MetaFilter posts tagged with sealife

Surfacing

chuckdarwin — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:22:29 -0800

Beaked Whales "might be the least understood group of large mammals on Earth". One thing is relatively certain, however: sonar appears to kill them. Gory head shot [not squeamish-ist]

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.

Whirling Vortex of Stupidity

chuckdarwin — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 02:40:27 -0800

The North Pacific Trash Vortex - Researchers have discovered a Texas-sized area of (mostly plastic) rubbish floating in the Pacific Ocean. On the most recent episode of QI, Fry posed this question: "what is the largest man-made object in the world?" The answer: The North Pacific Trash Vortex. The North Pacific sub-tropical gyre covers a large area of the Pacific in which the water circulates clockwise in a slow spiral, which tends to force any floating material into the low energy central area of the gyre. Given its size, I tried looking for a satellite image of it, but have failed so far. Anyone know of one?

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!

Arr, there be sea serpents yonder!

debralee — Wed, 25 Jun 2003 04:54:16 -0800

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.

( .)(. ) — Thu, 04 Jul 2002 15:48:34 -0800

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!!!