Our Blood Is Just Like The Atlantic

A Marine Biologist run blog.

[visual-infinity]

Ocean Ramsey and her team encountered this 20 ft Great White Shark near the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is believed to be the biggest ever recorded

[toothybabies]

She’s so beautiful!! 💙💙💙

[ayellowbirds]

SO lovely!

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

LORGE PAL :D

[bunjywunjy]

FRIENDS HOLD HANDS

[terrible-tentacle-theatre]

God, I’m obsessed with this video. The way you can see all the scars and craters on her skin, the way the gill slits wave in the current, the sense of just how massive she is compared to that diver… it’s incredible. Just this enormous animal lazily swimming by the camera.

When 99% of the time you only see sharks in sped-up footage accompanied by threatening orchestral music and some narrator dude ominously intoning that it is “the most perfect killing machine the world has ever seen”, you tend to forget sharks are such beautiful creatures. This video doesn’t show a “monster shark” or a “killing machine”. It shows an animal - and a fucking beautiful one at that.

[inscrutablereynard]

@pragnificent

[pragnificent]

She’s so beautiful I’m going to cry. 

[bundibird]

I lose my shit with absolute unfettered delight every single time I see this video. It makes me speechless every time, and I watch it at least 3 times in a row, and there’s a 50/50 chance that I’ll cry, because fuck. Look at her. She’s beautiful. And she’s just,,,, SO peaceful. There’s three swimmers in the water around her, swimming along beside her, and she’s not even a little bit phased. The peace and beauty in this video just. Gets me every time.

[marinebioblog]

Anyone still follow this blog and want to see new content?

[marinebioblog]

Hey, I was at the Baltimore Aquarium the other day, and I couldn’t find anyone in the relevant area to ask. If you don’t mind answering the question for me, who’s the wormy guy in here? I couldn’t get a good picture, but the worm dude had a weird number of antennae things- five, it looked like, which seems unusual because that’s an odd number and I thought worms had bilateral symmetry. Even if he’s just food for the crab, I’ve never seen a dude like him before. If it helps, I’m reasonably sure this was a saltwater tank?

This guy is some kind of bristle worm! Bristle worms are polychaetes, with each segment having fleshy bits called parapodia, that have bristles on them called chaetae. They tend to hitchhike as small worms into aquariums on liverock, and are generally innocuous. They eat extra food bits lying around and tend to stay hidden in the rock unless they sense food outside the rocks. They can sting however if the chaetae penetrate your skin, so they’re best avoided when your hands are in a tank.

[marinebioblog]

This big boy is a Queensland Grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus). These fish are the largest bony fish found in coral reef environments, one of the largest recorded was 9.8 feet (3 m) and weighed more than 882 lbs. (400 kg). This big guy here is only around 300lbs, so he still has some growing to do, and with a lifespan around or exceeding 50 years he has plenty of time to grow!

[marinebioblog]

[marinebioblog]

Who is she! She’s an Eastern Fiddler Ray (Trygonorrhina fasciata). These cool dudes are a species of guitarfish!

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Like many sharks, the great hammerhead shark is negatively buoyant, meaning that, absent other forces, it would sink in water. To compensate, sharks generate lift with their pectoral (side) fins to offset their weight. Their dorsal (top) fin is used to generate the horizontal forces needed for control and turning. However, both captive and wild great hammerhead sharks tend to swim rolled partway onto their sides. The reason for this unusual behavior is hydrodynamic – it is more efficient for the shark. Unlike other species, the great hammerhead has a dorsal fin that is longer than its pectoral fins. By tipping sideways, the shark effectively creates a larger lifting span and is able to induce less drag than when it swims upright. Models show that swimming on their sides requires ~8% less energy than swimming upright! (Image credit: N. Payne et al., source)

[thatfishchick]

So cool!

[marinebioblog]

When the sea stars look how Monday feels.

