Beaked Whales "might be the least understood group of large mammals on Earth". One thing is relatively certain, however: sonar appears to kill them. [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin on Sep 29, 2008 - 30 comments

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. [more inside]
posted by taz on Mar 29, 2008 - 11 comments

The North Pacific Trash Vortex - Researchers have discovered a Texas-sized area of (mostly plastic) rubbish floating in the Pacific Ocean. [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin on Sep 24, 2007 - 67 comments

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!
posted by Secret Life of Gravy on Jan 20, 2005 - 61 comments

Wallace Cartwright, a lobster fisherman from Cape Breton Island, describes his recent encounter with a sea serpent: "It had a head on it like a sea turtle, and it had a body like a snake...about as big around as a five-gallon bucket." Perhaps Nessie has relatives abroad? The more likely explanation, however, is that Wallace had a rare glimpse of one of these strange creatures of the deep.
posted by debralee on Jun 25, 2003 - 15 comments

Xenophobia at its best! " The British and the North Americans are often said to be divided by a common language. Now it seems this linguistic split may apply to the natural world too. [¶] A pair of Canadian otters brought to Britain a year ago are under 24-hour guard at the National Sea-life Sanctuary, near Oban in Scotland, because of fears they will be attacked by indigenous cousins unable to understand their "foreign accents". "
YES!!11 GO CANADIAN OTTERS!!!
posted by ( .)(. ) on Jul 4, 2002 - 9 comments