Search for Giant Squid

A Monster Quest production, this is a search for Giant Squid. 5 parts to the show.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Whale Shark Conservation

In addition to the previous blog, here is a well produced film titled Goodwill Hunting on Whale Shark conservation.

World's Largest Fish

The Whale Shark is the world's largest fish with the potential of growing up to 65 feet at a weight of over 10 tons. However while many people think that the larger the animal the more dangerous it is, the Whale Shark is a filter feeder, sifting tiny organisms out of the ocean's water such as plankton and fish eggs, and is harmless to humans despite the fact that it has 3000 tiny teeth. If you ever happened to be swallowed by this fish, it would proceed to "throw you up", turning its stomach inside out to expel you out if its mouth. This process is called gastric eversion.

View the video clip and read about it here.

World's Smallest Fish

The world's smallest fish is a tiny 7.9mm in length! This fish, the Paedocypris progenetica is found on the Indonesian island of Sumatra in forest swamps. Interesting facts: the fish has no skeleton protecting its brain, is the world's smallest vertebrate and lives in acidic waters. The Paedocypris Progenetica's habitat is threatened by logging and other human activities, as well as forest fires.

Read the article by the Natural History Museum of London here.

Ocean Medicine

Humans are always looking for new ways and medicines with which to treat their ailments and diseases. We discovered long ago that many of the things we need (if not all) were available to us through nature. This includes things above and below the water line. The following link to an article published by the Smithsonian describes a search for this medecine through collecting organisms that grow on oil rig platforms. The benefit to collecting such organisms is that through removal you are not damaging a permanent part of the region's ecosystem while still getting a variety of organisms from which to gain possilby invaluable information.

Medicine From The Sea

Smithsonian Ocean Website

A webisite created by the Smithsonian devoted to things about the ocean. Check it out.

Ecocenter - The Oceans

Ocean Acidity

This article from "The Underwater Times" is unfortunately the bearer of bad news related to ocean acidity levels. Scientists from the University of Chicago report that the level of ocean acidity is rising 10 times faster than predicted, while the cause remains the same; high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. With 8 years of data collection, the study focused on temperate regions from which large amounts of fishing are done. Rising acidity levels in the water kills coral which is a crucial part of the marine habitat for many aquatic species. Reducing habitat puts pressure on these species and adds risk to species population diminishing.

This is one of the prime examples of the negative side-effects that the combustion of fossil fuels has on the environment. While CO2 by itself is not harmful, it is the shift in the delicate environmental balance that a surplus of CO2 in the atmosphere creates that causes harm. With hope further research and media attention will motivate the political and industrial world into action to seek out ways to minimize and even reverse some of the negative influence that humans have on the world.

Read the article here.

Skimboarding

Seeing as I posted on a surfing related topic, it's only fair that as my first ocean-related sport was skimboarding, I should post on it as well. Skimboarding for many may be the precursor to surfing as it requires less equipment and is generally less expensive. It is also easier to learn, at least I found it so, up to a certain level where the skill level makes a huge leap. Skimboarding is to surfing what skateboarding is to snowboarding. Like with skateboarding you are the one that initiates movement rather requiring a slope to slide down, and in the same fashion you are free to move the board around under your feet, do ollies, grind pipes, etc. At the same time, for those who feel the pull of waves, skimboards can be ridden out into the surf, banked off the waves there, and then surfed in a similar fashion to surfing. The downside is that you are limited to beach break, and require a sandy beach to start from. In its defense, skimboards are versatile and can be used in a variety of environments; in waves, on sany beaches, shallow riverbanks, large puddles and even slip and slides...! If you're at all interested in the sport you'll find the following links useful.

http://www.skimcity.com/
http://www.skimonline.com/
http://www.sgcity.org/recreation/skimboarding/video.php - a video of inland skimboarding

Surf Comp

For those of you who are interesting in the surf scene, you should check out the following link. Magic Seaweed is covering all six weeks of Van's Triple Crown surf contest being held on the North Shore of Hawaii (I believe). They're getting some great footage of pros and locals alike and so is definitely worth checking out.

