[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] How a venomous cone snail catches and kills fish

 

LONDON - The BBC has filmed the moment when a venomous cone snail engulfs its prey, spears it with a harpoon-like barb, paralyses it and eats it.

The fish-eating Conus geographus is the most venomous cone snail known.

There are more than 640 different species of the predatory cone snail, or Conus, globally, most of which live in the tropics around coral reefs.

Cone snails are the largest known genus of invertebrates. They eat molluscs, worms or fish, which they catch using "harpoon-like" spears that are loaded with a venomous containing up to 200 different toxins.

Howard Peters, a marine biologist at the University of York in the UK, is studying the global population of cone snails.

He says their venom makes them totally unique.

"Their venom - and the way they deliver it - is the most interesting thing," he explains.

"What they tend to do is bury themselves in the sand and then use their sensors to detect when a sizeable fish comes along.

"They manufacture and store little hollow harpoons in a sac in their body, and they have another sac which synthesises venom."

When the snails sense a worm, mollusc or fish approaching, they "load" their harpoons into their proboscis, and arm them with venom. This poisonous mixture acts as a neurotoxin; it affects the prey's nervous system.

"[They] dart the fish, which it is left paralysed and then eaten," says Mr Peters.

Fish-eating cone snails like the Conus geographus only use a harpoon once. They swallow it while digesting their prey.

Conus geographus was filmed for the BBC Two programme Great Barrier Reef in an aquarium at the James Cook University in Cairns, Australia.

On average, each species has 100 toxins - meaning there are about 50,000 different toxins across all species of cone snail, with very little replication.

Their nerve-blocking chemical cocktails have triggered a great deal of interest in the cone snail in the field of biomedical research.

Cone snail toxins, Mr Peters says, have been studied and developed in to a painkiller for cancer sufferers, which has similar properties to morphine.

These biologically active molecules - known as peptides - have also become the focus of research for drugs to treat epilepsy, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's.

While cone snails are not being over-fished for research, Mr Peters warns: "If a species goes extinct, you lose the potential to use those toxins forever."

He has been studying cone snail populations around the world to establish which species are vulnerable or already under threat, and is providing the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species database with information.

"We have to research every species, its abundance, its distributions, conservation measures, and [the] trade in them," he says.

The 120 or so species of cone snails on the Great Barrier Reef are among the best protected anywhere, with 90 different species found around Australia generally.

The species around the coral triangle and the south Pacific are widely distributed in a number of areas including Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

While they are mostly found in shallow water up to 20m, there are a number of deep-water species that can live as deep as 500m.

But it is hard to know the status of deep water species as no-one knows where they are, and smaller species in specific locations could face uncertainty in the future, says Mr Peters.

"Occasionally you'll find a species which is highly restricted - that lives in a single bay of a single seamount (undersea mountain)," he says.

"They are more likely to become threatened due to habitat loss."

The biggest dangers to cone snails are thought to be pollution, destruction of habitats and dredging.

Mr Peters adds that it is important to protect the the snails in order to avoid an imbalance in the food chain.

But there is also an international trade in cone snail shells; rare specimens can fetch up to US$5,000.

"Shell collecting seems an innocent pastime but it is one area that can have a high impact," says Mr Peters.

"The trade in cone snail shells is mostly fairly low-cost; [but] it's a bit like postage stamps.

"Professional collectors look for rarity, size and quality, which makes [a shell] more valuable.

Left-handed cone snail shells, meaning they grow by coiling around to the left - something that is much less common than a right-handed shell - also increases the value."

Conus geographus is thought to have caused at least 30 human deaths; a person has about a 30% chance of surviving if stung, according to Mr Peters.

His research, which he is undertaking for his PhD, draws together expert opinion from around the world, and is due to be completed in a year's time.

When it is, it could provide a crucial yardstick against which to measure cone snail populations in the future.

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[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] Sea Slugs Offers Clues to Improving Long-Term Memory

 

Los Angeles, CA - Using sea slugs as models, scientists someday may be able to design learning protocols that improve long-term memory formation in humans, a new study suggests.

