ABC News on Gulf Seafood
August 16, 2010
New Tools of the Gulf Spill Clean-UP/BP Shrinks Working Staff
NPR WBUR Online Story, August 16, 2010
Smithsonian Institute has Record of Life in the Gulf Before the Oil Spill: August 15, 2010
NPR WBUR Story Online
Read the story from All Things Considered:
NPR Radio Story on Gulf Oil Disaster
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Jellyfish Live!
Read all about Jellies from the Monterey bay Aquarium blog:
Sea Notes, September 1, 2010
From CreatureCast and the Brown University and Casey Dunn laboratories:
"This is a spectacular type of asexual reproduction, which is explained in more depth in Perrin Ireland’s post on the scyphozoan life cycle. In this video, a polyp has pinched off into a stack of plate-like discs, called ephyrae. When they pop off of the end of the polyp, they each become a free swimming individual, and a direct clone of the parent polyp. Each ephyra will mature into adult bell-shaped jellyfish. Even before they break away from the poly, they are strongly pulsating as they flex their newly developed swimming muscles before birth."
Video by R. Helm and S. Siebert.
Strobilating Jellyfish from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.
3 Videos from the Dunn Lab about Amazing Siphonophores:
CreatureCast - Footage From The Deep from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.
Footage courtesy of the Bioluminescence lab at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Music graciously provided by Raf Spielman of The Golden Hours. Edited by Sophia Tintori. This podcast is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 license.
Siphonophores from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.
CreatureCast - Siphonophores and Individuality from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.
Sea Notes, September 1, 2010
From CreatureCast and the Brown University and Casey Dunn laboratories:
"This is a spectacular type of asexual reproduction, which is explained in more depth in Perrin Ireland’s post on the scyphozoan life cycle. In this video, a polyp has pinched off into a stack of plate-like discs, called ephyrae. When they pop off of the end of the polyp, they each become a free swimming individual, and a direct clone of the parent polyp. Each ephyra will mature into adult bell-shaped jellyfish. Even before they break away from the poly, they are strongly pulsating as they flex their newly developed swimming muscles before birth."
Video by R. Helm and S. Siebert.
Strobilating Jellyfish from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.
3 Videos from the Dunn Lab about Amazing Siphonophores:
CreatureCast - Footage From The Deep from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.
Footage courtesy of the Bioluminescence lab at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Music graciously provided by Raf Spielman of The Golden Hours. Edited by Sophia Tintori. This podcast is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 license.
Siphonophores from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.
CreatureCast - Siphonophores and Individuality from Casey Dunn on Vimeo.
Monday, August 9, 2010
A Symphony of Species in the Deep
A Symphony of Species in the Deep
“Featured in a new “roll call” of life from 25 key ocean regions, marine oddities oscillate, swim, and skitter to an ocean “chorus.” The animals are all on the Census of Marine Life’s newly released species inventory of 25 key areas of the world’s oceans. Each area averages more than 10,000 known forms of life, including jellyfish, octopus, sharks, and crustaceans.
© 2010 National Geographic, Census of Marine Life”
“Featured in a new “roll call” of life from 25 key ocean regions, marine oddities oscillate, swim, and skitter to an ocean “chorus.” The animals are all on the Census of Marine Life’s newly released species inventory of 25 key areas of the world’s oceans. Each area averages more than 10,000 known forms of life, including jellyfish, octopus, sharks, and crustaceans.
© 2010 National Geographic, Census of Marine Life”
Studying Whale Shark Excrement
Studying a poop plume of the biggest fish in the sea:
"
"Reaching 40 feet long and weighing up to 15 tons, whale sharks are the world’s largest fish. They feed by filtering plankton and fish eggs from a vortex created by their opening mouths — and as shown in a first-of-its-kind photograph of a whale shark pooping, activities at the other end of the fish are equally behemoth in proportion."
"Dove estimated the main plume in the photograph to be 30 feet long and 20 feet wide, and the smaller about 8 feet by 10 feet. If it’s three feet thick, the nutrient slurry would have a volume of 2,000 cubic feet. “Imagine you’ve got a big aggregation, dozens or hundreds of whale sharks, doing this all at the same time. That’s a lot of nutrients,” he said. Dove hopes to collect samples from just such a group."
Read More: Wired Science
"
"Reaching 40 feet long and weighing up to 15 tons, whale sharks are the world’s largest fish. They feed by filtering plankton and fish eggs from a vortex created by their opening mouths — and as shown in a first-of-its-kind photograph of a whale shark pooping, activities at the other end of the fish are equally behemoth in proportion."