[marinebioblog]

There’s no better view! 🐟🐠

[sea-nerd-adventures]

SUPER COOL INVERT SHENANIGANS

Sea urchins have modified mouth parts on the underside of their bodies called an Aristotle’s lantern. The lantern is made up of tooth-like plates that scrape up bits of food like algae, as seen here.

We specifically don’t scrub the algae in this habitat for the urchins, and I see them on the walls all the time, presumably getting a tasty meal. But I had never seen it in action before last week! Invertebrates are such cool little aliens!

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

I will always share videos of sea urchins eating, because I love the sudden appearance of shiny white tiny vampire teeth. 

Here’s a diagram of the Aristotle’s lantern structure, if you’re curious what it looks like under all the prickles. 

[running-dog]

!!!!!

[torchuck]

#rajaampat #arborecjetty #underwater #coral #color #underwater #indonesia #westpapua #pier #jetty

[classyhustleronline-deactivated]

Jellyfishes by Janne Huttunen

[thatfishchick]

One of the whale sharks slides by the largest viewing window at the Georgia Aquarium.

This window is….. well… it’s amazeballs. As you can read, it is seriously almost two feet thick.

Now, as my fiancé and I were listening during our dive briefing, the dive masters brought up this window. They explained that you cannot see the window as you got close and encouraged all divers to hold up their hand if they elected to approach the acrylic.

As we came around to the window, I thought to myself, “Huh. I can see where the windows are at work. This should be a cake walk.”

However, just to be safe, I put my hand up and discovered I was FAAAAAAR closer than I thought! As in, I was really and truly within 8 inches of the window and had no idea. It is just so large that you have no frame of reference to truly get a hint of where the window begins. Craziness!

[todropscience]

The Narrownose chimaera (Harriotta raleighana), occurs in deep waters of the continental slopes in depths of 380 to 2,600 m in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  They are oviparous but nothing is known of spawning and reproduction and very few juveniles have been collected. It was filmed swimming 10 m above the seafloor in Hydrographer Canyon, off the coast of Nantucket Island in the US.

video / NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program

[matthewclan]

Am I right, or am I right?

[trynottodrown]

zeroo

[missmariemariana]

Drone footage of orcas and humpback whales

[montereybayaquarium]

NOM! It’s feeding time in our Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit! Watch sevengill sharks, leopard sharks, giant sea bass and more munch on sustainable seafood served up by our aquarists.

Despite popular perceptions of sharks as invincible, shark populations around the world are declining because of overfishing, habitat destruction and other human activities. See how we’re making a difference for sharks in the wild through our research and conservation efforts.

[todropscience]

ARTIFICIAL REEFS COULD HELP HABITAT CONNECTION

Designed artificial reefs are intended to provide food and refuge for marine fish, to enhance species diversity and abundance. Artificial reefs are not constructed from materials of opportunity (rubble, scuttled vessels), but rather built from steel or concrete to a design that incorporates vertical relief, void space and water movement. The design and structure of these artificial reefs are believed to enhance fisheries by providing food and refuge to fish communities in an area where the availability of suitable habitat is limited.

Australian researchers used acoustic telemetry to track the movements of 10 eastern fiddler rays (Trygonorrhina fasciata), 17 Port Jackson sharks (Heterodontus portusjacksoni) and 18 bluespotted flathead (Platycephalus caeruleopunctatus) in relation to an artificial reef off the coast of Sydney. Fish tagged on the artificial reef showed a higher affinity to the site, compared to those tagged on natural reefs, Nevertheless, all three species moved frequently between the artificial and other nearby reefs, suggesting that artificial reefs may increase the connectivity between habitats. The moderate presence of these predators at the artificial reefs suggests that these species may contribute to some biomass production at this artificial reefs by incorporating this reef in their natural range. If the structure is well made, artificial reefs has the potential to enhance recreational fisheries and may alter the local distribution of predators and other species.

Reference (Open Access): Keller et al. 2017. Multispecies presence and connectivity around a designed artificial reef. Marine and Freshwater Research.