0ceanwildlife

We have the responsibility to respect and protect the worlds oceans and everything in it. Discover amazing facts, how you can help save the oceans, and keep updated with the latest marine conservation news.

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There are two main types of nudibranchs- dorid and eolid nudibranchs. Dorid nudibranchs breathe using gills that are located at the back end of their body. Eolid nudibranchs have finger-like appendages called cerata that cover their whole back. These cerata can be a wide variety of shapes, and are used for digestion, defense and breathing. These animals have very poor vision, only being able to see 'light' and 'dark'. They also have a short life span, with some only living for a few weeks!

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The diet of sea turtles depends on the species. Hawksbills a mainly prey on sponges. Green sea turtles mainly feed on seagrass beds and in nearshore habitats. Leatherbacks are deep sea divers, and eat jellyfish and other soft bodied invertebrates. Loggerheads eat crabs, conchs, whelks, and horseshoe crabs. Olive Ridley, kemp's ridley and Flat back sea turtles eat shrimp, lobsters, urchins, jellies, etc. What is your favorite turtle species an why?

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Plastic has always been a massive problem for sea turtles. With our rubbish forming oceanic 'garbage patches', and the deadly similarity between jellyfish and plastic shopping bags theres no avoiding the fact that it is causing negative impacts. Every 10 seconds, about 240000 of these bags are used and less than 5% are recycled. New research shows that, surprisingly, turtles that live further from the shore or in undeveloped areas inject more plastic than those close to heavily populated areas. So, beach cleanups are not going to completely solve the problem. Biodegradable bags are becoming more popular, and some places such as Hawaii have set the target of a van of plastic bags by 2015.

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On the website www.oceandefenderhawaii.com there are some great stories that various people have sent in. One of them spoke of a pod of dolphins that eventually dispersed, but one came back holding a leaf- "the dolphin flipped the leaf off its pectoral fin and advanced catching it on its tail. It did a circle or two below me and then kicked the leaf off its tail. It accelerated away from the leaf and then rushed back and caught it on its beak and just stopped for a few counts. Then it tossed it off its beak, caught it on its pectoral fin and swam off. The only thing I can figure is that it came back to show off its tricks to me." Amazing!

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Who knows what this species of dolphin is? Comment what you think and ill let you know if you are right! This species is sometimes nicknamed the panda dolphin or skunk dolphin because of its appearance. The patterns on their belly make the males and females distinguishable- males have an oval shaped patch and females have a V-shaped patch. Also, unusually, the females are often larger than the males. Most of their feeding efforts are collaborative, and are seen herding fish as a team and getting schools of fish to ball up so they can dive in and catch them. Normally these fishing teams consist of around 15 individuals.

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So this week it is Shark Week on the Discovery Channel! Shark week has occurred once a year since 1987, and includes a week of tv shows all featuring sharks. The annual event raises awareness and respect for sharks, as well as educating viewers about the amazing creatures. So head to the Discovery Channel for some great shows this week!~~~ Also, remember to tag @oceanwildlife in ALL your ocean photos on Instagram!

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A recent workshop in June this year in Ecuador taught participants how to safely rescue entangled whales to prepare them for the humpback whale migration. Every year around the world, hundreds of thousands of whales and dolphins become entangled in fishing gear. Hopefully, now that Ecuador (which is a whale entanglement 'hotspot' due to their extensive gill net fisheries) had this trained team, they will be able to successfully rescue many whales in the years to come.

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Harp seals are fantastic swimmers. They breathe air, but they can spend approximately 15 minutes under the water before they have to come up for air! They conserve the oxygen in their bodies by reducing their heart rate by 90%. This means only their nervous system and their sense organs will receive the normal flow of blood. They can also swim for longer without getting as tired due to the lack of lactic acid in their muscles. When these animals migrate they are often in the water for very long periods of time. This means they have to sleep at sea, and scientists have found them sleeping belly up for minutes at a time!

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Baby animals have an amazing ability to capture the hearts of even the least sympathetic human beings.

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A beautiful Orca showing a behavior called 'spy-hopping'.

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Sir David Attenborough with a polar bear that is unconscious so it can have a medical examination. It is extremely thin- probably because of the struggle to find food with the rapidly melting ice.

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A team of biologists studied a group of dolphins at Tangalooma Island Resort. They found that the dolphins were bringing gifts to humans that were wading in the water. This happened 23 times. Not a coincidence! The gifts were things such as dead eels, tuna, squid, and octopus. These dolphins are thought to be receiving food from the visitors to the resort, and so the dolphins may be giving in return. The other possible reason is that the dolphins believe that the humans are not good at hunting for themselves and need some help by getting a free meal!

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Here, a conservationist named Ocean Ramsey is holding onto the dorsal fin of a great white shark- one of the deadliest animals in the ocean. It was done to raise awareness for shark finning, overfishing, and conservation of these animals. This species of shark in particular has a pretty bad reputation for being a mindless killing machine, but this brave conservationist proved everyone wrong and showed that human and shark can, and will swim peacefully side by side.

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Every year, tens of thousands of these beautiful animals are trapped in shrimping operations. On top of this, every year hundreds of thousands of sea turtles are caught in trawls, fishing nets, and on long-line hooks. When a turtle becomes caught underwater in a net, it can not breathe because it needs to come to the surface.

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Handy hint: If you are whale watching and the whales tail comes out, get your cameras ready because the whale is probably diving down deep so it can breach!!

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Sea star sunset

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Star bright!

Sea stars are well equipped against predators, and have bony, calcified 'armor' to protect them. Many are also quite spiky or leathery to touch. Their other successful trick against predators is amazing. If they feel threatened, they can drop one of their limbs to distract their attacker and quickly get away unharmed. They confuse the predator, and can easily grow the limb back later. They can even regenerate their whole body from just part of a single severed limb. They can do this because they house most of (and sometimes all of) their vital organs in their arms.