Sea Monster

Category: Environment

  • Toxic Algae on the Loose

  • 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…

  • Waking from the Gluttony

    There is a great post from the Science Progress Fish on Fridays series excerpted below (go here to read in full). Many fisheries scientists were sure there was no way humans could make a dent in the seemingly endless abundance of fish in the ocean as late as the middle of the 20th century. But…

  • Where is all of that extra energy going?

    The greenhouse gases we are emitting into the atmosphere trap heat from the sun that would otherwise be reflected off the surface of the earth. This is the greenhouse effect that is causing global warming / Anthropogenic Climate Change (ACC). Most people, including many scientists, think of the warming of the land and lower atmosphere when they…

  • A letter from your mother on Earth Day

    Hello to all of my human inhabitants, This is your mother, the Earth. Yes that’s right, the planet you live on. I thought I’d get in touch with a message in honor of my special day (thank you, BTW, I never miss an excuse for a good party), and the SeaMonster was kind enough to…

  • Belize fisherman foresaw the collapse of the reef ecosystem 40 years ago

    Belizean fisherman Villamar Godfrey. Photo by Clare Fieseler. Clare Fieseler is currently in Belize interviewing fishers as part of a lab study we have been working on for several years, investigating the effectiveness of fisheries management along the Mesoamerican Reef.  A chance encounter with fisherman Villamar Godfrey eventually led to the revelation that he had appeared in…

  • Unhappy Birthday to Deepwater Horizon

    One year ago today we woke up to one of the worst environmental disasters in American history. Eleven people and countless animals dead, five million barrels of crude released, and the potential long-term transformation of the ocean on a regional scale.  Only time will reveal the full consequences of the event but the picture is…

  • 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…

  • Destructive Fishing Practices

    Dynamite fishing, as depicted in the picture above, is pretty much what it sounds like: toss an explosive devise overboard (hopefully away from the boat), cover your ears and scoop up all the stunned and dead fish. Easy right? Problem is, this isn’t exactly sustainable since the act of fishing destroys the habitat fish need…

  • 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…