"Dove estimated the main plume in the photograph to be 30 feet long and 20 feet wide, and the smaller about 8 feet by 10 feet. If it’s three feet thick, the nutrient slurry would have a volume of 2,000 cubic feet. “Imagine you’ve got a big aggregation, dozens or hundreds of whale sharks, doing this all at the same time. That’s a lot of nutrients,” he said. Dove hopes to collect samples from just such a group."
Aerial shot from the Gulf of Mexico and photo from the Georgia Aquarium:
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Humpbacks Abundant on Stellwagen Bank
A whale watch cruise on the Cap't Johns' Boats on August 4, 2010 gave us extraordinary views of humpbacks, including the breaching behavior of one solitary whale:
A recent August 23, 2010 video from CBS News of a Humpback breaching in Australia:
Gary Hamilton reports.
Shark Sighting Forces Closure of New Bedford & Chatham Beaches
Chatham closes Beach on August 12, 2010: CapeCod OnLine
Shark Sighting Forces Closure of New Bedford Beaches - MetroDesk - The Boston Globe, August 5, 2010
Officials in New Bedford have closed beaches there because of shark fears, making the community the third in Massachusetts to take that step after sightings of the undersea predators.
The mayor's office says the beaches were closed at 8 p.m. Wednesday after a shark was reported by a boater to be swimming about a mile off the coast of Fort Taber.
Shark Sighting Forces Closure of New Bedford Beaches - MetroDesk - The Boston Globe, August 5, 2010
Officials in New Bedford have closed beaches there because of shark fears, making the community the third in Massachusetts to take that step after sightings of the undersea predators.
The mayor's office says the beaches were closed at 8 p.m. Wednesday after a shark was reported by a boater to be swimming about a mile off the coast of Fort Taber.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Yellow & Green Lobster at the Lobster Trap in Bourne, Cape Cod
Lobster Color:
Cooking Red!
Watch the classic Nat. Geographic spiny lobster expel 700,000 lobster larvae into the ocean in the tropical seas:
One more classic of Lobster Migration:
From Arthropoda blog via Southern Fried Science, Michael Bok: "As mentioned in the video, the migration possibly occurs in order for the lobsters to escape turbulence and turbidity in the shallows resulting from autumn storms that sweep into the Bahamas. The migration has long been observed in tight correlation with these storms. Following the first storm of the year, the spiny lobsters begin amassing at buildup areas and prior to embarking on the mass migration. The cue to begin queueing (hah) is likely the sharp water temperature drop following the first storm. Indeed, in laboratory observations, decreases in water temperature increased queueing among captive spiny lobsters.
The purpose of the lobster queue formation during migration is likely twofold. For one, traveling in a line reduces water drag for the lobsters traveling behind others. To borrow a term from racing, the lobsters are drafting on the wakes of their line-mates. In this manner, the lobsters conserver energy and momentum on their trek. The other reason for forming the migration queues is likely predator defense. Beyond projecting increased size via aggregation, the lobster queues can rearrange into a defensive circle to cover their vulnerable back-sides."
Mud Plugs Well, Feds Say Much of Oil Is Gone
Boston Globe: Scientists Doubt Report, August 5, 2010
The Government report states that 26% of the oil is still out there. That is almost 1.2 million barrels, more than the total Exxon Valdez spill.
AP Top News at 6:30 p.m. EDT
Crush of mud finally plugs BP's well in the Gulf
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In the end, it was a crush of mud that finally plugged the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico, three months after the offshore drilling rig explosion that unleashed a gusher of oil and a summer of misery along the Gulf Coast. The government stopped just short of pronouncing the well dead, cautioning that cement and mud must still be pumped in from the bottom to seal it off for good.
Carol Browner weighs in this morning on the Today Show:
CapeCod Online covers the story through the AP NewsWire:
CapeCod Online BP Static Kill
Refer back to the May, 2010 article in Scientific America about how the remaining oil, not skimmed, burned, or naturally or chemically dispersed will react in the environment.
Scientific America Article, May 2010
NPR's Morning Edition states that the "Static Kill" is complete as of August 4, 2010. 2-1/2 miles of heavy mud has been used and possibly cement will be used next. They will eventually need a second cement plug down the road.
Carol Browner stated the Government report shows about 16% captured by BP with skimming and burning and still a million barrels left out there. What happened to the chemically dispersed oil?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)