The researchers used information about biochemical pathways in the brain of the sea slug Aplysia to design a computer model that identified the times when the mollusk's brain is primed for learning. They tested the model by submitting the animals to a series of training sessions, involving electric shocks, and found that Aplysia experienced a significant increase in memory formation when the sessions were conducted during the peak periods predicted by the model.

The proof-of-principle study may someday help scientists discover ways to improve human memory, the researchers said.

"This is very impressive," David Glanzman, a neurobiologist at the University of California Los Angeles, said of the study, in which he was not involved. "If someone had asked me ahead of time, 'Are you going to be able to improve learning if you model these two pathways?' I would have predicted no."

Scientists have been studying the brain of Aplysia since the 1960s, and the animals have revealed many secrets of learning and memory in humans. The sea slug's central nervous system is relatively simple, with only 10,000 neurons, compared with the approximately 100 billion found in humans, explained the study lead author John Bryne, a neurobiologist at the University of Texas. Moreover, Aplysia's neurons are large and easily accessible.

"You can work out its neural circuitry and behavior, and then you can train the animal and look for changes that are associated with learning," Bryne told LiveScience.

Learning in Aplysia takes the form of what scientists call sensitization. When researchers poke the animal or give it an electric shock, the sea slug will pull in its siphons, which are funnel-like appendages. An untrained slug will retract its siphons for only a few seconds, but as the animal learns that its environment is dangerous, it will hold in its appendages for longer times. [Tales of 10 Clever Animals]

Periodically poking the slug causes apparent changes in its neurons, allowing the animal to form a memory that lasts for more than a week (a considerable time for animals that live only a year).

In the 1980s, researchers discovered that training Aplysia with five pulses, one administered every 20 minutes, effectively helped the animals produce long-term sensitization memories. Since then, scientists have learned that the activation of two proteins is critical for the sea slug to develop these memories.

Bryne and his colleagues wondered if they could come up with a better learning protocol to stimulate memory formation, by entering into a computer simulation their information on the biochemical pathways that activate these two proteins.

"We told the computer, 'Run simulations with these five training trials, but try every different permutation of the intervals between the trials to find ones that maximize the reactions,'" Bryne said.

The computer determined that trials (or electrical pulses) given at intervals of 10, 10, 5 and 30 minutes would optimize the biochemical reactions.

When the researchers tested this enhanced protocol with live sea slugs, they found that the animals still remembered the shock after five days; the slugs didn't remember the shock when it was administered at standard 20-minute intervals.

They also tested their protocol in cultured cells. They removed the sensory neurons and motor neurons — which control reflexes — from slugs' brains and allowed the cells to re-establish connections in a cell culture. They replaced shock with serotonin, a neurotransmitter that facilitates connections between the two types of neurons during reflexes.

The researchers found that serotonin pulses given with both protocols produced long-term changes in the strength of the connections between neurons, but the enhanced protocol resulted in connections that were stronger and lasted longer.

"I think it's a very exciting study," said Samuel Schacher, a neurobiologist at Columbia University, who was not involved in the new research. "But whether or not this can be taken advantage of in people, at least from a neurobiological point of view, is an open question." The Aplysia brain has been heavily studied, he said, but scientists have a much less complete understanding of how particular neural systems in human, and other mammalian, brains work. [10 Things You Didn't Know About the Brain]

Schacher said the study "will be something that will encourage lots of research and approaches down the road," and perhaps its principles can be applied to humans in 10 years.

Bryne stresses that the study is a proof of the principle that scientists can come up with a better learning protocol if they have sufficient information about the biochemical reactions in the brain.

"We currently use drugs to improve memory, but drugs have undesirable side effects," he said. "This shows that there may be an alternative way to enhance memory that can potentially be taken to the classroom situation."

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[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] Antarctic Mosses Record Conditions on the Icy Continent

 

ANTARCTICA - Thin shoots of moss taken from fuzzy clumps growing in Antarctica contain evidence of how human activities are affecting life on the ice-covered continent, new research indicates.

