Author: Helen Scales
-
Sahelian riches
In the latest installment of my reports form West Africa, I visit my first fishing communities and meet some big ugly molluscs… For the past few days I’ve been paying my first visits to fishing communities here in the Gambia. I’ve met and chatted with…
-
Alex Hofford on silky sharks
I chat with photojournalist Alex Hofford about his recent trip to the Pacific Ocean with Greenpeace, where he encountered some beautiful sharks. HS – What was it like meeting silky sharks compared to other sharks you’ve encountered AH – These sharks seemed almost canine in…
-
Helen in the Gambia
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll probably have heard that I’ve just begun a 2-month trip to West Africa. You can keep posted on my adventures here as I report back on all things seamonsterly. In the first of my reports, I encounter my first two local species down at the beach. …
-
Free diving, free falling
Another of my favourite posts from the past year… [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQITWbAaDx0[/youtube] I’m still completely obsessed with this video of Guillaume Nery base jumping into – then climbing out of – Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas while holding his breath. It was filmed over 4 afternoons by Julie Gautier who was also freediving. I don’t have plans…
-
Seahorse with dangerous underwear
We’re celebrating our first year of Seamonstering and I want to get things started with my very first post from April 16th last year, featuring one of my favourite seahorse illustrations. A seahorse with underpants decorated in hand grenades? Another with a shi shi hairdo? Well no. These cartoon seahorses are in fact festooned in…
-
Charles on Chagos 2
A team of researchers has spent the last month in the Chagos archipelago – the first full scientific expedition to the region since it was declared a no-take marine protected area in 2010. In part 2 of our Seamonster interview with Prof. Charles Sheppard we find out more about his latest trip to study the stunning…
-
Charles on Chagos
A team of scientists are coming to the end of an expedition to the Chagos archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It’s the first full scientific expedition to visit the area since the islands and reefs were declared a no-take marine protected area in April 2010. These are without a doubt some of…
-
William Trubridge and the rarest dolphins in the world
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6aU0O57KJQ[/youtube] HT to DianeN56
-
The first men to reach the bottom
With the news that James Cameron is set to be the first person in 52 years to venture to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, here’s a piece of news footage from the first time people went down there (complete with fantastic musical backing track). [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBFdGQ0QIco[/youtube]
-
The Island President
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts-AnjwRFxU[/youtube] Muhammed Nasheed was the first leader to hold a cabinet meeting underwater – he was making a point about climate change and sea level rise in his vulnerable atoll nation, the Maldives. When this film was made, his story was already immensely urgent. But since President Nasheed was thrown out of power at gun…