MetaFilter posts tagged with marine

Aquacalypse Now

kliuless — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:43:38 -0800

The End of Fish - maybe it's finally time for an environmental accounting, cuz the 'bill' is coming due; stocks and flows, folks.

The tale of the coelacanth

WhySharksMatter — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:47:57 -0800

The amazing story of the coelacanth is one of the wonders of the living world that inspires marine biologists such myself. Coelacanths, part of the offshoot lineage of fishes known as "lobed finned ", are very different from typical "ray finned" fishes that you usually think of. Their bizarre lobed fins are thought to be an intermediate step between fish fins and amphibian legs. Scientists had known that these weird fish existed because of fossils for over a century, but we believed that they went extinct 65 million years ago... until a South African fisherman caught one in 1938. Though the fisherman didn't know exactly what he had caught, he knew that it was noteworthy enough to save and bring to the museum in his small fishing village of East London. The head of the museum was Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, who contacted a famous South African fish biologist named J. L. B. Smith. Smith originally named the genus Malania after the South African prime minister who gave him money to search for more coelacanths, but since prime minister Malan was also the architect of apartheid, the name was eventually changed to Latimeria after the head of the East London Museum (the full scientific name is now Latimeria chalumnae, for the Chalum river where the fish was caught). Despite intensive searching and a large reward, it was almost 15 years before a second specimen was found. We now know a little bit more about this fascinating species. They can grow to larger than six feet in length and can weight up to 200 pounds. They have rough scales unlike most other existing fish species. They have internal egg fertilization, but the eggs hatch inside the mother and the young are born alive. They usually live in the deep sea, over 2,000 feet below the surface. Most alarming of all is that scientists estimate a population of only around 1,000 individuals, making coelacanths one of the most endangered animals on Earth. They survived for tens of millions of years after the dinosaurs went extinct, but they now face extinction in our lifetimes. I'll share with you a thought that keeps myself and other marine biologists going during times when the job seems rough... if it took us until 1938 to find the coelacanth, what else is down there?

The other problem with CO2- Ocean Acidification

WhySharksMatter — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:37:40 -0800

Most people have heard about how rising CO2 levels are resulting in a changing global climate. Fewer have heard about the other consequence of rising CO2 levels- when the CO2 is absorbed into the oceans, it disassociates into carbonic acid. This alters the pH of our world's oceans, and it's called "Ocean Acidification". This changing ocean chemistry has many important and devastating consequences. Many marine organisms rely on complex chemical interactions with the ocean for survival, and these processes will be more difficult (if not impossible) in a more acidic ocean. One organism threatened by ocean acidification is corals (which take calcium carbonate out of seawater to make coral reefs. These reefs serve as home for thousands of unique life forms, and make up a huge part of the world's ecotourism business- and if corals can't make this reefs, these reef residents (as well as SCUBA diving businesses) are in big trouble. Crabs and other crustaceans also rely on ocean chemistry to make their protective shells, and without their shells they won't be able to survive. Perhaps most devastating of all is that a more acidic ocean will make it impossible for pteropods to make their protective shells. Pteropods, also known as sea butterflies or sea angels, are a plankton species that serves as the base of many food chains. Without them, many commercially important fish populations could collapse. There is some good news- the same steps that we are taking to fight global warming will also help fight ocean acidification, since it's really just another symptom of the same problem.

Distinctly Rare and Unique Lobsters

Orange Pamplemousse — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:41:49 -0800

I heard you like lobsters. (via)

Military pictures from around the world.

Mitheral — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:14:42 -0800

Pictures of military subjects , many of them annotated, from all over such as Russia, Malaysia, Japan (Special Police), Ireland, Cyprus, Sri Lanka and Canada. Forum photo topics also include pre Great War, dogs (airborne), cats, aircraft carriers, riot police, women, destroyed tanks, camouflage, art, accidents, and daily threads of random images.