Grab some wave.

Boat Graveyards

This article from "The Boston Globe" reminds us of how some persons are affected more seriously from the economic downturn than others. As the article states, for many ocean goers owning a boat is a pure luxury, and so when the economy suffers and gas prices rise the boats are the first casualty. Rather than pay high disposal costs many boat owners will simply abandon their crafts along the shoreline where they will be broken into pieces by the surf. While some may see this as an opportunity to find a free boat, for the government it is an expense as they clean up boats that pose an environmental threat or are blocking channels. Many boats however seem to be doing neither (at least by their standards) and so are left to litter the coast.

Read the article here.

Breakthrough on Breakups

Some US scientists have formulated an equation to help predict the occurence of ice shelf break ups. The ice shelf is part of a glacier that extends beyond the edge of the continent out unto the ocean. Once the shelf reaches a certain size pieces will begin to break off and become ice-bergs, this is called calving. The rate at which calving occurs the US scientists say is determined mainly by the rate of glacier spreading, as well as the width of the ice shelf, with narrower shelves calving less often than wider ones. According to scientists, if the ice covering Greenland and Antarctica melted global sea levels would rise by 200 feet.

Read the entire article here.

Sharkrunner, the game

For those of you who are passionate about sharks you may find this game exciting. Using actual telemetry data collected from gps tags attached to real sharks, you are the virtual captain of a boat that tracks and studies sharks. The catch of course is the data on shark locations is REAL data that has been collected by marine scientists. I don't see how the feed could be live as GPS signals can't travel underwater, so likely the information in the game is past collected data. All the same, you know at least that the shark locations presented in the game correspond with actual sharks, and aren't estimations but real-world data collection points.

Happy Gaming

Sharkrunner

Southern Resident Orca Songs

The last of the songs on the NEPTUNE Canada website, this time of Southern Resident Orca songs. There is something very deep and beautiful in these songs, I wonder what they would think of human language if they could hear it?

Listen here.

Pacific White Sided Dolphin Songs

It's amazing how complexe these dolphin songs are. To the human ear it seems as though multiple conversations are happening at the same time, or as if more than one dolphin is "talking" at the same time.

Listen here.

Humpback Whale Songs

Some more hydrophone recordings, this time of humpback whales. Again these recordings are extremely clear, you could imagine the whales were floating in the middle of your living room...

Listen here.

Northern Orca Sounds

Ever wonder what a "singing" orca sounded like?.... well maybe you haven't, but either way, you can now! This link it to NEPTUNE Canada, where an audio recording of a Northern Orca Songs can be heard. Recordings such as these are made possible by underwater sound recording equipment (hydrophones). The recording is remarkably clear with little static. Cool.

Listen here.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

I looked up the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", aka the gyre of garbage in the north pacific ocean on wikipedia, and while there was suprisingly little information on it, I did discover something even more disturbing than the mere presence of plastic floating. The disturbing element is the process of photodegredation. Photodegradation is the breaking up of a material due to the absorbtion of solar radiation. While the radiation breaks the material up, it does not break it down, and so while the plastics in the ocean are being continually broken up into smaller and smaller pieces, they remain pieces of plastic, not simpler and less harmful elements. The problem is that these particles of plasctic are now small enough for fish and other organisms to ingest and so the plastic contaminants enter the food chain. We are in fact poisoning the waters and creatures of our oceans, and so eventually ourselves. Aah, geography can be depressing.

Read about it here.

Hawaii

Another video, this one on a much lighter note than the previous. A Nature production, the film features volcanos, whales, and Jaws, one of the big wave surfing hotspots of the world.

See it here.

Toxic Dolphins and Deadly Tuna

A short film I found on a marine life activist site. The film describes the chemical impact that humans are having on the marine life in the ocean and in concenquently on ourselves. While I think this film is best taken with a pinch of salt, it does have some very convincing arguments that hit close to home, serving these deadly issues directly onto our plates.

