neritic

"How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.." - Arthur C. Clarke

[neritic]

Stingrays gracefully flying, forming a perfect straight line. Sand bar, Grand Cayman.

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A black trevally letting the sardines get used to it before attacking them unexpectedly.

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Baby loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) released into waters off of Palm Beach, FL by a researcher. Photographed by Ben Hicks.

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The weedy seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) uses leaf-like appendages as camouflage to hide from predators. This protection works so well that adult seadragons have no natural predators. However, they are still threatened by habitat destruction. They live in coastal waters and feed on small crustaceans and zooplankton. Like seahorses, seadragon males are the fertilized eggs, which remain under their tails for about two months before the young hatch.

[thatfilmduderyan]

Please please please sign this petition. it takes around 15 seconds to complete if you know the very BASIC information. The level of ignorance I see from people around the world for our oceans is getting greater all the time. The lack of education means that people are missing the point that if our oceans become severely affected, the world will begin to be severely affected. We live in a very carefully balanced eco-structure and it’s already being smashed to pieces for ridiculous profits. We all need a little profit to live, but it’s the greed and negligence of the big corporations and banks which are holding our future at a ransom so they can play an insane game of ‘my dad’s bigger than your dad’. 

Please sign this, and reblog it once. Cast aside the picture re-blogs of the things you want, and do something really worth while. I’d like to see at least 50 re-blogs if possible, and i hope that many of you who follow this blog will take the initiative to do something good today. This is your good deed. And if this post TRULY offends you enough to unfollow me then go take a long hard think about what it is you stand for. 

Thanks everyone.

[neritic]

These awesome pieces of artwork from The Utility Collective and Hub Strategy feature marine themes and are printed on plywood. For every purchased plywood print, $10 are donated to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a non-profit organization whose mission is to conserve and protect the ocean's ecosystems and marine species. The four scenes depicted are a seahorse, two different whales, and a shark. 

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While observing the distribution of organisms found on the seafloor, whose lives are based off of "marine snow"—organic particles that fall from larger marine organisms in the sea above, also taught to Mariana and I as "poop and dead stuff"—biologist Craig McClain and colleagues found this fantastic array of various species in one scoop of mud from the seafloor. Depending on the "snowfall", a community of these organisms could vary extensively in just a few feet.

“It’s easy, when you get away from the coast, to think of the oceans as a homogeneous blue. It’s a lot more complex than that,” said McClain. [x]

[neritic]

Mariana and I apologize for our recent lack of posts. We've just started a new semester so we're trying to get our footing in our new classes. We promise we'll resume our posting soon! Thanks for your continuous support! -Emily

[neritic]

hehe i love your blog, and everything youre doin! Im also from the azores

Wow, really? That's awesome!!! I miss the Azores so much and I'm hoping to visit this summer. Glad you're loving our blog and thank you so much! :D

-Mariana

[neritic]

This post may not be about marine biology on this planet, however it does kind of relate to marine biology on another. Europa is one of Jupiter's 63 moons and is just slightly smaller than our moon. The surface of Europa is covered by a thick layer of ice distinguished by cracks and fissures all across it. The ice is so bright that at over 400 million miles away, it was still discovered with telescopes not nearly as advanced as the ones we have today. In relation to marine biology, scientists believe that Europa may have its own ocean with possible extraterrestrial life underneath its icy surface. The top photo is of Europa's normal color and the bottom one is colored to show the features of Europa's surface. [x]

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Zebeedee, a female zebra shark in a restaurant in Dubai's Burj Al Arab, has gone through four consecutive years of "virgin births", births in which the embryos develop from unfertilized eggs (parthenogenic reproduction). Zebeedee's offspring are not genetically the same as her due to DNA recombination, however they are very similar. It is believed that parthenogenic reproduction could be an evolutionary adaptation allowing sharks to survive through difficult times. Scientists also believe that "virgin births" may be common in sharks as it has been seen in other species, however there is no evidence that "virgin births" occur in the wild. [x]

[neritic]

In Oslob, a small town in the province of Cebu, Philippines, 12 fishermen were able to get up close and personal with half a dozen whale sharks; an interaction rarely seen between man and whale shark. The fishermen in the area have built up a kind of relationship with these huge creatures and their appreciation and affection was evident in their actions and behavior. The whale sharks followed the men on their boats and the men were able to hand-feed the sharks brine shrimp. [x]

[neritic]

Final Project Was A Success!

So, a few days ago Emily and I presented our Marine Biology final project (which you all know is this blog) and it was a total success! Well, we don't actually know that for sure because we haven't received our final grade yet *crosses fingers*, but one can assume. Anyway, I'm so proud of how far this blog has already come in such a short amount of time. We genuinely care about all of the topics and creatures we've posted up on neritic and we're so thankful that all of you are reblogging, liking and following! It's awesome to know that so many of you guys genuinely care about the ocean too. On another note, this week is pretty much hell for the both of us because of FINALS (duh duh duh DUHHHH), which has slowed down our posting quite a bit. However, we'll get back on track when everything calms down. I know we say this too much but: Stay tuned! And, of course, Thank you! <3<3<3

[neritic]

The Namibian Seal Cull: "A dirty little secret."

On July 1st every year, over 85,000 Namibian seals are slaughtered and beaten to death by hunters. This seal cull is frequently described as Africa's "dirty little secret" and the "world's cruelest seal slaughter". During the cull process, seal pups who still rely on their mothers for nursing are rounded up to be brutally clubbed while their mothers watch totally helpless. Conveniently, the remains of the slaughter are cleaned off of the shore by large trucks before tourists return for Namibian seal watching. In 2009, gruesome footage of the seal cull was released to the public by journalists Jim Wickens and South African cameraman Bart Smithers. After being detained by the Namibian police, the journalists were brutally attacked by seal hunters armed with clubs. There are many organizations around the world that are actively protesting against this brutality. The Sea Shepherds, who work tirelessly to end to the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, have recently made it their mission to stand against the Namibian seal slaughter as well.

Check out the Sea Shepherd website for more information on the annual slaughter and find out what you can do to help put a stop to this.

[neritic]

The Wonderpus octopus (Wonderpus photogenicus) can be found in shallow waters off of Indonesia and Malaysia and is often confused with the mimic octopus (unlike the mimic octopus, however, the wonderpus prefers dusk/night). The stripes and patterns of spots on the body are unique to each individual octopus and when disturbed or if it feels threatened, the colors of the patterns become more vivid and act as a sort of warning sign. [x]

[neritic]

These tiny seahorses are called Pygmy seahorses, also known as Bargibanti's seahorses (Hippocampus bargibanti). They are usually less than 2 cm. long, live on coral, algae, and sea grass, and can be found in the western central Pacific Ocean. Their bodies are covered with bulbous tubercles (small, round projections) that are the same shape and color as polyps on gorgonian coral, a species of coral known for being a host to pygmy seahorses. This amazing camouflage allows these seahorses to stay hidden and protected by the coral and they use their tails to anchor themselves to its stems. 

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The Indonesian coral reefs are known to be some of the most diverse, biologically rich reefs in the world. They serve as habitats for a huge variety of plants and animals and more than 480 species of hard coral have been reported in eastern Indonesia, which is approximately 60% of the world's hard coral species noted to date. These reefs hold the largest variety of coral reef fish, with more than 1,650 species in eastern Indonesia alone. The great diversity of the reefs allows them to support one of the world's biggest fisheries and because there are still reefs in eastern Indonesia that have not yet been explored, the extent of the biological diversity remains unknown. [x]