SeaMonster blog
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Ten questions for Helen Scales
Dr. Helen Scales is a freelance writer, broadcaster and marine biologist based in Cambridge, UK. She earned her doctorate degree from Cambridge University and studied the lives and loves of a fish called the Napoleon wrasse or humphead wrasse, a rare and endangered giant on coral reefs of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Helen usually interviews me,…
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Emperor penguin takes a wrong turn
This beautiful picture is an emperor penguin that’s pitched up a long way from home. It took a wrong turn and ended up on a beach in New Zealand. It was found by local resident Christine Walker who said: “It was out of this world to see it…
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Cuba journal: Day 7 – The Wall of Mouths
Day 7: Thursday 2 June Done. All over now but the last dregs of clean-up and packing. Five days in the “Gardens of the Queen”, and what a time it’s been. A journey back in time in both the state of society and of the Sea. In the last five days we’ve become accustomed to…
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Why pufferfish puff
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkXhC7yzISI&feature=player_embedded[/youtube] Okay, so I admit this is a river story but I can only imagine similar things go on in the sea. And it just goes to show how blowing up like a beach ball is a really effective way of seeing off predators. HT to Practical Fishkeeping for the link.
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Super tough corals of American Samoa
One of Dr. Steve Palumbi‘s Microdocs videos about his lab’s work with corals from Ofu Island reef in American Samoa that seem highly resistant to thermal stress. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R38NBEQGF_s&[/youtube]
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Antarctic Oceanography: Then & Now
THEN: …and NOW: These days, the plankton nets are a little larger. There are satellite phones and internet connections. We have GPS technology, hot tubs, and widescreen TVs. And the ships’ hulls are a little more, uh… reinforced? Life on an Antarctic research vessel may be less unpredictable, but it is no less magical in…
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Underwater beetle – but not the insect variety
I’m not a great car fan, but I’ve been in love with the cute curves of VW beetles for a long time (and perhaps one day I’ll get one). And I’m completely in love with this new art installation by Jason de Caires Taylor. It’s called Anthropocene, it’s installed on the sea bed 8 m…
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Surfing with the enemy
In honor of international surfing day 2011, here is a great video about surfing in Cuba. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQO2FCepgTE[/youtube]
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Cuba Journal: Day 6 – The hunt
Day 6: Wednesday 1 June Sometime in the afternoon. Siesta time actually—all quiet at the Avalon compound. But no siesta for us. James and I are back at the “lab” after a largely fruitless search among the shallow Porites coral patches of the backreef for the particular sponge we know to harbor social shrimp here,…
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Demon Fish by Juliet Eilperin
WaPost environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin was on the Diane Rehm Show Wednesday talking about her new book “Demon Fish”. I haven’t read the book, but she did a nice job talking about sharks, their value and shark conservation. And her video below is really good. Listen to the show here. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LekzVpcAoMU&[/youtube]
Got any book recommendations?