The Mouseion

The Jan-Jun 2006, of The Mouseion, the official newsletter of the UPV Museum of Natural Sciences, Office of the Dean, College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of the Philippines in the Visayas, has just come off the press.

Three significant news articles can be found in this issue: Janitor fish in the Agusan Marsh : a threat to freshwater biodiversity by Marianne Hubila and Ferenc Kis; Prof. Vicencio: a picture of a dedicated mentor by Sol Garibay, and Fossils, imprint of the past by Cornelio M. Selorio, Jr.

The first article warns the public on the great threat that the janitor fish (Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus) would do to the ecological balance of Agusan Marsh as they will compete for food for the native catfish, carps, mudfish, tarpons, mullets, tialpia, including bivalves and gastropods found in the marsh.

The second article gives a short profile of one of the best phycologists in the country today, the former professor of phycology of the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, UPV, Prof. Zosima T. Vicencio. One of her notable researches was "Algal Food Habits of the Milkfish." At 82, Prof. Vicencio still serves as consultant of PHIL-KOEI Interantional. Inc.

The third article provides an interesting find: there are fossils in Igang, Pototan, Iloilo, Philippines. Unfortunately, some of these fossils "have been used in building school fences, as filling materials in roads and buildings."

So unless the local and the national governments will do something about this, these imprints of the past will be gone forever.