Nemo Incapable of Adapting to Changes

The anemone fish popularised in the movies "Finding Nemo' and "Finding Dory" is incapable of adapting to rapid changes in environment. The National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) of France concluded that they don't have the genetic capacity. Nemo is living in a habitat that is degrading at a fast pace."The findings reported here were made possible by a huge sampling and DNA sequencing effort that had not been attempted for any marine species before," said WHOI biologist Simon Thorrold, a coauthor of the paper. "The biggest surprise to us was also the most troubling: conservation efforts cannot rely on genetic adaptation to protect clownfish from the effects of climate change. It seems that Nemo won't be able to save himself."

To expect a clownfish to genetically adapt at pace which would allow it to persist in the lagoons would be unreasonable, and thus the ability of these fish to remain in the lagoons over time will depend on our ability to maintain the quality of its habitat, according to Benoit Pujol, an evolutionary geneticist at CNRS.