Category: Ocean

Ocean Plastic Plastic Garbage Plastic Pollution World Water Day

5 ways to keep plastic out of the world’s oceans

sudshr47 March 21, 2019

TwitterFacebook

Plastic is kind of like a Twitter reply guy: It never goes away. And there’s more coming in. 

Each year, 8 million metric tons of plastic go into the ocean (that’s equal to about one garbage truck per minute), according to a 2016 report by the World Economic Forum, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and McKinsey & Company.

“Plastic is a substance that once created essentially exists almost in perpetuity and just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces in the environment,” says Graham Forbes, the global plastics project leader at Greenpeace, an international environmental organization. 

It’s vital to pay attention to the plight of plastic and implement small changes in your daily life to keep plastic out of the world’s oceansWorld Water Day may be Friday, but we should be working to minimize the harm of plastics every day.  Read more…

More about Ocean, World Water Day, Plastic, Plastic Pollution, and Plastic Garbage

View More 5 ways to keep plastic out of the world’s oceans
Ocean Science Sea waves

Towering rogue waves exist in the ocean. Scientists just recreated one.

sudshr47 January 25, 2019

TwitterFacebook

At 3:00 p.m. on New Year’s Day in 1995, work stopped on the deck of the Norwegian Draupner oil platform, which stood isolated out in the middle of the tempestuous North Sea. The wind had grown too strong, the waves roiled below, and it was no longer safe to be outside. 

But one wave dwarfed the others. It measured 84-feet tall — about two and a half times the height of a telephone pole — and was thereafter named the “Draupner wave.” Fortunately, the monstrous swell didn’t reach the platform’s deck.

The Draupner wave was the first scientific evidence of a rare rogue or freak wave, which is a wave that appears suddenly and measures at least twice as tall as the surrounding waves. These fleeting, colossal phenomena are thought to be possible culprits for the still-unexplained sinking of ships in the open ocean.  Read more…

More about Science, Ocean, Sea, Waves, and Science

View More Towering rogue waves exist in the ocean. Scientists just recreated one.
Climate Environment Ocean Science Undersea

Earth’s alien world revealed in the top undersea photos of 2018

sudshr47 January 21, 2019

TwitterFacebook

If something lives in the icy waters sloshing around Europa – a large Jupiter moon suspected to contain a salty ocean beneath its icy shell – perhaps it looks like the see-through, orange-speckled squids swimming in Hawaiian waters.

The top photos from the 2018 Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition have been released, and they depict an alien world: a wall of sharks, a ceiling of rays, dancing seahorses.

Many of the alien photos were captured by divers well beneath the surface, which carries the challenge of lighting up the dark sea. But the efforts are illuminating, like a wide-eyed fish munching on the insides of jellyfish, and an exquisitely camouflaged angler – who looks like the very seafloor itself – though with an ominous mouth. Read more…

More about Science, Ocean, Undersea, Science, and Climate Environment

View More Earth’s alien world revealed in the top undersea photos of 2018
Conservation Japan Ocean Science Whales

The strangeness of Japan’s decision to start openly hunting whales

sudshr47 December 30, 2018

TwitterFacebook

Each year, Japanese whalers haul hundreds of harpooned whales aboard their giant 8,145-ton vessel, the Nisshin Maru. And for decades, they’ve killed most of these whales in the open Antarctic seas, under the guise of performing scientific “research.”

But now Japan is changing course, in a curious way.

On Wednesday Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced that the nation will retreat from killing whales in the Antarctic waters. Instead, the Japanese have dropped the pretense of hunting whales for research and say they will strictly hunt whales in waters around Japan — mostly for the whales’ meat. Read more…

More about Science, Japan, Ocean, Conservation, and Whales

View More The strangeness of Japan’s decision to start openly hunting whales
Mashable Shopping Ocean Shopping Solo Shopping Stackcommerce Tech

Get your sea legs with this cool underwater scooter, on sale for $50 off

sudshr47 August 25, 2018

People say life’s a beach, but swimming in the water can sometimes be a pain in the neck.
Don’t get us wrong: We love splishing and splashing around as much as the next person, but we’re no Michael Phelps. Whether it’s a slow-paced stroke or lack of …

View More Get your sea legs with this cool underwater scooter, on sale for $50 off
Caribbean Sea Conservation Ocean Science Sharks

A dominant shark lurks in the deep, dark ocean. Meet the sixgill.

sudshr47 August 25, 2018

TwitterFacebook

On a balmy Caribbean evening in August, crew members aboard the the 184-foot exploration vessel the Alucia tied dead fish to the front of a small yellow submarine. 

They tightly wound the fish to a metal pole extending out from the undersea craft to tempt whatever might be lurking, three thousand feet below.

But Dean Grubbs, one of the researchers preparing the bait, didn’t intend to catch anything. Grubbs, a shark scientist at Florida State University, only hoped to attract a little-seen creature that largely dwells in the lightless ocean depths: the sixgill shark.

More about Science, Ocean, Conservation, Sharks, and Caribbean Sea

View More A dominant shark lurks in the deep, dark ocean. Meet the sixgill.
Animals Marine Wildlife Ocean Science Web Culture

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

sudshr47 August 13, 2018

TwitterFacebook

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…

More about Ocean, Marine Wildlife, Science, Animals, and Web Culture

View More Hundreds of ‘sea potatoes’ have washed up on a beach in Cornwall
Biofluorescence Glowing Fish Ocean Science Sharks

These creepy sharks glow bright green in the dark. Here’s why.

sudshr47 June 14, 2018

TwitterFacebook

The largest disco on Earth is happening deep beneath the surface of the ocean, and no, you’re not invited. 

New footage from National Geographic researcher David Gruber and his team reveals a shark glowing bright green 120 feet deep in Scripps Canyon off the coast of Southern California. To those of us who are used to our sharks having skin that doesn’t glow, this might come as a shock. But Gruber’s observation, though relatively new for us, is how it’s always been for these sea creatures — we just couldn’t see it until now. 

The fish in question, known as a swell shark, glows thanks to a process known as biofluorescence. This essentially means that the shark is absorbing blue light and re-emitting green light. Scientists suspect that this kind of behavior has something to do with how these sea creatures attract mates. Read more…

More about Science, Ocean, Sharks, Glowing Fish, and Biofluorescence

View More These creepy sharks glow bright green in the dark. Here’s why.