is otherwise known as the balaya, aku, arctic bonito, mushmouth, oceanic bonito, striped tuna, or victor fish. It grows up to 1 m (3 ft) in length. It is a cosmopolitan pelagic fish found in tropical and warm-temperate waters. It is a very important species for fisheries.
The Atlantic horse mackerel is a species of jack mackerel in the family Carangidae. It gets its common name from the legend that other smaller species of fish could ride on its back over great distances. Other common names include European horse mackerel, common scad, scad, and saurel.
The school shark is a houndshark of the family Triakidae, and the only member of the genus Galeorhinus. Common names also include tope shark, snapper shark, and soupfin shark. It is found worldwide in temperate seas at depths down to about 800 m (2,600 ft). It can grow to nearly 2 m long. It feeds both in midwater and near the seabed, and its reproduction is ovoviviparous. This shark is caught in fisheries for its flesh, its fins, and its liver, which has a very high vitamin A content. The IUCN has classified this species as "vulnerable" in its Red List of Threatened Species.
The smooth-coated otter is an otter species occurring in most of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with a disjunct population in Iraq. As its name indicates, the fur of this species is smoother and shorter than that of other otter species.
The Roanoke logperch is a small freshwater fish found in the Roanoke and Chowan drainages in Virginia, United States. They inhabit low and moderate-gradient streams and rivers in warm, clear water in mostly unsilted gravel and rubble in runs, pools, and riffles. They are primarily insectivorous. This fish is a federally listed endangered species.
Barbodes is a genus of small to medium-sized cyprinid fish native to tropical Asia. The majority of the species are from Southeast Asia. Many species are threatened and some from the Philippines are already extinct. A survey carried out in 1992 only found three of the endemic Barbodes species, and only two were found in 2008. Several members of this genus were formerly included in Puntius.
Maurice Kottelat is a Swiss ichthyologist specializing in Eurasian freshwater fishes.
Schefflera kuchingensis is a species of plant in the family Araliaceae. It is a tree endemic to Borneo where it is confined to Sarawak.
In biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has complete or partial reproductive organs and produces gametes normally associated with both male and female sexes. Many taxonomic groups of animals do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which either partner can act as the "female" or "male." For example, the great majority of tunicates, pulmonate snails, opisthobranch snails, earthworms and slugs are hermaphrodites. Hermaphroditism is also found in some fish species and to a lesser degree in other vertebrates. Most plants are also hermaphrodites.
Madhuca kuchingensis is a plant in the family Sapotaceae. It grows as a tree up to 20 metres (66 ft) tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 30 centimetres (12 in). The bark is greyish brown. Inflorescences bear up to eight flowers. The fruits are yellowish, ellipsoid, up to 2 centimetres (0.79 in) long. The tree is named after Kuching in Malaysia's Sarawak state. Its habitat is lowland forests from sea-level to 100 metres (330 ft) altitude. M. kuchingensis is endemic to Borneo where it is confined to Sarawak.
