Invasion of the lionfish
QUESTION Did the construction of the Suez Canal cause a problem with invasive species?
The separation of Atlantic biota (animals and plants) from that of the Indo-Pacific is as old as the late Miocene period, around 10 million years ago.
That all changed in 1869 when the Suez Canal was cut along the arid isthmus that separates Africa from the Middle east, creating an aquatic shortcut between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
To date about 1,000 species have made the journey. The migration is known as the Lessepsian Migration after Ferdinand de Lesseps, the Frenchman who supervised the Suez Canal construction.
The term was coined in 1970 to signify a unique phenomenon in biogeography, that the invasion is almost entirely unidirectional, with invasive species moving from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean. For a century or so after the Canal opened, hyper-saline lakes and freshwater rivers crossing the waterway prevented most marine organisms from surviving the length of the canal.
The effect of these natural saline barriers has been reduced as the canal was widened repeatedly throughout the 20th century. An expansion of the canal completed in 2015 diluted the Bitter Lakes and exacerbated the situation.
The Red Sea is at a slightly higher altitude than the Mediterranean, so the water flows south to north. Those currents encourage invasive species — from red soldierfish, yellow striped mullet, lizardfish and lionfish to moon crabs and jellyfish — through the choke point and pull them into the warm Mediterranean Sea where they thrive.
every creature swept through the Canal is washed eastward along the Levantine coast — Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey — and then westward. Since Israel is the first country on the route, it has suffered the greatest impact.
Invasive limpets cover rocky coastlines and low-value, narrow-barred Spanish mackerel from the Red Sea have replaced native meagre. erythrean penaeid prawns now make up most of the shrimp catches along the Levantine coasts. Of particular concern is a population explosion of toxic lionfish species, including along coastlines popular with tourists, from Cyprus to Sicily.
Lionfish have huge appetites and reproduce year-round: a mature female can release about two million eggs per year. Its sting produces intense pain and swelling that may last for days.
Swarms of migratory jellyfish have blocked power plant cooling systems in Israel. The nomadic jellyfish (Rhopilema nomadica) has stung countless tourists.
In summer 2017, a swarm stretching the entire length of the Mediterranean coast of egypt spoiled eid celebrations. R. nomadica has now spread as far west as Sardinia, Sicily, Malta and Tunisia.
Dr Ian Smith, Cambridge.
QUESTION Which system of bridge would they have played on the Titanic?
PAUL ROMAINe CheVRe, a French sculptor and survivor of the Titanic, stated: ‘We were quietly playing auction bridge with a Mr Smith from Philadelphia, when we heard a violent noise, similar to that produced by the screw racing.
‘We were startled and looked at one another under the impression that a serious accident had happened. We did not, however, think for a catastrophe, but through the portholes we saw ice rubbing against the ship’s sides.’
Auction bridge was a popular game that formed a step in the evolution of bridge. Bridge was derived from the 17th-century card game whist.
In whist, four players, arranged in two partnerships, were dealt 13 cards from a 52- card pack, with a partnership’s objective being to win as many tricks as possible. By the turn of the century, the game evolved into plafond (‘ceiling’) in France and auction bridge elsewhere.
Plafond required each partnership to state the number of tricks they were going to take. Auction bridge, developed in about 1904, introduced the element of bidding to determine which suit, if any, would be trumps.
Contract bridge, the game played today, was invented by the American harold Stirling Vanderbilt while cruising on the SS Finland in 1925.
Vanderbilt’s game incorporated a sophisticated scoring table and varying modes of vulnerability, correcting many of the faults found in auction bridge and plafond. he succeeded so well that his game became the staple diet of card players everywhere.
Jonathan Avery, Bristol.
QUESTION Who designed the flag of Kazakhstan? What is its significance?
The national flag of the Republic of Kazakhstan was adopted on June 4, 1992, replacing the flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, a red flag with a hammer and a sickle in gold with a cyan bar across the lower third.
The design was adopted following a nationwide competition for new national motifs, won by Kazakh artist Shaken
Niyazbekov ( 1938- 2014). his design features a gold sun with 32 rays above a soaring golden steppe eagle, centred on a sky-blue background; the hoist side displays a national ornamental pattern koshkar-muiz (horns of the ram) in gold.
The light blue background symbolises cultural and ethnic unity; it also represents the steppe sky. The sun is the source of life, its rays are shaped like grain, a sign of prosperity. The eagle has appeared on the flags of Kazakh tribes for centuries and represents freedom.
Ant Bleeker, London SW15. IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.
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