The Commissar has a really interesting article about anti-freeze in the blood stream of "Antarctic Toothfish, a Notothenoid, Dissostichus mawsoni."
The dominant fishes in Antarctic waters, the Notothenioids, contain a natural protein anti-freeze in their bodily fluids. (I wonder if a Notothenioid General Ripper might rant and rave about the “purity and essence of our natural, unfreezing, bodily fluids.â€) These antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) are quite an adaptation, a “beneficial mutation.â€
This leads me to wonder: could these fish, when they die, be the major factor in the melting of the Antarctic ice shelves? And, since there are similar fish in the Arctic, there too? Hey, a nature conspiracy for these occurances sounds more plausible then someone driving their SUV around in LA :)
