Looking for Nirai Kanai
Thursday, January 30, 2014 - 09:00
in Biology & Nature
In 2013, a new species of goby was discovered in a stream on the main island of Okinawa. The species was named Stiphodon niraikanaiensis, which comes from a traditional word on Okinawa and Amami areas, "Nirai Kanai." Nirai Kanai is a mythical paradise beyond the sea of Okinawa where gods, who create life and bring about fertility, live. Ken Maeda, a researcher in OIST's Marine Genomics Unit discovered the species and gave it the grand and romantic name. An article about the fish was published online in the journal Ichthyological Research on December 20, 2013.