Today's Catch
Oct 23, 2012
Credit:Amanda Feuerstein
A coral reef near Bocas del Toro, Panama recovers from a mass bleaching event that occurred in the summer of 2010. The tops contain some bleaching, but the sides look healthy. Smithsonian marine biologist Dr. Nancy Knowlton chronicled both the coral's bleaching and its recovery on the Ocean Portal blog.Read more
Oct 22, 2012
Credit:Steve Turek
A diet of algae and seagrasses gives this turtle ( Chelonia mydas ) greenish colored fat—and its name. Weighing as much as 500 pounds, the threatened green sea turtle lives its life at sea, with only females coming to shore to lay eggs. See a slideshow with more pictures of beautiful but threatened animals .Read more
Oct 19, 2012
Credit:Devin Harvey/Marine Photobank
Red coral necklaces fill a store display window. The United States annually imports around one million live coral animals from tropical reefs for use in aquariums, and is the largest documented consumer of precious red coral, commonly used in jewelry, according to a 2008 SeaWeb report ( PDF ). Harvesting coral to produce jewelry like this threatens all coral reefs , including deep-sea corals .Read more
Oct 18, 2012
Credit:Yeang H. Ch’ng/Nature’s Best Photography
“A four-foot-long barracuda is visible flashing past me, with the sky and the lights of my boat seen above.” -- Nature's Best photographer, Yeang H. Ch’ng. See more beautiful ocean photos in our slideshow of winners from the 2010 Nature's Best Ocean Views photo contest.Read more
Oct 17, 2012
Credit:Linda Snook/NOAA/CBNMS
The Pacific hagfish ( Eptatretus stoutii ), a fish that looks similar to an eel, has no jaw and is totally blind. They find food, often dead fish, through a specialized sense of smell and, because they can absorb nutrients through their skin, can eat by just burrowing into a dead carcass. However, they also eat live prey. Learn more about their habitat, ecology, and slime-producing habits !Read more
Oct 16, 2012
Credit:K. Raskoff, Monterey Peninsula College, Hidden Ocean 2005, NOAA
Many expeditions in the Arctic reveal new species, such as this jellyfi sh Bathykorus bouilloni , which, strangely, has only four tentacles! Dr. Kevin Raskoff from California State University, Monterey Bay first captured one in the deep Arctic in 2002 and thought it was rare. But when he returned in 2005 with NOAA and the Census of Marine Life , he and his crew found themselves in a swarm of the...Read more
Oct 15, 2012
Credit:© Clyde F.E. Roper
This close-up photo shows the tough, serrated ring around the opening of a giant squid sucker. The ring is made of chitin—the same material that’s in your fingernails. Using suction, the sucker tightly grips the squid’s prey. The ring digs into the skin of the giant squid’s only predator—the sperm whale—leaving its mark behind. More about the giant squid can be found in our Giant Squid featured...Read more
Oct 11, 2012
Credit:© Glenn Loates
An adult giant squid struggles for survival in an encounter with a sperm whale - its only known predator. The whale will probably overpower and eat the squid. More about the giant squid can be found in our Giant Squid section .Read more
Oct 10, 2012
Credit:Joseph Poupin, Institut de Recherche de l'Ecole Naval
Ghost crabs are often seen scuttling quickly along beaches at night, when they emerge from their burrows to feed, and can be difficult to photograph in the wild. They are common in Moorea, an island in the Pacific Ocean, where this specimen was collected. More about the Moorea can be found in the article "Scientists Catalog Life on the Island of Moorea . "Read more
Oct 9, 2012
In the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill, what is the effect of oil on invertebrates like jellyfish, clams, crabs, sea stars, and plankton? The scope of the damage is more easily observed among birds and large animals, but Dr. Chris Mah, an invertebrate zoologist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, suggests that what we don’t see may be more widespread and devastating. To learn...Read more
