Category: Marine Wildlife

Galapagos Islands Invasive Species Marine Wildlife Science

Bummer: Scientists find Galápagos Islands swarm with marine invaders

sudshr47 March 28, 2019

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After Charles Darwin boarded the H.M.S. Beagle in 1831, the 90-foot ship visited 15 disparate lands — the likes of Brazil, the Canary Islands, and Chile — before eventually anchoring in the Galápagos Islands, four years later.

For 500 years, in fact, ships from thousands of miles away landed in Galápagos, unwittingly carrying along seeds, insects, and critters picked up from around the globe. It’s little surprise, then, that the famous volcanic land teems with foreign animals and plants. But new research, published Thursday in the journal Aquatic Invasions, shows that off the shore, the Galápagos waters are also alive with non-native, invasive species. By scouring just two areas off of two islands (there are 13 major islands), researchers discovered 48 non-native marine species — 10 times more than previously known.  Read more…

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Hundreds of ‘sea potatoes’ have washed up on a beach in Cornwall

sudshr47 August 13, 2018

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Yes, you read that correctly. Sea potatoes are a real thing, and they have washed up by the hundreds on Penzance beach in Cornwall, UK, over the last few days. 

According to the BBC, the beach at Wherrytown in Penzance was covered in small, mysterious orb-shaped creatures from the sea. A local resident, Rosie Hendricks, told the BBC she saw “odd-looking” creatures on the beach while out with her family. “I wasn’t sure what they were,” Hendricks said. 

I saw the sea potatoes this morning on #Penzance beach, Poppy thought they were worth investigating pic.twitter.com/cZ2hWtPR02

— Toni Turner (@ToniTurnerBiz) August 11, 2018 Read more…

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The discovery of the first known manta ray nursery was a happy accident

sudshr47 June 22, 2018

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The world’s first confirmed manta ray nursery was found thanks to some good luck.

Marine scientist Joshua Stewart, was working to connect the dots between manta ray populations that live near each other at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

What he found instead, according to a new study published in Marine Biology, was something he had barely seen in his seven years of manta ray research: a juvenile manta ray.

“On my very first dive, I saw a manta right away. [Researchers at Flower Garden Banks] had already told me that the rays there were small, so I wasn’t shocked,” Stewart said in an interview.  Read more…

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