cat fish spilled on road ... and the story of Greedo

Every tank has a story – the temple tanks are most interesting.  For Triplicanites, ‘Kairavini Pushkarini’ is sacred and providing peace.  According to the lore, there were so many of lily flowers in the tank – and no fishes.  Later guppies and other fish were introduced for keeping mosquitoes at bay.  When SYMA took up cleaning the tank few years back, around 5000 corp fishes were left in the new water.  The tale of Kapaleeswarar tank is different – there are so many ‘cat fish’.

Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behaviour from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores (species that eat dead material on the bottom), and even to a tiny parasitic species commonly called the candiru, Vandellia cirrhosa.  Some of the smaller species, particularly the genus Corydoras, are kept in the aquarium hobby.

In Marine parlance, an oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially marine areas, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution.  Oil spills may be due to releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products – the biggest example is ‘Exxon Valdez’, an oil tanker spilling barrels of crude oil.   Oil spills can impact marine life and other animals including birds. 

There have been spillages on roads ~ had earlier posted of an incident in Canada whence millions of dollars in ‘loonies and toonies’ scattered over the Highway.   In another incident in UK, the drink that ‘can give wings’ [Red bull] was spilled  on the carriageway of the southbound M6 near Blackburn, Lancashire due to a road accident.   On roads, we see so many trucks – nearer Ports and CFS there will be movement of containers.  Nearer, fishing harbours, there would be movement of fish and other sea food, in refrigerated trucks as even dead fish would be kept frozen to ensure that they remain good till they reach the destination for processing.  On the other hand transportation of live fish requires oxygen for respiration and removal of the toxic gases and by-products that accumulate.  Crustaceans are transported live in wet packages using wet sawdust or other ways to keep the atmosphere surrounding the live animals humid and cool.

Greedo is a fictional character from the Star Wars universe.  Greedo appears in Star Wars as a Rodian bounty hunter working for Jabba the Hutt. Jabba hires him to capture Han Solo, who lost the Hutt'scargo during a smuggling assignment. Greedo tracks his target to the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine, where Han shoots him dead with a concealed blaster.  Greedo also appears in the 2010 Star Wars.   If this new species of catfish looks familiar, don’t be surprised—Peckoltia greedoiis is  named after Star Wars bounty hunter Greedo.

Researchers discovered the new species of catfish in 1998 in Brazil, but it had been catalogued as an existing species until 2014, CNN reports. When it came time to name the unidentified fish, they noted Peckoltia greedoi‘s uncanny likeness to the Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope character. According to Biological Sciences Professor,  the whole package evoked Greedo and in particular the eyes and the underslung mouth. 

MailOnline reports of seven tons of spillage of catfish on Chinese highway after door of the truck popped open when driven over a bump.  That reportedly occurred in Kaili, in the Guizhou province of China.  Fire crews and local residents joined forces to clear up the slippery mess, using hoses to keep the fish wet while they were painstakingly collected in buckets before being transferred into the scoop of a passing digger and then back into the truck.  Amazingly, the whole 6,800kg mess was cleared in under two hours, according to People's Daily Online.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

20^th Mar 2015.