Hannah Waters

Hannah Waters
Hannah Waters
Hannah Waters with the eyeball of a giant squid

Hannah Waters is a web produce, editor and writer for the Ocean Portal at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She received Biology and Latin degrees from Minnesota’s Carleton College, sneaking off to the coasts in the summertime to study seabird colonies, conserve endangered piping plovers, and help lobstermen with their traps.

Before coming to the Smithsonian, Hannah wrote about biology and medicine for science magazines following a stint in a molecular biology lab researching the epigenetics of aging. She continues to write a science blog for Scientific American..

Collaborator Contributions

<p>This pair of sea butterflies (<em>Limacina helicina</em>) flutter not far from the ocean's surface in the Arctic.</p>

A Pair of Sea Butterflies

This pair of sea butterflies (Limacina helicina) flutter not far from the ocean's surface in the Arctic. Sea butterflies are a type of sea snail, but instead of dragging themselves around the seafloor with a muscular foot, they flap their adapted feet like butterfly wings! They are very small—rarely exceeding 1 centimeter long—but very abundant in some areas of the Arctic Ocean, where they feed on phytoplankton and some small zooplankton species.

One-third of Australia's territorial waters is protected as a marine preserve, includes an underwater canyon as large as the U.S. Grand Canyon, seagrass meadows, and the biodiverse reefs of the Coral Sea, including the one shown here.

Australia's 1.2 Million Mile Marine Reserve

In November 2012, Australia began protecting a huge swath of its ocean from overfishing and oil exploration, creating the largest network of marine reserves in the world at a grand total of 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million square kilometers). The area, a third of the continent’s territorial waters, includes an underwater canyon as large as the U.S. Grand Canyon, seagrass meadows, and the biodiverse reefs of the Coral Sea, including the one pictured here at Montague Island. 

<p>It's a pygmy seahorse (<em><strong><a href="http://eol.org/pages/994189/overview">Hippocampus bargibanti</a></strong></em>), found in Indonesia's biodiverse <strong><a href="/blog/making-science-sing-longest-time-coral-triangle-edition">Coral Triangle</a></strong> and one of the smallest seahorse species in the world! They can change colors like a chameleon to blend into their environment. This helps to protect them from predators and ambush their prey.</p>

Can You Spot the Seahorse?

It's a pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti), found in Indonesia's biodiverse Coral Triangle and one of the smallest seahorse species in the world! They can change colors like a chameleon to blend into their environment. This helps to protect them from predators and ambush their prey. Read ten things you never knew about seahorses.

A beroid ctenophore lunges toward prey with its mouth wide open.

Mouth Agape Comb Jelly

A beroid ctenophore lunges toward prey with its mouth wide open. Beroid comb jellies don't have tentacles to catch prey: instead, they can open their mouths and snap them shut tight to trap prey inside. And one of their main prey items is other jellies—one species (Beroe cucumis) feeds exclusively on them!

Entoprocts, small, sessile, tentacled animals, lived 520 million year ago (and are still around today).

Ancient Entoproct Community

For a long time, scientists thought that some small tentacled fossils were early ancestors of jellyfish. But a new study has found that these ancient animals are actually related to an entirely different group of animals: the entoprocts, which are still alive today. The new fossil (Cotyledion tylodes) lived during the Cambrian period (around 520 million years ago), along with the ancestors of almost every group of animals alive today.

<p>The toothy goby or common ghost goby (<em>Pleurosicya mossambica</em>) has a commensal relationship with soft corals and sponges in the Indo-Pacific ocean.</p>

Toothy Goby in Coral

The toothy goby or common ghost goby (Pleurosicya mossambica) lives among soft corals and sponges in the Indo-Pacific ocean. The relationship it has with its host is commensal, which means the goby benefits from the protection and habitat in the corals, but the coral doesn't get hurt or benefit from the relationship.

Flame shells live in enormous colonies, but hidden in nests.

Orange-Tentacled Flame Shell

A colony of 100 million flame shells (Limaria hians) was discovered in Scotland in 2012, and is thought to be the biggest in the world. Flame shells are bivalve mollusks that are shaped a bit like scallops—but they have bright orange tentacles exuding from their shells. Despite their bright color, flame shells are very hard to spot because they hide in self-constructed felt-like nests.

<p>Most wild seahorses (here the thorny seahorse&nbsp;<strong><em><a href="http://eol.org/pages/212310/overview">Hippocampus histrix</a></em></strong>) are monogamous and some species mate for life. Searching for mates can be difficult and risky since seahorses are poor swimmers, found in low densities and rely on camouflage to hide from predators. By remaining faithful to one partner, the pairs have more time to undergo more pregnancies during a single mating season and, ultimately, have greater reproductive success. The pair-bonds of monogamous seahorses are reinforced by daily greetings (see next slide).</p>

Seahorse Lovebirds

Most wild seahorses (here the thorny seahorse Hippocampus histrix) are monogamous and some species mate for life. Searching for mates can be difficult and risky since seahorses are poor swimmers, found in low densities and rely on camouflage to hide from predators. By remaining faithful to one partner, the pairs have more time to undergo more pregnancies during a single mating season and, ultimately, have greater reproductive success.

A summertime channel carries melted ice to the sea. Antarctica and Greenland lose around 350 billion tons of ice each year from such melting.

Ice Melt at the Poles

It’s confirmed: both Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice—around 350 billion tons each year—and, as a result, sea level has risen 11.1 millimeters worldwide since 1992. This photo shows a summertime channel created by the flow of melted ice, which ultimately carries the water away from the glacier to the sea.

<p><span style="line-height: 20px;">In some reefs, small fishes such as this broad-barred goby <strong><a href="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2012/11/when-attacked-corals-send-out-chemical-signals-to-recruit-bodyguard-fish/">protect corals by&nbsp;</a></strong></span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><strong><a href="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2012/11/when-attacked-corals-send-out-chemical-signals-to-recruit-bodyguard-fish/">eating</a></strong> invading seaweeds.</span></p>

Coral Goby Cleans Coral

One of the first signs of a sick coral reef is seaweed creeping across the corals, stealing their precious sunny real estate. Healthy corals, however, aren't completely hopeless: in some reefs, small fishes, such as this broad-barred goby (Gobiodon histrio), help eat the seaweeds away. But how do corals contact the fish to ask for cleaning services?

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