New Hampshire Fish and Game Department officials have reported that a stuffed teddy bear is responsible for causing the deaths of 2,500 trout at a hatchery in Milford. According to Hatchery Supervisor Robert Fawcett, the teddy bear clogged a drain, thus depriving the fish of dissolved oxygen and resulting in their unfortunate suffocation. "Please think before you act. If a teddy bear is dropped accidentally, find a fish culturist and tell them quickly, so they might save your teddy bear, and keep it from becoming a killer," Fawcett said. Hatchery officials, in order to account for this new threat, added the following warning to the end of the somber press release: "RELEASE OF ANY TEDDY BEARS into fish hatchery water IS NOT PERMITTED."
In a recent edition of Science Magazine, Dartmouth Biological Sciences Research Associate Brad Taylor reported that the removal of a vertebrate species from a river environment can have devastating effects on several ecosystems. Taylor, collaborating with colleagues from the University of Wyoming and Cornell, divided a 650 ft. section of the Marias River in South America into a control group and an experimental group. They then removed all the debris-feeding fish of one species from one side and measured the amount of carbon present on either side of the divide. They found that a reduction in the size of the fish population led to drastic changes in the presence of dissolved carbon, which is often damaging to ecosystems. "Size-selective harvesting may have long-lasting negative feedbacks on fish populations, ecosystem function and the flow of protein to humans and other animals, eroding an important ecosystem service," Taylor wrote.
Aspen Technology, a Massachusetts-based software company, has announced the appointment of David McKenna '89 to its Board of Directors. At Dartmouth, McKenna majored in English and served as president of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. After graduating he joined The Monitor Group as a consultant and went on to spend three years with Bain Capital, a private equity firm. Currently, McKenna is a partner with Advent International, specializing in retail private equity transactions. "David McKenna's extensive experience in global corporate leadership is a welcome addition to AspenTech. His strategic insight will play a significant role in guiding the future direction of the Company," AspenTech's President and CEO Mark Fusco said in a statement.
