Australian trout are getting skin cancer
AUG 02, 2012
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.026220
Los Angeles Times : The first published study of skin cancer in wild fish appeared yesterday in the journal PLoS ONE. The discovery was made by accident when scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, who were studying shark prey along the Great Barrier Reef, noticed strange dark patches on the normally bright-orange skin of coral trout. They turned to another research team, from the UK’s University of Newcastle, that was studying coral disease in the area. Together, they determined that the dark patches were a form of melanoma. Why the incidence of melanoma is so highâmdash;around 15%âmdash;in those fish is still unknown, but the researchers surmise that it is due in part to the trout’s living near the reef, which is both at the outermost edge of their habitable range and under the biggest hole in Earth’s ozone layer.
© 2012 American Institute of Physics