Watch it here. The film is titled "A Shared Fate".

Forecasting Ocean Weather

The science of predicting daily weather is something upon which millions, if not billions of people depend on to determine the measures of precaution they should undertake before setting foot outside their door each day. Listening to morning weather reports is a practise that has become habitual to many Canadians, especially during the winter and stormy months of the year. Less commonly know is the science and practise of predicting ocean weather, a service upon which many ocean-goers see as an essential part of their daily weather forecast. Just as with the atmospheric weather, moving currents, changing temperatures, and cold and warm fronts are issues that change every day in the oceans, except of course they deal with water and not air. At the same time, the ocean has its own rather unique set of conditions. Tides caused by the gravitation pull of the moon for one create additional currents and change the depth of the water. Storm surges caused by low pressure atmospheric systems (hurricanes, tropical storms, etc.) raise water levels above normal height and threaten coastal regions with flooding. And last, but definitely not least, varying amounts wind cause swells to form. These swells upon reaching land buildup and crash upon shore in the form of waves, a source of entertainment for both on-shore observers, and in-water participants. These are of course the bodyboarders, surfers, windsurfers, kite-surfers, etc. of whom I am speaking, and it is these people (among others) who observe the ocean forecasts for incoming storms that bring the waves, either big or small depending on their sport and skill level, that they so desire.

On the right side of the screen I have added a widget that shows the current forecast for swell conditions at two commonly visited beaches in Nova Scotia. Detailed forecasts are available by clicking.

The fact that these are merely forecasts and so predictions is comparable to the atmospheric weather predictions - the forecasts are subject to great change right up until the time of their arrival.

Spearfishing

Here's a short video on the sport of spearfishing. Spearfishing offers an adventurous alternative to traditional fishing, as well as presenting unique benefits as well as challenges. In the video Terry Maas describes spearfishing as one of the most ecologically friendly ways to pursue fishing. By being able to pick and choose exactly which fish to spear, there is little to no bycatch (allowing for the poor shot here and there) and so the "hunter" can follow the recommended catch guidelines precisely without worrying about harming undesired fish through catch and release, a problem that anglers must deal with.

All the same, I wonder what percentage of many fish are knicked by the spears of these fishermen, and swim off wounded to die elsewhere in the ocean. Just how much more ecologically friendly is this fishing method than other sport methods?

http://www.ocean.com/mplayer/?ResourceID=2804&page=0&URL=

Ocean vs. Space

Early on in the term the class watched a show of TEDTalks. In this show, Robert Ballard discussses the need for further ocean exploration and contrasts the vast amounts of money being spent on space exploration compared to the measly pocket change that's tossed to ocean research. In his opinion the area of interest should be the oceans, not space, as it is literally right on our doorstep, and is something that can be of immediate value to us. It would be interesting to do a study on what opinion the public has towards this conflict of interest and whether they agree with Robert Ballard or not. Perhaps they would say that exploration in general is not something that should receive much attention or funding, space, ocean or otherwise in concequence to the economic challenges that are facing many of the worlds nations at the moment.

Personnaly I am torn between the two groups. Great benefits can come of ocean exploration and space development alike, and as a geography student, the discovery of the unknown is always an exciting place to be. But we must face reality at the same time. With less money to go around, areas of priority must be addressed. Both space and ocean exploration must be put into perspective of the larger issues. More money should go to food management. While this includes ocean fisheries it must expand across the continents to include better crop and fertilizer management to ensure the continual maximum sustainable yield that our land has to offer. Money should also be allocated to poverty reduction and the education system. While the concept of exploring and making new discoveries in the interest of mankind, it may be wiser to attend to mankind directly.

However, if a decision needed to be made between the oceans and space, the oceans seem to be the wiser choice of the two. Beyond the region where our satellites orbit, space exploration yields little immediate impact on humanity, the oceans however have a substantial influence on most aspects of life on this planet and as so we should attempt to have as deep (parden the pun) an understanding of them as possible.