Antarctica has no trees, but the moss shoots act somewhat like tree rings, recording evidence of environmental conditions as they grow. Now, Australian scientists have figured out how to decipher the record in the moss shoots.

Their technique relied on an atomic marker laid down worldwide half a century ago by nations testing nuclear weapons.

This bomb spike, which left tell-tale signs of radioactive carbon across the globe, allowed them to create a timeline of sorts along moss shoots collected from the East Antarctic. They then correlated the mosses' growth over recent decades with environmental data.

In doing so, they found evidence that, since the 1980s, growth rates among mosses in a region known as the Windmill Islands have slowed. The likely culprit: drying caused by stronger winds, which have picked up over the past 30 years. And these stronger winds are linked to the ozone hole above.

This trend could mean changes to these rare pockets of life on the frozen continent. [Ice World: Gallery of Awe-Inspiring Glaciers]

"People tend to think of Antarctica as a pristine wilderness but we can still damage its biodiversity from afar," said Sharon Robinson, a study researcher and professor in the Institute for Conservation Biology and Environmental Management at the University of Wollongong in Australia.

No vascular plants — a more complex type of plant with a system for transporting water and nutrients between its tissues — live on the Antarctic continent. Instead, only mosses, lichens and algae grow on Antarctica.

The team's final analysis included moss collected from beds from three peninsulas in a region called the Windmill Islands.

"The moss beds support many other organisms, such as fungi and invertebrates," Laurence Clarke, who conducted the research as a graduate student at the University of Wollogong, wrote in an email to LiveScience. He is currently at the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide.

"If the moss beds dry out and disappear, this would be a significant loss of biodiversity in the region," he wrote.

They collected a number of species, but their results focused on one: Ceratodon purpureus. This moss is cosmopolitan, found from continental Antarctica to the Arctic; it has even been used to study the influence of gravity (or lack of it) on plant growth in space, according to Clarke.

To get a handle on the mosses' growth rates over time, David Fink and Quan Hua of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation checked the shoots for what is known as the bomb pulse.

In the late 1950s and early 60s, nuclear weapons tests doubled the level of a radioactive form of carbon, carbon-14, in the atmosphere. Since the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty went into effect in 1963, those levels have declined. This unnatural spike in radiocarbon became a boon for those trying to determine the year of birth associated with teeth found in forensic investigations, authenticate a wine vintage by determining its age or, in this case, date growth on moss shoots.

The mosses grow from their tips, incorporating chemicals from their environment into their shoots — laying down a record as they grow each summer. So, Hua and Fink sampled the shoots 0.12 inches (3 millimeters) at a time, tracing how the radiocarbon levels changed over time. This allowed them to date growth along the shoot and see how its growth rate changed over the decades.

The team also looked at another variant of carbon for a clue to the growing conditions. The ratio of a heavy, non-radioactive form of carbon, carbon-13, to regular carbon, carbon-12, indicates whether the moss shoot in question grew in a wetter or drier environment.

This information showed that growth rates increased when summers were wetter and decreased when they were drier, according to Robinson.

The researchers then compared the growth rate and water availability with records of temperatures, depletion of the protective ozone layer in the stratosphere above, and wind speed going back at least three decades.

They found that moss growth slowed down when winds picked up and also when the ozone hole was more pronounced. This wasn't a surprise; ozone loss and stronger winds over the continent are linked.

The annual ozone hole — which scientists expect to disappear in the coming decades — increases wind by cooling the polar stratosphere and causing a shift in the westerly jet stream, which moves closer to the poles, bringing more wind around the continent.

They also found that warmer summers, when more ice melts, making more water available, nurtured faster growth in the moss shoots. However, no long-term trend in growth rate related to temperature emerged from the shoots they studied. Instead, the overall trend appears to be decreasing growth coinciding with increased wind speed.

While evidence of climate change has been recorded on the subAntarctic islands and on the West Antarctic Peninsula, one of the most rapidly warming places on Earth, the continent has shown few signs of change.