Disturbing but awesome facts about the Giant Pacific Octopus

WhySharksMatter — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:57:51 -0800

By popular demand, your new resident marine biology nerd has compiled some cool information about the Giant Pacific Octopus.The Giant Pacific Octopus (Octopus dofleini) is one of the strangest animals in the sea- and one of the smartest. Though it is commonly believed that vertebrates are always "smarter" than invertebrates, these guys defy that convention. As this video shows, they are able to easily open jars and retrieve food from inside. They are also, as the "Giant" implies, enormous- the biggest one on record was 30 feet across (according to National Geographic) If the size and intelligence of this animal doesn't alarm you, perhaps this will... they have been known to kill sharks by using their powerful arms to break the shark's spine, and have even been known to leave their own tank to eat something in a nearby tank. They are also so flexible that, despite their immense size, they can fit through any opening slightly larger than their hard beak. Fortunately, we have a way to fight back against this molluscan menace- they are very sensitive to polluted water, and there's no shortage of that in today's world. And yes, just like snails and oysters, octopuses are molluscs. And yes, the plural of octopus is octopuses, not octopi.

found: keys to davy jones' locker

infini — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:39:36 -0800

Is salvaging sunken treasure a form of piracy or the preservation of history? Does commercial for-profit exploration of historical shipwrecks taint the historical legacy of these naval graveyards? Who owns the treasures lost for so many centuries? Marine archeology is testing its legal limits with one man's work. [previous]

gorgeous sea animals

darsh — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:06:52 -0800

Pictures and descriptions of sea slugs - an absolutely stunning species of marine life

Whalesong and ocean sounds

Upton O'Good — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:26:56 -0800

The Jupiter Foundation and the Whalesong Project are both organizations which record humpback whale songs from floating buoys; some of their archived recordings can be found here, here, and here. (Warning, last two may resize your browser.) DOSITS hosts a more comprehensive collection of oceanic sounds, with seals and fish along with its whales and dolphins. It also has a couple of nice sections on how animals use sounds in the ocean. (Previously.) A few more whale songs may be found here and here.

MarineBio

netbros — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:00:48 -0800

The ocean gives us life. It gives us oxygen, the rain, food, excitement, wonder, and mystery. The ocean buffers the weather and helps regulate global temperature. It manages vast amounts of our pollutants, contains all kinds of amazing creatures, and supports all life on our planet. But, the ocean is just now beginning to be understood and with that understanding comes the increasing realization that the ocean is in trouble. Marine conservation efforts are outnumbered by the problems. MarineBio is here to call attention to those issues and to provide information to inspire the actions necessary to address them.

Naive beach campers often fall victim while sleeping

taz — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:49:30 -0800

This a fast offensive predator. First described by Reinthal, 1993, as voracious and a threat to shipping. Diurnal, collecting in dense aggregations along reef walls at night to sleep. Oweni is an insatiable consumer of almost everything of animal origin. Suspect in many human "shark" fatalities, although remains of victims have never been recovered - Field Notes and Drawings of Marine Creatures Captured or Observed by Xisle Expedition Biologist & Artist William Russell Curtsinger, PhD. ......... I actually came across this page while searching for something about marine bioluminescence, and was taken in for a tick or two. I hope a lot of other people fall prey in the same way and are lured into the same delicious wtf?-moment, because I think it's kind of adorable. Based on the species names, I think these might be tributes to friends and colleagues. FF users, right click in images and select "view image" to see larger versions of the drawings.

Humans vs The Sea

dhruva — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:15:00 -0800

A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems "What happens in the vast stretches of the world's oceans - both wondrous and worrisome - has too often been out of sight, out of mind. The goal of the research presented here is to estimate and visualize, for the first time, the global impact humans are having on the ocean's ecosystems."

Final Salute

ObscureReferenceMan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:12:14 -0800

I don't cross post from other sites (digg), unless there's a good reason. Final Salute is a good reason. Additional links/background are there, but go to the slideshow. And this photo.

