Author: Helen Scales
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Herbivorous halos seen from space
Don’t mess with vegetarians – they can really leave their mark… These funky patterns were created by grazing reef critters venturing out from patch reefs in the Red Sea. Scientists spotted this phenomenon going on at the Great Barrier Reef from space using Google Earth images. Read more at Mongabay. Image downloaded from Google Earth…
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Aussie author speaks out for marine reserves
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBoSV2W29Do&feature=youtu.be[/youtube] Tim Winton wrote one of my all-time favourite books Blue Back, a beautiful ‘contemporary fable’ about a boy who grows up in Western Australia, spending most of his time diving and swimming in the ocean. He makes friends with an enormous fish and decides to become a marine biologist so he can learn what…
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Meet the bone eating snot flower
Have a listen to deep sea biologist Greg Rouse introducing the bone eating snot flower aka the zombie worm (or Osedax, if you want to be a bit more proper and scientific about these things). Greg was part of the team that discovered these guys munching their way through whale skeletons at the bottom of Monterey…
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Beautiful sea dragons – new study counts spots
Seadragons look and sound like something that swam straight out of a book of fairytales. But they are very real. Keith Martin-Smith has been watching these beautiful creatures and taking pictures of them for 18 months in Tasmania. And he’s uncovered some of their secrets. When Tasmanian artist William Buelow Gould painted this weedy dragon in…
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Name that seamonster (and you thought British seas were boring!)
It seems it’s all the rage to get members of the public to name species that are otherwise stuck with boring scientific epithets. Latest is the UK’s Guardian who are running a name-that-species contest on their website today, including a bunch of critters than inhabit British seas. My favourite is this orange sea spider – it looks…
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Sustainable supply for the seahorse trade
You’ve probably spotted by now that I have a bit of a thing about seahorses. And despite spending a year researching and writing my book, there’s always more to discover about these curious creatures. A little while ago, I picked up a thing or two from seahorse-keeping guru Shawn Garner at Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida.…
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Happy World Oceans Day & some memorable seamonster moments
It’s World Oceans Day. Horray! It’s like a second birthday, a day when we get to do what we like… at least when it comes to talking about how awesome the oceans are. So, here at Seamonster we’ve decided to share with you some of our most awesome moments underwater – when we each met…
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Cordelia Banks – Caribbean jewel
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/23529808[/vimeo] Cordelia Banks in Honduras contains some of the healthiest coral reefs in the Caribbean. Check out this video by filmmaker Jon Slayer.
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How goliaths used to be
Ahhhh, those were the good old days… when ladies in bikinis and men with beards and short shorts stood next to really big fish. It’s great to see Emmett’s film of a Goliath grouper in Cuba. This pic is one of many from the archives at the Florida Keys public libraries showing the size of trophy Goliath’s caught…
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How to get completely out of your depth
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOdxLgiJHUU&feature=player_embedded[/youtube] Getting into and then out of my depth. There are all sorts of ways to get out of your depth. You can buy too many things you don’t need on your credit card, teach a class on a subject you know nothing about (ahh, the sweet sound of silence…), or run up to…