Deeper, Darker, Colder

A handy chart describing the different light zones can be found on the NOVA site at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/viewing/0305_04_nsn.html. In addition to describing each zone, examples of the different types of organisms that can be found at each level are listed. An interesting note is that the Frill Shark (see post "From the Past...") is listed in the "Midnight Zone" where at 1000-4000m no light from the surface can be seen, leaving the waters in total darkness.

I need more waterproof bandages!

A new NOVA program titled "Ocean Animal Emergency", describes the role of the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California, a sort of emergency veterinarian hospital for marine mammals. With so much negative news about the states of marine populations and the conditions that our oceans find themselves in today it is encouraging to see how some people are making a positive difference. While this one organization is just a small speck in terms of the great need of the ocean, it is nonetheless a step in the right direction. The show can be viewed in its entirety here.

From the Past...

It's always exciting to find something that you thought you had lost forever. That is likely what happens when scientists come across living "fossils". Creatures that were thought to have been extinct for vast periods of time which suddenly appear on our doorstep, hardly changed from the last fossil record we have of them. In the ocean the possibility for such occurances is all the more possible because of the difficulty we have in exploring the ocean depths. From time to time these living "fossils" will surface for whatever reason, and we will get a glimpse of what seems to be a trip back in time. Two noteworthy examples are the Coelacanth (PBS link about it here) and the Frill Shark (youtube video here).

Interesting Fish, Interesting Concept

The biodiversity that this world has to offer is impossible to fully comprehend. Always there is some animal that you have never seen before or even heard of, and some that no one has ever seen or heard of. While there are undoubtedly more creatures and organisms to be uncovered in the terrestrial world, the ocean, being vastly unexplored offers a much more promising yield in terms of new species discovery. This potential is one of the reasons why ocean habitat protection is so essential to the management of industries based on or under the ocean waters. Time and time again humans depend on marine products (organic or inorganic) as the source for medecine, makeup products, structural concepts, fuel, food... etc. the list goes on.

The Mercedez-Benz bionic car, whose shape/structure was inspired by the boxfish, is one of these examples. http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0710-DaimlerChrysler.html

Floating Communities (Part 4)

There are of course drawbacks to the concept of floating communities. There is no guarantee that this system will be void of problems, even catastrophic ones. What, for instance, will happen if such a floating community is subject to the forces of a hurricane? How will people adapt to continually being upon a moving surface, and if the surface is not moving, but rather anchored into the seabed, such as with offshore oil-rigs, what will the environmental impacts of such a construct be? As the size of communities grows, issues related to aquatic mammals and photosynthesizing creatures will present themselves. Whales attempting to breach while beneath community vessels may not be able to do so depending on the vessel construction. Also the shadow created by such large vessels (potentially spreading many tens of kilometers across the water) will likely have disastrous effects on the photosynthesizing organisms beneath the vessels. The lack of such organisms would then influence other creatures along the food chain, and serious, negative impacts may be incurred. These problems, along with many others will need to be addressed before a floating community concept is accepted.

However, the potential benefits of creating an effecient water based communty, relieving the pressure on land development and so the natural environment cannot be ignored. While land demand grows alongside the ever increasing population, societies will likely soon begin to consider the oceans as a possible avenue for expansion. What remains to be seen is whether or not such a proposal is in fact viable, and if so, how people will react to such an challenge.

Floating Communities (Part 3)

Clearly there are several elements to this system which have not been addressed. From where for instance will these communities recieve their building materials and and other ressources? Will food be grown aboard the vessels, or will they depend on shipments from the land? How will transport from the vessels to land be carried out? Currently one of the benefits of a land-based community system is that through the use of automobiles the movement of each individual is relatively inexpensive and highly independent. The creating of floating communities would undoubtedly change this.

