The Times - UK (2022-06-08)

the times | Wednesday June 8 2022 13

News

Forget about finding Nemo. How about
tracking down the bocaccio rockfish?
Or spotting the white steenbras?
Unlike Nemo, a colourful clownfish
made famous by a Disney film, the
rockfish and steenbras are drab to look
at. However, in contrast to the orange
clownfish loved by children every-
where, both species are endangered —
and becoming genuinely hard to find.
A study has shown that this happens
a lot. The fish that humans like most are
also those that, on average, least require
our protection — which presents con-
servationists with a conundrum.
While our eyes are drawn to the aes-
thetically pleasing curves of the angel-
fish and the bright colours of the clown-
fish, the analysis found that it is fish
such as the generic-looking Mendo-
soma lineatum — already somewhat
maligned with a common name of real
bastard trumpeter — that are seen as
least attractive but are most in need of
our help.
The authors of the research suggest,
therefore, that conservation priorities

patrick kidd

TMS

[email protected] | @timesdiary

PM now king

of the limpets

“The prime minister will not go

early, it is simply not in his nature.

It is a wonderful fact of political

biology that we never know when

our time is up. Long after it is

obvious to everyone that we are

goners, we continue to believe it is

our ‘duty’ to hang on, with

cuticle-wrenching tenacity... We

kid ourselves that we must stay

because we would be ‘letting

people down’ or that there is a ‘job

to be finished’. In reality, we are

just terrified of the comedown...

All politicians are masters of

procrastination but there is no day

they find easier to postpone than

the day of their own resignation.”

Wise words by a journalist who

also called this PM a “human

limpet”. Written in 2006 about

Tony Blair by one Boris Johnson.

The Queen makes an excellent

excuse note. In his new memoir, A

Royal Life, the Duke of Kent writes

that one of their German cousins

was invited to the big shindig at the

Abbey in 1953 but needed an exeat

from his headmaster in Bavaria. His

father wrote asking for a week off

and under “reason” explained:

“Coronation of a relative.”

vaizey touts his cv

Fresh from complaining to me

that Monday’s Times left him off

the birthday column — again! —

Lord Vaizey hopes for a belated

present from his old department.

The former arts minister pricked

up his ears yesterday when

his successor, Julia Lopez,

told the Lords

communications committee

that she was seeking a

distinguished figure to lead

a review of the BBC licence

fee. “Would they be

employed by the BBC?”

he asked. Told no, he

explored further.

“Would they be

independent of government?” the

independent-minded Vaizey asked.

“I’m just checking because I apply

for every job going at the DCMS.”

Then, having got a non-denial to

his “Could they be a Tory peer?”,

he perhaps began to polish his CV.

hm antarctic absence

To mark the Platinum Jubilee the

royal family Twitter account

posted a video highlighting the

Queen’s impact on culture, from

her image on currency and stamps

to her name on Olympic parks,

hospitals, ships and railway lines.

However, one inclusion raised

eyebrows in Brussels. The video

claimed that her name was given

to the Princess Elizabeth Research

Station in Antarctica. In fact, it is

named after the present Belgian

Princess Elisabeth (sic), below. The

clue is it only opened in 2009.

A correspondent to Mark Kermode

and Simon Mayo’s film podcast said

he went to his local Odeon to see

the new Top Gun and asked for a

glass of wine to take in. “Sorry,

we’ve run out,” the barman said.

“Gin and tonic?” he asked. Again,

they were dry. “Really?” this thirsty

filmgoer pleaded. The barman leant

forward conspiratorially and gave a

one-word excuse for this run on the

booze: “Downton.”

actors in rural repose

We move from Somerset to

Lincolnshire for today’s set of

fading actors spotted resting on

rural road signs. Sally Siddall was

among many to offer the one

saying “To Mavis Enderby and

Old Bolingbroke” after which

someone had added “— a son”.

Mike Langhorne tells me the

county is also home to Cherry

Willingham, who is often

sipping post-matinee drinks

with Ms Enderby and Silk

Willoughby, while a few

offered Boothby Graffoe, a

village that clearly

borrowed its name

from the comedian.

Spare a thought for Nemo’s ugly, endangered cousin

Tom Whipple Science Editor are at risk of being skewed by our
prejudices.
“There is a need for us to make sure
that our natural aesthetic biases do not
turn into a bias of conservation effort,”
said Nicolas Mouquet from the Uni-
versity of Montpellier.
“Our study highlights likely impor-
tant mismatches between potential
public support for conservation and the
species most in need of this support.”
His work, published in the journal
Plos Biology, involved asking 13,
people to rate the attractiveness of
almost 500 reef fish. From those an-
swers, the scientists trained a machine-
learning algorithm to analyse about
2,500 other common reef fish and
assign them a score based on their pre-
dicted aesthetic value.
They found that the most attractive
fish typically had bright contrasting
colours and rounded bodies. The least
attractive fish were monochrome sil-
ver, with an elongated body shape.
Mouquet and his colleagues then
compared the aesthetic ratings with the
species’ conservation status and their
importance in commercial fishing.

There was a clear correlation: the more

attractive a fish was, the less likely that

it would be either fished or threatened.

Why would this be so? One answer is

that the less attractive fish are in

trouble precisely because we do not

care about them. Conservation resour-

ces often go to the more charismatic

species — the colourful, snorkeller-

friendly reef fish that people want to see

— meaning that other species are

passed over.

Another possible explanation,

though, is that the drab colour and

elongated body are themselves a clue as

to why the fish are at risk. “They look

this way because they often live in the

water column and thus have to hide

within a poorly contrasted and homo-

geneous habitat,” Mouquet

said. “They are elongated

because they have to

swim fast, and silver

because they have to

hide in the open sea.”

The problem with

the water column is

that it is where

humans tend to fish

with nets — from

which even the best camouflaged fish

cannot hide.

So should we take less notice

of Nemo and pay more at-

tention to the plainer fish

hiding in the back-

ground? “That would

be the wrong inter-

pretation of the study,

Mouquet said. “All

species deserve con-

servation support. We

do not claim that

beautiful fish don’t

really need conservation

support, but that less beau-

tiful fish need more.”

The drab looks of the

bocaccio rockfish may

cost it the help it needs

Mouquet

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