Author: Helen Scales

  • Seamonster does standup

    They say you should do one thing that scares you everyday. Well recently I did one thing that was scary enough to keep me going for weeks. I did my first standup comedy gig. I should explain, this wasn’t as scary as it could have been. I took part in Cambridge Bright Club – a…

  • All Reef Creatures Great and Small

    In a follow up to our interview with Prof. Charles Sheppard about his latest expedition to the Chagos Archipelago, here is PhD researcher Catherine Head in an exclusive Seamonster guest post giving us a glimpse of the incredible hidden word of coral reef cryptofauna. Chagos for me is what it’s all about, it represents why…

  • Chagos expedition 2013

    A year ago here on Seamonster, we heard from a team of scientists who were studying the coral islands of the remote Chagos archipelago (go back and check out parts one and two of our interview to find out just how dangerous ‘Danger Island’ is and to see more photographs from that expedition). I’m delighted…

  • Sharks on CITES

      It’s a big week for sharks. The latest round of talks on international wildlife trade are being held in Bangkok right now. In the coming days delegates will consider proposals to protect hammerhead sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks, and porbeagles. Manta rays and some freshwater stingrays are also on the list. The proposals are to…

  • Glowing sharks caught on camera for first time

    One in ten shark species are bioluminescent and now for the first time glowing sharks have been caught on camera. Check out this video from Jérôme Mallefet at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. I’ve written several stories for National Geographic News about Jérôme’s work, together with Julien Claes. They’re uncovering fascinating things about these illusive…

  • My village, my lobster

    Check out the trailer to this documentary from Nomading Films about commercial lobster diving in Nicaragua. According to their website, a new law will be passed later this year banning commercial diving in the country in an attempt to curb the human cost of the industry. 90% of the lobsters caught in Nicaragua end up…

  • More underwater miniatures

    Here’s another batch of underwater miniatures from Scubazoo’s Jason Isley.

  • Tiny people underwater – a whole new perspective on ocean life

    Check out these brilliant images from Scubazoo’s Jason Isley. He’s been setting up miniature scenes underwater that give a whole new perspective on ocean life.

  • Marine Protected Areas: “It’s evidence and the economy, stupid”

    Tom Hooper ran ‘Finding Sanctuary’ one of four regional stakeholder-led projects to set up a new generation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) around the English coasts and offshore waters. In a guest post for Seamonster, Tom explains how England nearly got an ecologically coherent MPA network in 2013 and the emerging challenges of scientific evidence…

  • Goodbye naked oceans

    This is a repost from Helen’s blog (ed).  It’s the last day of 2012 and I’ve just finished making the last episode of the Naked Oceans podcast. In it, I catch up with a bunch of the folks who’ve appeared on the show over the last two series, and chat with them about the future of…