This contrasts with the Arctic, where the effects of climate change, such as the retreating summer sea ice that is displacing walruses and polar bears, are much more dramatic.

Nevertheless, the continent is changing; not only has the infamous ozone hole been appearing annually since the 1970s, wind speeds have also been increasing for decades. More recent evidence suggests both the western and eastern halves of the continent have warmed up since 1957. And ice shelf melting in West Antarctica is removing ice faster than it is replaced by snow.

When data from weather stations is unavailable, the mosses, which live for decades, could be examined to reveal clues to past climate, Robinson told LiveScience in an email.

The study appears in the January issue of the journal Global Change Biology. David Ayre, of the University of Wollongong, also contributed to the research.

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[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] Re: Killer Whale attacks shark in surf zone as beachgoers watch in awe

 

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/32154/orca+attacks+shark+in+surf+zone+as+beachgoers+watch+in+awe/

--- In MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL@yahoogroups.com, "Dr. Mann" <grm.phd@...> wrote:
>
> Blue Cliffs, NZ - Killer Whales, more than sharks, are atop the marine food chain, and that became strikingly apparent this week at Blue Cliffs Beach off New Zealand, where at least one orca mounted a prolonged assaulted on sharks in the surf zone, as witnesses watched in amazement (see video).
>
> The video clip shows what appears to be a male Killer Whale, fiercely harassing a shark near the small breakers, and a large shark beaching itself, perhaps in an attempt to escape the orca, only to be harassed by a barking dog.
>
> The entire episode lasted about two hours and Clinton Duffy, of the New Zealand Conservation Marine Institute, explained that there probably were several orcas taking part. He added that the Killer Whales sometimes enter the surf zone to herd fish farther offshore. The sharks, clearly, were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
>
> This is not the first time Killer Whales have been documented attacking sharks. Perhaps the most notable event was in 1997 west of San Francisco, Calif., when a Killer Whale killed a 12-foot Great White Shark in what appeared to have been a one-sided battle. And yes, footage of that encounter went viral.
>

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[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] Killer Whale attacks shark in surf zone as beachgoers watch in awe

 

Blue Cliffs, NZ - Killer Whales, more than sharks, are atop the marine food chain, and that became strikingly apparent this week at Blue Cliffs Beach off New Zealand, where at least one orca mounted a prolonged assaulted on sharks in the surf zone, as witnesses watched in amazement (see video).

The video clip shows what appears to be a male Killer Whale, fiercely harassing a shark near the small breakers, and a large shark beaching itself, perhaps in an attempt to escape the orca, only to be harassed by a barking dog.

The entire episode lasted about two hours and Clinton Duffy, of the New Zealand Conservation Marine Institute, explained that there probably were several orcas taking part. He added that the Killer Whales sometimes enter the surf zone to herd fish farther offshore. The sharks, clearly, were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is not the first time Killer Whales have been documented attacking sharks. Perhaps the most notable event was in 1997 west of San Francisco, Calif., when a Killer Whale killed a 12-foot Great White Shark in what appeared to have been a one-sided battle. And yes, footage of that encounter went viral.

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[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] Molecular Mechanism Links Temperature With Sex Determination in Some Fish Specie

 

LONDON — A study led by the CSIC's Institute of Marine Sciences, in collaboration with researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), has found the epigenetic mechanism that links temperature and gonadal sex in fish. High temperature increases DNA methylation of the gonadal aromatase promoter in female.

The environmental temperature has effects on sex determination. There are species, such as the Atlantic silverside fish, whose sex determination depends mainly on temperature. And there are other species whose sex determination is written within its DNA but still temperature can override this genetic 'instruction'.

Previous studies with the European sea bass, a fish whose sex determination depends on a combination of genetic and environmental factors, had shown that starting with a normal sex ratio population -equal proportions of male and females, it was possible to obtain an all-male group just through an increase in water temperature during a critical period of early development.

