Unknown Fish Netted At McMurdo

November 27, 2004

Release from: Tim Pankhurst
The Dominion Post

Art DeVries catches huge Antarctic cod, also known as toothfish, under the Ross Sea and keeps them alive in tanks in the United States McMurdo Base Crary laboratory.

Famed for discovering a protein that acts as an antifreeze agent and allows fish to survive in the frigid Antarctic waters that never rise above -1.8 degrees celsius, Professor DeVries may have stumbled on a new species.

The fish was caught several days ago by a diver using a net in shallow water near the base and is thriving in an aquarium.

"It is always exciting to find something new," Professor DeVries said. "We will probably take tissue and blood samples and learn all we can about it."

As professor of animal biology at the University of Illinois, he is also studying the formation of ice crystals in fish and trying to discover the mechanism that allows them to avoid a potentially fatal buildup. He prefers to concentrate on the fish he has studied for so long but says this research could have bio-medical applications in prolonging the storage of blood platelets, which have a short shelf life.

Professor DeVries, 66, first visited Antarctica in 1961 and cannot recall whether he has made 43 or 45 trips altogether.

The toothfish, dissotichus mawsoni, are hauled from the McMurdo Sound seabed, from a depth of up to 450 metres, through holes cut in the ice.

A baited drop line on a mechanised cable is set for 24 hours.

A 30-kilogram fish is in residence at the laboratory and they have been caught as big as 110kg.

They eat smaller fish and are preyed on by Weddell seals and orcas, some bearing scars to prove it.

Toothfish are a prized commercial species and those caught by Professor DeVries usually end up on the dinner table.

A specimen was delivered to Scott Base a couple of weeks ago and may suffer the same fate.

Sir Edmund Hillary, who arrived at Scott Base on Thursday, is to be given a tour of the extensive US laboratories on Monday.

He will also be shown laser studies of the ozone hole and monitoring of Mt Erebus activity.

The volcano is a major polluter in Antarctica and spews an average 100 tonnes of sulphuric acid a day.