A shift from land to ocean requires more than just the solution of technical problems. It requires a shift in the thinking of how people perceive the ocean. For all of history we have been terrestrial animals, and while we have flocked to the coast and created communities that thrive on the ressources and environment provided by the ocean we have not permanently shifted major parts of society unto its surface. Admittedly for much of this history we did not possess the technology that would permit us to make such a transition. Could society make such a transition? Could we leave behind our terrestrial roots, at least in part, and move unto the moving waters of the oceans? Or perhaps such a shift would not be such a shift as one would think.

Already much of society lives in an environment cast completely by man, with skyscrapers of glass replacing mountains, light poles taking the place of trees, and flowing streams of traffic moving along in much the same way that the waters of a river are bound and channeled. And yet while we have created these custom environments that occupy great expanses of land, we still try to use the land in its natural state (relatively). This is referring to the growth and collection of food. Far as we have come, we have not yet removed our dependecy upon the land to provide for us what we cannot wholly create for ourselves. As such we depend on the natural processes and requirements that the land demands in order to comply to our own demands. These needs of the land are threatened and challenged by our further exploitation and expansion across its surface. Water sources are polluted, land is degraded by toxic runoff, farmland is turned into housing projects, and all the while our demands go up and up.

All these problems will not be solved by humans foresaking the land and embracing the ocean, but rather by attempting to live in what has been up till now a more hostile and alien environment (for humans at least) human society will be forced to become effecient. Waste will be reduced, development will be planned, communities will be created and organized so as to maximize potential for the entire populace, rather than for the elite few. And most importantly, it will give society the chance at a fresh start to its organization and place within the world. It will supply the opportunity to evaluate impact and fully influence the environment from a constructive and proactive position.

Floating Communities (Part 2)

The oceans occupy over 70% of the earth's surface. While we have become very proficient at traversing these waters, extracting both living and non-living ressources from its depths, and even placing a part of our existance on the continual presence of the oceans and what they provide for us, we have not yet attempted to move society unto the waters on a large scale. Strangely, many of the obstacles that oppose us on land would not be obstructions for a floating community. The "land" to be developed has already been cleared and leveled, there are no stumps to be removed, no streams to be diverted. Issues of water availability would never be a problem with the use of desalination plants. Clean energy can be collected by harnessing the power of the wind, waves and solar radiation, all three of which are readily available on-site. Roads aboards the community vessels would have to be planned, and with public transport the sole means of travel (except for walking) movement aboard each vessel would be highly effecient.

Floating Communities

Space, and lack thereof is an issue that is continually blocking society's growth and development. Coupled with this is the issue of our impact on the environment as we find/create new spaces to occupy. This impact is often manifested through the process of clear cutting forests to create suitable land for new development, diverting streams and rivers to dry up swamps and bogs, blasting the landscape to create more direct and effecient road systems... etc. We are continually pushing outwards and upwards, gradually taking over all of the natural environment around us and putting stress on the organisms that once occupied that space. On top of that, previously agricultural land is converted into urban development, forcing our farmers to be continually searching for new land suitable for agricultural purposes.

With all of these complications that inhibit our terrestrial growth why have we not moved society unto the oceans? The technology exists for such an action to be undertaken, all that remains is for our government to become organized enough to commence such a radical transformation of society.

Power

As I enjoy surfing Nova Scotian waters, I'm fortunate enough to experience the power of the ocean first hand. Observing the booming surf from shore, and paddling through the waters as they crash down around you are two totally different experiences, and while the former is a great way to appreciate the beauty and danger of the sea, it does not allow you to fully appreciate the power that is contained within each swell as it approaches land. It is no wonder then that humans have decided to attempt to harness this source of power for themselves. The question now is what system will harness wave energy most effectively, with the least amount of environmental impact and with the cheapest pricetag. Location will also be an issue, as these machines must be clear of fishing grounds and shipping lanes. The link below is one of many wave energy harnessing devices, which addresses at least some of the noted issues.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1738491/anaconda_wave_power_systemlooks_promising/