Category: Ocean Critters
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Transgendered sea anemone denounced as ‘abomination’ by clergy
From the Onion archives (note th: A coalition of Baptist clergymen spoke out Monday against the Telia felina, a transgendered sea anemone they are decrying as “base and depraved.” “This filthy anemone, which exhibits both male and female characteristics, is turning our oceans’ intertidal zones into dens of sin and perversion,” said Rev. William Chester, spokesman…
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Wave your claws in the air…
… like you just don’t care. Remember the Yeti crab? That fuzzy pawed deep sea denizen that revealed itself to science a few years ago and got given the name Kiwa hirsuta? Well, meet it’s newly-discovered cousin, Kiwa puravida. This chap has gone one step further down the weeeeird sea animals pathway. It’s not just hairy but…
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Dancing Belugas!
In celebration of the defeat of the dark lord of Alaska, we bring back the dancing white whales: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_6-IwMPjM&[/youtube]
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Great white shark seen off North Carolina coast!
That ain’t no bull shark! Both the video and commentary are awesome! (although, warning to parents: video contains some “fisherman language”) Some of my favorites: “That’s a big [Fing] bull shark…holy shit, holy shit!”. ” I think hes gotta be at least 18 feet, he’s [Fing] big …Wanna try to hook em?” [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f9Pkf75yX0&[/youtube]
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The Jaws effect: why we misunderstand sharks
The Gulf Stream by Winslow Homer (1899) From Nat Geo (by Patrick Kiger, HT to Abel V): Audiences cringed in terror as they watched the 1975 movie thriller Jaws, which depicted shark hunters’ desperate struggle to survive an encounter with a monstrous aquatic serial killer that was powerful enough to turn their fishing cruiser into splinters, and was…
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Silky seabugs
As a long-time afficianado of the amphipod crustaceans I’ve come to terms with being alone in a crowd, having as it were a more rarified taste in biophilia than the average whale-hugger lover of sea life. Sure, they’re submicroscopic, sometimes pesky (crawling into your ears while working underwater, for example), and often devilishly difficult to…
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Beluga whales 1, Sarah Palin 0
From the Center for Biological Diversity – my new favorite NGO: There’s huge news today out of Alaska: A federal judge just rejected the state’s attempts to deny Endangered Species Act protection for Cook Inlet beluga whales. Today’s ruling is a major victory in our decade-long battle to protect the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale,…
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Polar bears and climate change
My research usually takes me to tropical places where you can’t drink the water. But this week I’m in a very cold northern place. I came to Churchill, Canada to work with Polar Bears International on their Tundra Connections project, helping to spread the word about how climate change is impacting marine critters like polar bears. The arctic…
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Orca thinks he’s an outboard engine
If you haven’t already watched (and listened!) to this video clip then you’re missing out. Apparently this is Luna, a lone male killer whale, who lived in the waters around Vancouver Island until his untimely death in a tugboat collision in 2006. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b2U5r7Jwkc&feature=player_embedded[/youtube] HT to the Huffington Post
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Polar bear scuffle
The antarctic may have Zena’s fighting penguins, but the arctic has male polar bear scuffling. You tell me which is more spectacular (although, I must admit, those lady birds really go at it!). [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/32095860[/vimeo] This post was made possible by Polar Bears International and their Tundra Connections project, the Tundra Buggy Lodge and Canada Goose for…