The most intriguing observation was that effects of temperature were maximum at a moment when gonads were not differentiated nor had they even started to form. Why was this happening, what makes temperature override the genetic component and so early was, until now, a long-standing puzzle.

Now, a research lead by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has found out the answer. The team, lead by Francesc Piferrer, a CSIC professor at the Institute of Marine Sciences, in Barcelona, describes the mechanism which is induced by increased temperatures and triggers aromatase gene silencing.

Aromatase is an enzyme that transforms androgens into estrogens, which are essential for the development of ovaries in all non-mammalian vertebrates. If there is no aromatase there are no estrogens, and without estrogens the development of ovaries is not possible. The research, that has been realized with the contribution of the Center for Genomic Regulation, in Barcelona, is being published this week in PLos Genetics.

In the experiment, scientists exposed two groups of European seabass larvae at different temperatures, normal and high temperature, during their first weeks of life.

Results show that high temperature increases the DNA methylation of the gonadal aromatase promoter (cyp19a), which, in turn drives its silencing as its transcriptional activation is inhibited. In the group exposed to high temperature there were genetic females that were only partially affected and yet developed as females. However, there were other genetic females with the highest level of DNA methylation that therefore developed as males because aromatase was fully inhibited.

This is the first time that an epigenetic mechanism linking an environmental factor to a cellular mechanism related to the sexual determination has been described in any animal. Previously, only a similar mechanism had been described in some plants.

As researcher Francesc Piferrer points out, 'animals are affected very soon, before differences between females and males become visible in histological samples, which happens on the 150th day of life, and even before the gonads start to form, which happens on the 35th day of life'.

This work explains why a few degrees of temperature rise masculinize these animals, something relevant in a context of global change.

It also explains why many fishes raised on farms are males, since farmers raise larvae in warmer waters in order to accelerate their growth. Piferrer adds that 'sex determination by temperature is very common in reptiles. It will be interesting to see if a similar mechanism to the one described exists in this group of vertebrates'.

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[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] Coconuts help students learn about red tide

 

Coconuts help students learn about red tide

Dec 29, 2011 6:18 PM EST



In addition to dead fish, you may find painted coconuts on the beaches of Lee County. They're part of a student project at the Sanibel Sea School.

The coconuts started off as a fun project for kids at Sanibel Sea School's holiday camp.

"We painted them and put these letters on them and laminated them," said student Gabriella Sartuche.

They're teaching the kids about more than just art.

"We dropped coconuts and plywood into the ocean to see which way the currents would take them," said student Tom McPherson.

The students released coconuts closest to the highest concentration of red tide in Southwest Florida.

"We saw red tide in the water and it looks brown. The rest of the water
looks blue," said student Kyle Hasenfus.

"We'll see a line of dead fish then the water changes color," said Bruce Neill of the Sanibel Sea School.

Neill showed the kids the red tide bloom.

The brownish-red bloom is about 2 miles south of Sanibel.

"You can actually see it," said Neill.

The red tide patch covers about 10 square miles of water. It's one of millions of patches between southern Lee County and Key West.

It kills many sea creatures in its path from the neurotoxin it releases.

"It's kind sad to see them," said Hasenfus.

The coconuts are to help the students learn about currents.

"We just tested it and we thought it would go one way but really it went the opposite," said McPherson.

That means it's hard to tell where the coconuts will show up next.

If you find one, call the number attached to the coconut.

NBC News

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[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] Intro-marine biology partner sought

 

My name is Rudy Socha and I am the CEO of Wounded Nature - Working Veterans www.woundednature.org

We are a new 501c3 non-profit that has Pepsi, Green Mountain Coffee, Google, and CSX executive among others serving on our board of directors.

We will have 5 houseboats moving up and down the East Coast cleaning rural beaches and estuaries. The clean-up crew will consist of recently discharged veterans who will work for us for 120 days.

I would like to find a marine biology partner who will use our 501c3 status to apply for grants to start a multi year study of the clean ups and their impact on marine wildlife. One of our boats would be the base of operations and work platform for executing the grant.

