Author: Helen Scales
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How to measure a shark
Q. How do you measure a live, free-swimming shark? A. From a distance. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? You can’t easily swim up and lay out a tape measure alongside them from snout to tail. But with all the tricks of light bending on its way through water and air and the inevitable BIG FISH tales,…
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Sea angels
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmBIDinJUr8&feature=related[/youtube] Sea angels. They sound kind of made up, don’t they? But they are real animals – a type of seashell that have lost their shells and spend their lives flitting about in the open ocean, propelled by a pair of little fairy wings. We chatted to Rob Jennings from the University of Massachusetts about…
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Jumping the shark
I love this phrase. My favourite definition from Urban Dictionary goes “when something stops getting better and starts getting worse”. It comes from a Happy Days episode where the Fonz goes waterskiing and jumps over a shark (presumably in a desperate attempt to boost ratings). Everyone agrees it was the lowest point of the show. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDthMGtZKa4[/youtube]…
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10 top tips for saving seahorses
A question I get asked a lot is ‘Are seahorses endangered?’. And my answer, sadly, is yes. So, what can we do about it? Well, here are my top ten tips for doing your bit to save the seahorses: 1. Don’t buy dead seahorses This may sound a little odd. Why would you…
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Walking shark
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvyXvZmRaW0[/youtube] This recently discovered species of epaulette shark can swim like most regular sharks but often spends its time mooching about on the seabed, ‘walking’ on its pectoral fins. More about their discovery at National Geographic News
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The tree octopus – a legend caught on camera?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfMeXel1gDw[/youtube] A short movie made in 1928 by pioneer underwater filmmaker, Jean Painleve. Painleve is barely remembered today (seems we only have room in our hearts for one French underwater filmmaker) but in his time was renowned for blending science and art in his series of remarkable movies – including this one, which was obviously…
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Rime of a modern mariner
Illustrator and political cartoonist Nick Hayes has transformed Coleridge’s haunting tale into a beautiful graphic novel, The Rime of a modern mariner, featuring oceans of plastic waste and strangled seabirds. This is definitely on my to-read list. I flipped through a copy the other day at the wonderful Lutyens & Rubenstein bookshop in Notting Hill, after reading…
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From art to artificial reefs
Jason de Caires Taylor displays his artwork in a rather unconventional gallery. I’ve been haunted by his underwater sculptures (in a good way) since I saw pictures of them in the Guardian a while back. And I recently grabbed the chance to interview him for the Naked Oceans podcast. Jason told me all about how…