Los
Angeles Times: The first published
study
of skin cancer in wild fish appeared yesterday in the journal
PLoS ONE. The discovery was made by accident when
scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, who
were studying shark prey along the Great Barrier Reef, noticed
strange dark patches on the normally bright-orange skin of
coral trout. They turned to another research team, from the
UK's University of Newcastle, that was studying coral disease
in the area. Together, they determined that the dark patches
were a form of melanoma. Why the incidence of melanoma is so
highâmdash;around
15%âmdash;in those fish is still unknown, but
the researchers surmise that it is due in part to the trout's
living near the reef, which is both at the outermost edge of
their habitable range and under the biggest hole in Earth's
ozone layer.
