Ocean Blog
Salmon Recycling: Waste Not, Want NotPublished by: Sean Sheldrake - May 8, 2013As a research diver for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), one of my jobs is to make sure that people and companies working in the fish industry don’t dump too much waste in the ocean. On my first dive at an underwater waste site, my old salt of a dive partner hinted, “you might see a shark… or three” with a wink. “Okay,” I thought, “I can deal with a couple of sharks.” |
 A pipe on the seaflood discharges fish waste, such as bones and scraps, from processing factories that turn whole caught fish into filets that you buy in the supermarket.
Bruce Duncan, USEPA
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Virtual Book Reading with Daniel BotkinPublished by: Daniel Botkin - May 2, 2013Editor's note: This is an excerpt from Daniel Botkin's new book The Moon in the Nautilus Shell: Discordant Harmonies Reconsidered. He will be in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, May 8th for a lecture and book signing through the Smithsonian Associates. |
 Two nautiluses (Nautilus belauensis) off the coast of Palau. Flickr user wildestanimal |
Happy World Penguin Day!Published by: Emily Frost - Apr 23, 2013Even if you aren't a hardcore birder, chances are you have some hidden love for penguins. These flightless birds have captured our hearts through countless movies, beautiful images and their adorable fluffy young. |
 An emperor penguin chick (Aptenodytes forsteri) huddles under its mother's legs to keep warm in the long Antarctic winter.
Wikimedia User "Mtpaley"
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Earth Day, Spawned from the SeaPublished by: Hannah Waters - Apr 22, 2013Sometimes I think that our planet Earth, named for the Old English word for “dry land” (eorthe), should get a new name. Despite our knowledge that more than 70% of the planet’s surface is ocean—definitely not “dry land”—we still refer to our home by an 8th century description. The same goes for Earth Day. Since 1970, people around the world have set aside April 22nd of each year to think about protecting the environment. This includes the ocean, as it’s a huge part of Earth’s environment. But the sea often seems to play a background role compared to more terrestrial causes. |
 If the Earth is viewed from this side, uncommonly shown, it looks much more like a blue ocean planet than a green land-filled one.
NOAA/NASA GOES Project
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Field Notes from the East African CoastPublished by: Caine Delacy - Apr 17, 2013We began this journey three months ago, a team of scientists and filmmakers traveling the East African coastline by boat to document and research the status of coral reefs from South Africa to Kenya. We have observed a lot of changes in the coral reef communities as we travel north. Some of these changes are natural shifts in biodiversity, species composition and structure of the reef communities. |
 Traditional fishing techniques now involve monofilament nets, with snorkelers diving down to ensure the bigger fish don't get away.
Caine Delacy
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Release Your Inner Blue PoetPublished by: Hannah Waters - Apr 11, 2013April is National Poetry Month here in the United States. We'd like you to help us celebrate by penning a poem in the comment field below or on our Facebook page. |
 "I was photographing this beautiful school of jacks when a diver slowly approached from beneath. I shifted my position to capture the moment he entered the ball of fish. Seconds later, he was completely immersed in the school.” -- Nature's Best photographer, Steve De Neef
Steve De Neef, Antwerp, Belgium www.stevedeneef.com
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A Bite of Bitter CrabPublished by: Katrina Lohan - Mar 27, 2013Hopefully you've never bitten into a delicious hunk of snow crab meat and instantly spit it out because instead of crab you tasted... aspirin?! If you have, it might have been crab meat infected with a species of Hematodinium, a parasitic dinoflagellate that is the cause of Bitter Crab Disease in cold-water crab species. |
 The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) is one of the most important commercial species in the United States.
Brian Henderson, Flickr user stinkenroboter
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Ocean Acidification Excites Boring SpongesPublished by: Amber Stubler - Mar 20, 2013Boring sponges get a bad rap. Their own name betrays them, announcing to the world that they are unexciting, ordinary and quite frankly, boring. However, if ever a misnomer existed, this is it. |
 This orange boring sponge (Cliona varians) overgrows several coral species at Panama's Smithsonian Tropical Studies Institute.
Amber Stubler
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The Search for an Elusive Ribbon WormPublished by: Catherine - Mar 12, 2013With 1,400 named species of ribbon worms inhabiting every ecosystem on earth, seeking one out should be an easy proposition. But I quickly learned that it can be quite daunting when you’re looking for certain teeny-tiny mud-loving worms. I recently accompanied Dr. Jon Norenburg and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Eduardo Zattara, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History research scientists in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology, on a research trip to Fort Pierce, Florida. The goal? |
 A Hubrechtia ribbon worm, found after a long day of searching in mud flats in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Eduardo Zattara, Smithsonian Institution
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How Coastal Seagrass Feeds the DeepPublished by: Dave Pawson - Feb 11, 2013It is a well-known fact that for animals living in the deep sea, food can be scarce. The food that is around usually rains down from above as dead animals and organic particles from plankton living near the ocean’s surface. Occasionally, a bonus in the form of a good-sized dead fish, a porpoise, or even a whale will come down, the whale providing food for millions of animals for scores of years. |
 Seagrass meadows, such as this one composed of turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum and manatee grass (Syringodium filiforme), are an important shallow water habitat.
Heather Dine, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
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