Yesterday’s reveal of the brand new and totally awesome Black DaVinci clownfish wasn’t the only news from Sea & Reef Aquaculture. The marine ornamental breeders also unveiled another new object of our desire with the MochaVinci clown. While we don’t think it is anywhere close to the awesomeness of the Black DiVinci, we have our preferences, it’s an interesting fish in its own right. Like the Black DaVinci, the bars of the mocha variant blend together beautifully, though they seem to do so in a much smoother pattern
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The Florida Aquarium has a new 30 minute experience, Shark Swim, which allows anyone, ages 9 and up, the option to swim with sharks, without having to be scuba-certified. Four swimmers at a time, using a pole, are kept just below the surface of the water, using a small scuba tank, regulator and flotation device.
The tank has over 1,600 fish which include sea turtles, sand tiger sharks, sting rays, and many more. Guests will start their way from the shallow side of the tank ending up at the deep side, surrounding by sharks. Aquarium staff remain nearby during the swim in case aid is needed. The experience was previously only open to certified scuba divers. At $100.00 for the experience, this is a cool way for non scuba divers to get introduced to diving.
Global appetite for Tuna has increased tremendously over the last few decades. As such, along with the rapid surge in consumption has also included alarming decline in wild tuna species. There was a time when farming of tuna was considered impossible. Luckily that is no longer the case. In 2012, farmed fish accounted for over 42 percent of total global output, nearly tripling since the 13.4 percent in 1990.The Pacific Blue Fin Tuna, weighing up to 900 lbs and traveling so fast they can cover crazy distances in short times, seems to defy the principle of farm raised fish.Blue Fin Tuna is known as ‘Porsche of the Sea’, for its ultra desired status. It is estimated there are less than 9 million Blue Fin Tuna left in the wild. While that number seems high, it is down 50 percent in the last decade. Kinki University in Japan has been working to combat those figures by recreating the reproduction cycle of Blue Fin in Captivity. The article goes on to describe the struggles and triumphs nearly 5 decades of the making of the success of the farming of the Blue Fin Tuna. This is some amazing work that is being done and hopefully paves the way for more facilitites like this in the near future. 
Sand Tiger Sharks look fierce, they are the quintessential, stereotypical ‘man-eater shark’ with their jagged, razor sharp teeth protruding out of their mouth. Basically, the ticket item many aquarium visitors expect to see in exhibits.. As such, they are a popular exhibit animal in large public aquarium tanks. There are approximately 200 sand tiger sharks on exhibit in public aquariums and zoo’s in America. Although they look scary, they are relatively docile sharks that are easy to care for in captivity. However, Sand sharks in captivity do not breed easily, since the environment in captivity does not mimic the seasons and changes in the wild. Sand shark population in the wild is at low levels because of fishing nets and shark fin poaching, and the slow maturing reproduction in the species. Researchers are working on trying to figure out how they can aid reproduction and get the population of sand sharks up. The research will focus on trying to determine when male and female sharks are most fertile and possibilities for freezing sperm and inseminating female sharks. Zoos and public aquariums have done amazing captive breeding work in years past. I am optimistic that the trend will continue and that the captive birth of a Sand tiger shark will soon be on its way. 