Coral Reef Fish Make Their Way Home FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media
Relations Office May 3, 2007 Coral reef fish hatchlings
dispersed by ocean currents are able to make their way back to
their home reefs again to spawn, says a groundbreaking study
published today in the journal Science. The study, whose
findings are considered a major advance for fish conservation
biology, was conducted by an international team of scientists
from Australia, France, and the U.S. using a novel tagging
method to track two populations of fish, including the endearing
orange, black, and white reef-dwelling clownfish made famous in
the movie “Finding Nemo.” Led by Dr. Geoff Jones and Dr. Glenn
Almany of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence
for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, the study took
place on coral reefs in a marine protected area in Papua New
Guinea. Scientists tested a new method to trace fish from birth
to spawning and detect the percentage of fish hatched on one
reef that return there to spawn. Th