Finding Nemo?

We may be losing him, says

climate study
Clownfish under threat from warming ocean waters, which are damaging the
anemones that serve as its home

Agence France-Presse
Thursday 12 October 2017 01.26 EDT
Last modified on Thursday 12 October 2017 17.00 EDT

The clownfish, the colourful swimmer propelled to fame by the 2003

film Finding Nemo, is under threat from warming ocean waters wreaking
havoc with sea anemones, the structures that serve as its home, a study has
found.

Closely related to corals, sea anemones are invertebrate marine creatures that
live in symbiosis with algae, which provide them with food, oxygen and colour.

Clownfish, also known as anemonefish, in turn use the structures as shelter to

lay their eggs and raise their young keeping the anemones clean in return.
For the study, published in the journal Nature Communications, a research
team monitored 13 pairs of orange-fin anemonefish living among the coral
reefs of Moorea Island in the South Pacific.

They were monitored before, during and after the El Nio weather event that
in 2016 caused major coral bleaching as the Pacific Ocean warmed.

Half of the anemones in the study bleached, expelling the algae that live on
them and turning bone white, the team found. This happens in response to
environmental stress, such as ocean warming or pollution.

Among the clownfish living in the bleached anemones, the scientists observed
a drastic fall (-73%) in the number of viable eggs, said a statement from
Frances CNRS research institute. These fish were laying eggs less frequently
and they were also laying fewer and less viable eggs.

No changes were observed among fish with unbleached abodes.

Blood samples showed a sharp increase in levels of the stress hormone cortisol
in the affected fish, and a significant drop in sex hormones that determine
fertility, the team reported.

The health of the anemones and the fish improved three to four months after
the end of the warming event.

Further research is needed, the team said, to examine the effects of a longer,
or more intense, warming period, and whether affected fish would deal better
or worse with a new bleaching episode.

Exceptional ocean warming events are predicted to become more frequent as

the average global temperature rises. Nearly 200 nations agreed under the
2015 Paris agreement to limit warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees
Fahrenheit) over industrial levels.

A level of about 1C has already been reached and scientists fear the ceiling will
be shattered, with potentially disastrous consequences for the Earths climate.

In June last year, a study said many of the real-life Nemos swimming in
childrens fish tanks around the world were caught using cyanide another
threat to the species.
Finding Nemo, the movie about the quest of a young fish separated from its
family, resulted in more than a million clownfish being harvested from
tropical reefs as pets.