Current location:World Watchers news portal > business
VOX POPULI: Rooting for the Sendai killifish that survived the 2011 tsunami
World Watchers news portal2024-05-21 17:57:35【business】6People have gathered around
IntroductionIn February 1999, the Environment Agency (the present-day Environment Ministry) shocked the nation b
In February 1999, the Environment Agency (the present-day Environment Ministry) shocked the nation by designating the all-too-familiar “medaka” killifish as an endangered species.
That was exactly a quarter-century ago. Has the medaka population grown or declined since then?
“Unfortunately, the medaka’s risk of extinction is growing,” said ichthyologist Arimune Munakata, 51, an associate professor at the Miyagi University of Education. “Although preservation measures have proven successful in some regions, many of their habitats have been lost.”
He continued, “If we provisionally set the medaka population at the end of the Edo Period (1603-1867) at 100, the population today has been reduced to less than 10 due to pesticides and invasive foreign species.”
Munakata has been working to revive schools of wild medaka that carry genes unique to natives of the Sendai area.
They were believed to have been driven to extinction by the tsunami triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011.
But it so happened that the year before the quake, researchers at Munakata’s university had collected 20 to 30 medaka near the Ido district of Sendai’s Wakabayashi Ward and were raising them in the university’s research pond.
Munakata named these fish “Ido Medaka” after the district they came from. And when he sought volunteer breeders, individuals as well as schools and corporate groups positively responded.
These medaka are black. Munakata held lectures and workshops at a local zoo to ensure that the fish were not cross-bred with red and yellow pet medaka.
“Thankfully, the Ido Medaka population has now grown to the tens of thousands,” Munakata beamed. “They are a symbol of (Sendai’s) recovery from the disaster.”
After my interview with him at his university, I headed by car to Wakabayashi Ward, where many residents perished in the tsunami.
In a pond installed at the former site of an elementary school, the medaka were swimming freely and vigorously. Every individual was beautifully black.
As I watched them, my thoughts turned to animals and plants unique to the Noto Peninsula that must have been washed away by the tsunami triggered by the earthquake on New Year’s Day.
Are there rare species that are now on the verge of extinction? With water service disruptions and power blackouts still plaguing survivors of the Noto Peninsula earthquake, I know there is nothing that can be done yet.
But I pray, at least, that when life returns to normal, people’s attention will turn to the revival of those small endangered lives.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 13
(This article was carried only in extra online editions for the newspaper holidays)
* *
*Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Address of this article:http://pitcairnislands.downmusic.org/news-78e599921.html
Very good!(31)
Related articles
- Kevin Pillar gets 1,000th career hit in Angels' win at Texas
- Imam and dairy farmer Reza Abdul
- Big, expensive, and not fit for purpose: What you need to know about Premier House
- ‘Corrosive obsession with a person’s race’: David Seymour on Māori Wards
- Jon Wysocki dead at 53: Staind drummer passes away
- Man who went missing while fishing on boat off Hawke's Bay coast named
- The tall man in a van taking the plunge around Aotearoa
- Māori Hui aa motu movement backed by Pacific leaders
- Baby Reindeer's real
- Māori Hui aa motu movement backed by Pacific leaders
Popular articles
Recommended
Jon Wysocki dead at 53: Staind drummer passes away
Israel launches night raid on Gaza al
Department of Conservation 'spread too thin', Penny Nelson tells select committee
Airports Association says lack of government action to boost competition leading to high fares
Nadal returns to Roland Garros to practice amid doubts over fitness and form
Schools not equipped to be community hubs in disaster responses
West Coast meat processor admits water quality failure
Pure Tūroa gets 10
Links
- Champions League semis: Bayern hosts Madrid then Dortmund welcomes PSG
- US tourists trapped in Dubai traumatized by floods swamping the desert playground
- IDF forces are accused of beating and torturing captured Palestinians
- UK Conservatives suspend lawmaker as sleaze allegations swirl over possible misuse of party funds
- United Arab Emirates struggles to recover after heaviest recorded rainfall ever hits desert nation
- Chinese leaders attend deliberations at annual legislative session
- Xinjiang's progress in the eyes of national legislators, political advisors
- OJ Simpson's remains are cremated in Las Vegas as his lawyer reveals ex
- Muslim teaching assistant claims being awarded the Christmas Grinch prize at 'light
- As the aristo