Tina Tennessen

Tina Tennessen
Tina Tennessen
Tina Tennessen

Tina Tennessen has a background in radio journalism and loves hearing a good story. She is a science writer, web editor, and a former radio producer. Before joining the Ocean Portal team as a web content and social media producer in early 2011, she held the position of Public Affairs Officer at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Md. While at SERC, Tina created and edited a news blog called Shorelines and publicized Smithsonian research and educational programs, generating press coverage and public attention for issues such as ocean acidification, hypoxia, invasive species, sea-level rise, shoreline development, and over-fishing. Tina grew up near five of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes and feels fortunate to be working among marine scientists who have dedicated their lives to understanding the underwater realm and the issues that affect it.

Collaborator Contributions

Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) Video

Dr. Carole Baldwin, a research zoologist and fish expert with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, gives viewers an inside-look at the Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP). She and her colleagues are trying to understand the biodiversity in coral reefs near Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean.

Excavating an Extinct Toothed Whale

A time-lapse video shows researchers from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute racing to excavate the fossil of an extinct toothed whale on a beach in Piña, Panama. The fossil is from the Squalodontidae group, commonly known as "shark-toothed dolphins." Before they remove the fragile bones, they have to encase them in a plaster jacket. It's challenging work and they need to finish before the tide comes in.

Efforts to Protect the Critically Endangered Monk Seal

Monk seals -- the only completely tropical species of seal in the world -- are in trouble.

World Ocean Day 2011 'Splash' Mob

It was a typical summer day in the Sant Ocean Hall at the National Museum of Natural History. Visitors were examining the giant squid and marveling at the life-size replica of Phoenix, the right whale. The only thing odd was the high number of blue-clad people milling about. 

And then surfing-music filled the gallery. 

The Last Wild Places In the Ocean Webcast

The ocean is not as natural as it once was. Where there used to be large predators that we took for sea monsters, now there are tiny fish and jellyfish. But there are a few untouched places left in the ocean, remote oases of life where sharks are the kings of the underwater world. These last wild places can show us what we have lost, but also help us understand how the ocean works and how to preserve it. 

The Dumbo Octopus: An Underwater Dance

This short video takes you two hundred miles off the coast of Oregon and some 6,600 feet below the water's surface to observe the Dumbo octopus (Grimpoteuthis bathynectes). Little is known about this deep-sea creature, but if this footage doesn't inspire a whole cadre of budding teuthologists, we don't know what will.

Make Me Care About: Phragmites (Video)

Dennis Whigham, a senior botanist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, makes his quick pitch for why you should care about the wetland plant Phragmites australis. A European strain of phragmites has established itself in wetlands along the East Coast of the United States.