December 2004
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EARBONES HOLD THE KEY TO FISHY SECRETSFish may not keep diaries, but they do record information about their lives – including how old they are, where they have been and what they eat – in their ear bones.
Scientists from around the world came to Townsville to discuss the cutting edge science of fish earbone, or ‘otolith’, research at the Third International Symposium on Fish Otolith Research and Application in July. “Fish otoliths are natural data loggers – they grow throughout the fish’s lifetime, and their structure and chemistry can reveal an amazing amount of information,” said CRC Reef scientist Dr Gavin Begg from James Cook University, who chaired the Symposium. “Otoliths can tell us about age and growth patterns, even about the environments in which the fish have lived.” Participants at the Symposium shared expertise, and discussed recent developments in otolith technology, including the ability to use otoliths as “Looking at the chemistry of otoliths can help us detect environmental problems such as heavy metal pollution, which is very hard to measure at low levels in water, but accumulates in fish and can be seen in their ear bones,” Dr Begg said. The information encoded in the otoliths can also be vital for fisheries management. “In the last 10 years we’ve been able to age reef fish and discovered that some of the smaller fish live much longer than anyone realised – up to 50 years in some cods, for instance,” said Dr Begg. “Knowing what age the fish mature and spawn helps managers to set appropriate minimum size and catch limits, so that we can ensure our fisheries are sustainable.” For more information visit our web pages on Determining the age of fish
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