Sharks 4. Humans 165,000,000.

humannaire — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 22:33:13 -0800

Rethink. The. Shark. [YouTube] The Save Our Seas Foundation [small Flash], a Swiss-based non-profit, joins the growing ranks of a world-wide movement to undo the damage caused by popular reports and gross misrepresentation by Hollywood of sharks as human-savoring sea monsters/killing machines. The fact of the matter is that the opposite is true: Current estimates give between 65 million to 165 million sharks being killed worldwide annually via unregulated catch - including 38 million to 70 million [PDF] for their fin alone, with untold numbers of butchered and bleeding-to-death sharks being cast back into the oceans to die slow and gruesome deaths. [more inside]

jellyfish venom harpoon at 40,000 Gs...ouch!

gen — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:58:03 -0800

An "order of magnitude older than the dinosaurs," even older than clams, bugs, vertebrates, are jellyfish. At almost 600 million years old, jellyfish are some of the oldest animals on the earth that have survived the test of time. Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin, (yes, of that Gershwin family) is a scientist studying jellyfish in Queensland, Australia and was recently interviewed by the ABC. I was particularly disturbed by her gripping description of the tiny Irukandji jellyfish and how the venom affects humans. This summer, swim at your own risk.

Sea squirts are totally sweet

homunculus — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:58:32 -0800

Sea Squirt Regrows Entire Body from One Blood Vessel. Most famous as the creature that settles down and eats its own brain (though that is not exactly correct), it appears the humble sea squirt has spectacular regenerative abilities as well, thanks to regeneration niches packed with stem cells. All glory to the sea squirt!

Tromba marina

unknowncommand — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 11:24:35 -0800

The tromba marina, also known as the marine trumpet or nun’s fiddle, is an obsolete, 4-7 foot tall, single-stringed instrument in the viol family. Played with a bow, the tromba marina sounds strangely trumpet-like (for mp3's, scroll down to the bottom of the first link), hence the name . Buy one here or make your own. You can also see one up-close in the Musical Instrument Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but they don’t bother putting an image on their webpage, and the gallery’s carpet smells intensely of mildew.

Teen thugs taken apart by would-be victim

tadellin — Wed, 31 May 2006 08:43:11 -0800

Former Marine disarms 5 attackers They were teenagers, but still, 5 on 1, and two of them were armed? That's one well-trained Marine...

Marine's Single Finger Salute

FeldBum — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 21:00:43 -0800

Marine's One Finger Salute becomes an iconic image in the Iraqi War. Analysis and politics aside, this guy is one tough mother.

For Injured U.S. Troops, 'Financial Friendly Fire'

zouhair — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 14:58:14 -0800

His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities
...
But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.
...

Jihad U

digaman — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 08:03:48 -0800

President Bush pledged in 2003 that "A free Iraq will not be a training ground for terrorists... A free Iraq will not destabilize the Middle East." This past January, the CIA's National Intelligence Council observed that Iraq had become "a training ground, a recruitment ground" for jihadists. Now the senior Marine commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. James Conway -- in a statement that has not yet been picked up by the media -- acknowledges that the war is furnishing a new "a training ground" for foreign fighters trained in urban warfare who will export terror all over the world, saying, "But there's not much we can do about it at this point in time."

Liberty takes a bow

breezeway — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 09:36:20 -0800

Liberty ship bow art of Sausalito.

Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

MLIS — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 20:47:38 -0800

Above and Beyond the Call of Duty The St. Petersburg Times reported this week that Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith, killed in action in Iraq on April 4, 2003, will be posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Sgt. Smith had always said he would give "all that I am to make sure all my boys make it home." The Medal of Honor is awarded "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty." Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, killed in Iraq in April 2004 after he threw himself on top of a grenade to protect his fellow Marines, has been nominated for the Medal of Honor.

Attack of the Giant Squid

Secret Life of Gravy — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 09:26:43 -0800

Uh Oh! Giant Squids, not to be confused with your regular, everyday squids, are washing up by the hundreds on the beaches of Southern California. This may be because Giant Squids are taking over the world!

American Christian Jailed For His Beliefs

nathanrudy — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 07:39:02 -0800

Marine Refuses to Use Guns ... Marine Cpl. Joel D. Klimkewicz converted to the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day saints while in the Marines, and now believes that killing is against Jesus' teachings. As such, he refused to train with a gun though he says he would be willing to clear mines and work the front lines. The result is that the military has jailed him for his religious beliefs, convicting him of disobeying a direct order. Anyone think that Bill O'Reilly is going to say the military is trying to destroy Christianity?