Skin Cancer Found In Great Barrier Reef Fish By The Conversation
| Featured Research August 6, 2012 Scientists have identified
skin cancer in the Great Barrier Reef’s wild fish populations
which is almost identical to melanomas found in humans.
AsianScientist (Aug. 6, 2012) – By Fron Jackson-Webb –
Scientists have identified skin cancer in the Great Barrier
Reef’s wild fish populations which is almost identical to
melanomas found in humans. The team of researchers from the
Australian Institute of Marine Science and Newcastle University
in the United Kingdom caught the diseased coral trout, or
Plectropomus leopardus, in two locations in the southern Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park – Heron Island and One Tree Island. UV-
induced melanoma in fish has until now only been seen under
laboratory conditions and has been used as a model to study the
progress of human skin cancer due to the similarities in the
disease. The findings are published today in the journal PLoS
ONE. “Beyond health implications for individual fi