Rudy Socha
CEO
Wounded Nature - Working Veterans
www.woundednature.org
rudy@woundednature.org
Cell 440-452-1042

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[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] Photographer charged with assault on dolphin trainer in Japan

 

(allvoices.com)

Photographer charged with assault on an marine mammal trainer handling dolphins in Japan
Wakayama : Japan | Dec 29, 2011 at 2:20 PM PST BY George McGinn

1 of 10 Erwin Vermeulen was charged with assaulting a marine mammal trainer when he allegedly pushed a trainer while filming the transfer of dolphins from the sea to marina pens. (PHOTO: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society)


WAKAYAMA, Japan (Dec. 29, 2011) — A photographer who allegedly pushed an animal trainer by accident to film the transfer of dolphins has being charged with assault today, said Japanese authorities.
And indictment has been brought against Cove Guardian and Dutch citizen Erwin Vermeulen by the Japanese Public Prosecuture in Wakayama Prefecture. Vermeulen was arrested on Dec. 16.
Vermeulen is being held at the Shingu police station, and has been denied a lawyer and visitation rights, even from the Dutch Embassy. According to Japanese law, Erwin can be held for 28 days before being allowed to speak with an attorney, according to Sea Shepherd Sea Shepherd, who is currently in the Southern Ocean to stop Japanese from whaling in protected waters.
The prosecutors plans to try Vermeulen in an open court. If convicted, he faces up to 2 years in prison and possibly a fine of up to $200,000 Yen (about $2,600 USD).
Vermeulen is accused of pushing a Japanese marine mammal trainer while filming the transfer of a dolphin at the Dolphin Resort Hotel from the sea to holding pens at the resort. The employee claims that Erwin pushed him. However, it is reported that there were no other witnesses to this allegation.
After the arrest of Vermeulen, 20 officers of the Wakayama Prefecture police raided the Charmant Hotel where the Cove Guardians are staying near Taiji Harbor, Japan.
Armed with a warrant, the police seized computers, phones, hard drives, photos, cameras and anything they deemed suspicious.
Also detained by police were three other Cove Guardians members, (Scott, Melissa, and Ron), and Heather from Save Japan Dolphins. Since the raid on Dec. 18, no one has heard from those arrested, according to Nicole MacLaughlan, who managed to get word to the Capt. Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd. MacLaughlan was leaving the hotel to go to Osaka just as the police raided the hotel.
According to Watson, police gave no reasons for the raid and the Cove Guardians have been careful to not violate local laws.
"In contrast, a recent assault on two female Cove Guardians by a fisherman resulted in the fisherman being questioned and released despite video evidence of the assault," Watson said in a statement to the press. Watson and the Sea Shepherd is currently in the Southern Ocean to stop Japanese from whaling in protected waters.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society got involved with the Cove Guardians in 2003 and 2004 to help stop the slaughter of Dolphins near Taiji, Japan. On Oct. 6, 2003, crewmembers of Sea Shepherd's Taiji Dolphin Campaign filmed and photographed Japanese fishermen slaughtering dolphins in Taiji Harbor. They have supported Cove Guardians' efforts since then.
"It appears that the police are acting out of frustration and desperation with a crackdown against a group that has not committed a single infraction and have operated strictly within the boundaries of Japanese law," said the press release. Watson said Cove Guardians had 65 people this year filming, photographing, and documenting everything the fisherman did.
"Sea Shepherd is anxiously awaiting word of the Cove Guardians' release from detainment. If there is no word, it will be assumed they have been incarcerated at the jail in Shingu."
"In order to defend Erwin and win his freedom, Sea Shepherd is being forced to spend large sums of money from our operating budget on legal fees. This move seems to be at the heart of the Japanese prosecution's strategy," Watson said.
The trial is scheduled to start on Jan. 25, 2012, and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has retained a reputable law firm for Erwin's defense.
Watson asked that if anyone wants to help with the costs of Erwin's defense, he has asked that you visit their Web site at seashepherd.org.
George McGinn is based in Sarasota, Florida, United States of America, and is an Anchor for Allvoices.

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