Ocean Blog
This Flu Season, Thank a Horseshoe CrabPublished by: Christine Hoekenga - Nov 22, 2010Fever. Aching muscles. Coughing. Sniffling. It’s flu season. Have you had your shot? If so, thank a horseshoe crab. |
 A small horseshoe crab rests on seaweed in Stage Harbor, Massachusetts.
© Luke Robinson (Creative Commons via Flickr)
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Seafood for ThoughtPublished by: Carole Baldwin - Nov 18, 2010Sunday, November 21 marks World Fisheries Day, an annual occasion observed in many fishing communities around the world. It’s a great opportunity—even for those of us who do not fish for a living—to pause and reflect on the importance of maintaining healthy fisheries. |
 A neighborhood seafood market in the Testaccio area of Rome, Italy.
Oceansart.us/Marine Photobank |
Do Sharks Smell in Stereo?Published by: Nancy Knowlton - Nov 2, 2010Animals, on land and in the ocean, live in a 3-D world, and they depend on their sense organs and brains to build the mental constructs that allow them to orient and navigate, which is crucial for hunting and fleeing. The process is far from simple. Humans, for example, use many visual clues to judge relative distance. Objects get smaller and blurrier with distance and parallel lines appear to converge, principles that painters mastered in the 13th and 14th centuries in their quest to turn a 2-D canvas into a 3-D experience. |
 A scalloped hammerhead shark at Isla del Coco, Costa Rica.
© Terry Goss 2008/Marine Photobank
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A Tale of Sex and Stress in the OceanPublished by: Nancy Knowlton - Oct 20, 2010Welcome to Citizens of the Sea, a new blog series where ocean life comes to life. Our book by the same name came out in September, but no sooner had it gone off to the printer than new ocean stories started streaming in. So every other week, we’ll use this series to explore some interesting aspect of marine life forms and their weird and wonderful ways of getting by. |
 A coral has just spawned. Each of the hundreds of polyps releases a small pink bundle of sperm and eggs.
Raphael Williams
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Coral Reefs Need YouPublished by: Rick MacPherson - Oct 13, 2010For those of you who have had the opportunity to visit a coral reef, you know that it’s an experience you are unlikely to forget. Coral reefs are among the world’s most magnificent ecosystems. Their beauty alone makes them incalculably valuable, but beyond aesthetics, their importance to both marine life and humans is immense. |
 A variety of organisms make their home on this tropical coral reef in Indonesia.
© Chris Newbert/Minden Pictures
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The Ingredients for a HurricanePublished by: Isaac Ginis - Oct 6, 2010I became interested in weather phenomena when I took physics in high school. At the time, I just wanted to understand how various things in nature worked. Unfortunately, most information about weather and hurricanes, whether in textbooks or on television, is merely descriptive: this is the sequence of events that we observe, and they lead to a hurricane. There is usually very little explanation of why it’s happening or the physics behind it. |
 Robotic gliders allow researchers to collect data in severe weather conditions without risking lives. In 2009 Hurricane Bill passed to the north during the Scarlet Knight’s mission, producing large waves that battered the glider and challenging scientists trying to reach it for an inspection. Following the path of Christopher Columbus’s Pinta, the Scarlet Knight crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed in Baiona, Spain, on Dec. 9, 2009, becoming the first unmanned robotic glider to cross an ocean basin.
NOAA
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Still Blue After a Century of Ocean Science and ExplorationPublished by: Christine Hoekenga - Sep 24, 2010This year marks 100 years since the National Museum of Natural History opened its doors, but the Smithsonian’s work in marine science dates back more than 160 years. |
 The "Lower Invertebrates" exhibit in Smithsonian Institution Building in 1901 included models of a giant squid and an octopus.
Smithsonian Archives
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Plastic Trash Plagues the OceanPublished by: Onno Groß - Sep 23, 2010Once upon a time, the ocean was considered the last place where we could still find an undisturbed environment. This was before the plague of man-made plastic trash flooded the seas. During my travels, I have realized that everything has changed. There is scarcely a place on Earth where plastic litter is not present. Standing on the decks of our research ship, miles away from any large urban areas, we have retrieved plastic from the deepest parts of the sea. |
 Plastic pollution in the ocean is a serious problem. Our flotsam can choke, entangle, or kill marine life and is dangerous to humans as well.
Onno Groß, DEEPWAVE
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Back to School, Ocean Portal StylePublished by: Christine Hoekenga - Sep 2, 2010At the Ocean Portal, we love the back-to-school season. There’s excitement in the air—new classes, new teachers, new friends, and new subjects to explore. We like to think of a new school year as a fresh opportunity for students of all ages to find something they are passionate about. This year, we have a recommendation: get passionate about exploration itself. There are few things in the world more exciting than embarking on a journey to an unfamiliar place, making a novel discovery, or beginning an experiment aimed at solving vexing a mystery. |
 Students participate in a map project for the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.
Claire Fackler, NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries
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Pinning Down the JellyfishPublished by: Samia Madwar - Aug 26, 2010Depending on whom you talk to, jellyfish are either fascinating, a nuisance, a toxic menace, or some combination of the above. |
 Chiropsalmus quadrumanus, a venomous box jelly (Cubozoan) collected off the coast of South Carolina.
Bastian Bentlage
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