I belong to a listserv on birding and there was a interesting email about research on DNA analysis on birds, which will probably lead to reclassification of about 15 "new" species in North America and over 1,000 world wide. (Stay with me now, the fish part is coming, I swear.)

For example looking at the Common Raven, it's thought that, based on DNA analysis, Ravens from the Pacific should be classified as a new species (not subspecies). The cutoff seems to be 2 1/2 % or more different DNA = new species, despite minimal difference in body shape, plumage, song etc.

Estimates are that each 1% difference represents over 1 million years without interbreeding.

This got me thinking about fish of course, and what analysis of this type could mean for such issues as wild vs hatchery steelhead and trout, summer run vs winter run steelhead and different "strains" of fish as we think of them now like Fla Largemouths, McCloud Rainbows, Westslope Cuts, Maine Atlantic Salmon, Chspk vs Hudson Stripers etc. and impacts on conservation like ESA protection.

Anyone out there know anything about work of this kind and findings on fish?

Thanks.

peregrines

P.S. For those interested in digging deeper on this with access to high falutin journals, the actual title of the scientific article wasn't named but here's a quote from the 2/19 Reuters article:

"This is the leading tip of a process that will
see the genetic registration of life on the
planet," said Paul Hebert of the Biodiversity
Institute of Ontario, a co-author of the report
in the British Journal Molecular Ecology Notes."