BCC Welcomes Baby Lungfish to Aquarium

08:06AM / Monday, November 01, 2021Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass — The Environmental and Life Sciences program at Berkshire Community College (BCC) has a new resident: a young African lungfish.

The lungfish (Protopterus annectens), which arrived from a Californian breeder in mid-September, lives in an aquarium in the Ralph Hoffmann Environmental Science and Sustainable Energy Center.

Professor of Environmental Science Thomas Tyning said the fish is under two years old. It can live more than 20 years, as proven by the previous lungfish living at BCC. That fish, donated by a student in 2001, died in 2019 and was memorialized by Tyning on the BCC website.

"As a bona fide teaching member of our zoology classes, few animals were more iconic in helping students understand the evolution of vertebrates," he said.

"It’s an incredible live example for our students, not to mention a great animal for display for visitors," Tyning said. "Lungfish are living links between fish and terrestrial animals. They have both gills and lungs." Of the six species of lungfish, "ours has the most unique fins of all of them," he said, explaining that they are used somewhat like the legs of land animals. Along with another ancient fish, the coelacanth, lungfish are "clearly the earliest ancestors of all land-living animals, from salamanders to humans."

Known only as fossils to Western science until the first living specimens were discovered in the 1830s, they have captivated scientists ever since, Tyning said, noting that there are still certain mysterious aspects about the fish – including no known way to determine its sex.

Found in freshwater habitats, the West African lungfish (Protopterus annectens) has a long, eel-like body with a prominent snout, small eyes and two pairs of long, narrow fins. It reaches a length of more than three feet in the wild and is demersal, meaning that it lives primarily buried in riverbeds. With a diet consisting of mollusks, crabs, prawns and small fish, it can survive for up to three and a half years without any food, burying itself in the mud until more favorable conditions occur.

Watch for news of a naming contest on Facebook (berkshirecc) and Instagram (@berkshirecc).

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Possible Measles Exposure at Boston, Logan

12:05PM / Wednesday, December 24, 2025

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Department of Public Health confirmed Wednesday that an out-of-state adult visitor who spent time in Boston and Westborough earlier this month was diagnosed with measles and was present in a number of locations.

This could have resulted in other people being exposed to measles virus.

The visitor arrived at Logan International Airport on American Airlines flight 2384 from Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, on Dec. 11 at 2:39 p.m. They stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Boston-Westborough in Westborough and departed the state on Dec. 12 via Logan at 9:19 p.m. on JetBlue flight 117 to Las Vegas.

DPH is working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local partners to identify and notify those who may have been exposed to measles from this individual.

"Measles is a highly contagious, airborne disease, which has increased significantly in the United States because of the unfortunate decrease in vaccination rates. It is also a preventable disease," said Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein. "This current situation serves as an important reminder of the critical role vaccination plays in protecting our communities. While Massachusetts has not had a measles case this year, 2025 saw the highest number of nationwide cases in more than a decade — nearly 2,000 in 44 jurisdictions, and sadly, three deaths.

"Fifteen years ago, measles had been considered eliminated in the United States, but that tremendous progress is at risk. Vaccines are one of the most important public health interventions ever — they are safe, effective, and lifesaving."

Measles is very contagious. However, the risk to most people in Massachusetts is low because the vaccination rate in the state is high. People who are not immune and visited any of the locations on the following dates and times may be at risk for developing measles.

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